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Posts treating: "Rothera Station"

Wednesday, 09 March 2016

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Seals galore 

polar soils blog [2016-03-09 05:13:00]  recommend  recommend this post  (254 visits) info

 CH,
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Our research is about soil and the microscopic organisms living in it, but we also get to see a lot of bigger animals that live in Antarctica. We’ve seen whales, dolphins, seals, and lots of different birds. We’ve seen a few different species of seal, but mostly elephant seals and fur seals. Anyone who followed my blog last year knows all about elephant seals, because there are a LOT of them at Rothera Station. This is the first year I’ve worked around a lot of fur seals. Fur seals are [...]

Get ready... Get set... 

polar soils blog [2016-02-02 15:26:00]  recommend  recommend this post  (295 visits) info

 CL,AQ,
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It’s almost time to start our next field season! Our field season begins when we fly south on February 18. That’s just a couple of weeks away!This year, we will complete our “latitudinal gradient” along the Antarctic Peninsula. For this project, we are exploring the diversity of soil biological communities along the entire Antarctic Peninsula. We will discover what species live in all of the places we visit. We will also compare who lives at each site with the plants and soil chemistry [...]

Preparing for the next field season 

polar soils blog [2015-12-09 18:01:00]  recommend  recommend this post  (238 visits) info

 CL,AQ
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Usually, by this time of the year, I'm already on my way to Antarctica. This season, we're leaving for Antarctica a bit later than usual. We won't be heading down for our next field season until February of 2016. (That's usually when we're coming home!)Even though we don't leave for another couple of months, we've still been busy preparing for the field season. I built some equipment that we'll need while we're in the field. You might remember from last season's photos that we built a [...]

Back in Punta Arenas, Chile 

polar soils blog [2015-01-10 13:32:00]  recommend  recommend this post  (177 visits) info

 CL,US,
After almost two months at Rothera Station, we have begun the journey back home. We flew from Rothera back to Punta Arenas, Chile.While we are here, we are returning the cold-weather clothing to the U.S. Antarctic Program headquarters. We are also enjoying meals made out of fresh food, especially fruit and vegetables!Soon, we will continue our journey home, and I will spend about 24 hours flying back to the

Shackleton’s Endurance 

polar soils blog [2015-01-03 18:09:00]  recommend  recommend this post  (152 visits) info

 CL,AQ,,GB
People have been coming to the Antarctic for over 100 years. I get to fly down on airplanes and live in heated buildings with electricity, telephones, and internet. 100 years ago, though, it was a lot tougher! The people that were first exploring the continent dealt with amazing challenges, often facing death, in the name of science and knowledge. They traveled to the Antarctica not on airplanes, but on ships sailing from their home countries. These ships were usually very thick and capable of [...]

What we can learn from the Larsen Ice Shelf 

polar soils blog [2014-12-28 14:25:00]  recommend  recommend this post  (188 visits) info

 US,
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The Larsen Ice Shelf is a huge piece of ice that sits on the other side of the Antarctic Peninsula from Rothera Station. It is divided into sections, which are named, from north to south (left to right, in the map), the Larsen A, B, and C. Back in 2002, a large piece of the Larsen B broke off into the ocean. The piece that broke off was 1,250 square miles, about the size of Rhode Island! It broke apart and fell into the ocean over a course of about a month. (You can see the satellite images of [...]

Holiday Field Work 

polar soils blog [2014-12-27 14:50:00]  recommend  recommend this post  (148 visits) info

 US
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Christmas was very festive here at Rothera Station. One Christmas Eve, everyone on station gathered together after dinner to sing carols, drink mulled cider, and eat mince pies and other holiday goodies. Christmas Day was a day off for most people. Uffe and I did a bit of work in the lab before the big Christmas dinner. The chefs put together an excellent five-course meal using REAL fresh vegetables, complete with traditional British krackers and Christmas pudding.Boxing Day (the day after [...]

Seal Watch 

polar soils blog [2014-12-03 16:22:00]  recommend  recommend this post  (158 visits) info
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We STILL can't get to our field sites. Mars Oasis is too cloudy for the plane to  land. Maybe tomorrow!Instead, today I helped the marine biologists. There are many marine biologists at Rothera Station that study the invertebrates living on the bottom of the ocean. To do their research, they have to scuba dive in the bay that borders the research station. The cold water is their first danger, so they wear protective suits. There are a couple other dangers they must avoid, which are leopard [...]

Weather Delay 

polar soils blog [2014-12-02 20:16:00]  recommend  recommend this post  (131 visits) info

 US
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Well, our flight was delayed due to bad weather at the field site. Because the plane has to land on a glacier, rather than a proper runway, the weather needs to be perfect. Since we're hanging out around Rothera Station for yet another day, I have more time to tell you about where we're going.Over the two years of the project, we will be sampling along a "latitudinal gradient". That means that we'll be taking soil samples at sites at regular distances along the length of the entire Antarctic [...]

Antarctica Day 

polar soils blog [2014-12-01 18:37:00]  recommend  recommend this post  (134 visits) info

 AQ
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Happy Antarctica Day!Antarctica Day is celebrated in honor of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty on December 1, 1959. Today is the 55th anniversary of its signing!The 50 countries that have signed the Antarctic Treaty agree that Antarctica should be preserved for peaceful and scientific purposes. The Treaty specifies that there be no military presence (except in helping transport people and supplies), no nuclear activity (so no nuclear energy or weapons), and that the continent be open for [...]

no title 

polar soils blog [2014-11-30 02:10:00]  recommend  recommend this post  (242 visits) info

 US,NZ,GB
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We finally made it into the field today! The winds from the storm we had over the past couple of days blew the sea ice away from the docking area, so we could get a boat out to one of the islands we want to sample.The islands we want to sample are just south of Rothera Station in Marguerite Bay. The boat gets loaded up with our gear, and then lowered into the water with a crane. Water this cold is dangerous, so we wear “boat suits” that are waterproof and well-insulated, with built-in [...]

Rothera Station, Antarctica 

polar soils blog [2014-11-22 02:18:00]  recommend  recommend this post  (647 visits) info

 CL,GB,,US
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A few days ago, we flew from Punta Arenas, Chile to Rothera Station in Antarctica. We flew in a small Dash 7 that is operated by the British Antarctic Survey.Dash 7 waiting for us in Punta Arenas, ChileWe flew south over the Strait of Magellan, Tierra del Fuego, the Drake Passage, and on to the Antarctic Peninsula. As we approached Antarctica, we could start to see the sea ice (the ice-cap over the ocean) and the mountains poking out of the ice sheet on the mainland.View of Antarctica from the [...]

Rothera Station, Antarctica 

polar soils blog [2014-11-21 20:17:00]  recommend  recommend this post  (161 visits) info

 CL,GB,,US
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A few days ago, we flew from Punta Arenas, Chile to Rothera Station in Antarctica. We flew in a small Dash 7 that is operated by the British Antarctic Survey.The Dash 7 waiting for us at the Punta Arenas airport.We flew south over the Strait of Magellan, Tierra del Fuego, the Drake Passage, and on to the Antarctic Peninsula. As we approached Antarctica, we could start to see the sea ice (the ice-cap over the ocean) and the mountains poking out of the ice sheet on the mainland.After a five hour [...]

Punta Arenas, Chile 

polar soils blog [2014-11-17 18:58:00]  recommend  recommend this post  (184 visits) info

 CL,
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We have arrived in Punta Arenas, Chile.The flight into Chile was beautiful. We flew over the Andes Mountains, which you can see in this photo from my airplane window:  Punta Arenas is a pretty small town on an island along the Strait of Magellan (the passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans off the tip of mainland South America). The Strait of Magellan is known for its unpredictable winds, and we are certainly aware of that! It's pretty windy here! Along with the wind, it is [...]

I'm off! 

polar soils blog [2014-11-15 19:55:00]  recommend  recommend this post  (219 visits) info

 CL,,AQ
Today the journey begins! I'm off to the airport. It will take about 24 hours to get to Punta Arenas, Chile near the southern tip of South America. We'll then spend about a day and half making our final preparations before flying to Rothera Station in
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