Pensacola Mountains, West Antarctica: Fourth Scheduled Blog Post

Who we are and what we're doing!

Welcome to our project site! We are six National Science Foundation-funded researchers from Pacific Lutheran University, Berkeley Geochronology Center, University of Washington, and the University of Maine who are studying the glacial history of the Pensacola Mountains in West Antarctica.

Our 2011-2012 field season is almost underway! We will spend about two weeks in McMurdo equipping ourselves for another month in the Pensacola Mountains. We spent December 16th, 2010 through January 17th, 2011 in the Pensacola Mountains, where we mapped and sampled glacial deposits along the Foundation Ice Stream. This year, we will revisit last year's field sites, and map new regions of the mountain range.

Our work will track the thinning history of the Weddell Sea Sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and will also provide insights into ice sheet dynamics, and the history of sea level contribution from this sector of the ice sheet.

In the coming weeks and months, we will use this site to show you our preparations for the 2011-2012 field season, and to share our initial results as they emerge. Please check back to catch up with our progress. Thanks for finding us!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Fourth Scheduled Blog Post - Flagging Safe Travel Routes!

Hi Friends,

This entry was scheduled before we left McMurdo. We do not have internet access in our field camp! We are scheduling blog entries to illustrate our activities during the first week of this field season. All photographs in these scheduled entries are from last season!

After an initial reconnaissance hike (see the previous post!), we will begin to flag safe snowmobile travel routes from our camp. These flagged routes enable us to continue to work even when weather conditions deteriorate. Here's how to flag a route for scientific work in Antarctica!

Chris leads the way, checking the terrain for crevasses.

Once he determines a route is safe, he drops flags every half of a kilometer.

Snowmobile passengers following Chris then place the flags where he dropped them.

We also record these locations using handheld Global Positioning System (GPS) units, as Greg is doing in this picture.

Safety first! Here Greg and Kat are illustrating the difference between a XXXL helmet, and a L helmet. Greg continues to track our route on his handheld GPS.