Saturday, January 30, 2010

Off the Ice

Well, we made it off the ice! It was snowing as we left, but we are now warmly back in Christchurch, New Zealand.

We flew back on the same type of airplane we flew in on: A U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster. Since it's the end of the season, they're starting to send home a lot of cargo, in addition to scientists. We flew home on a plane carrying one of the helicopters back to New Zealand. We watched on the ice runway as they loaded it.
Now, the season is officially over! It has been successful and productive, and now we are looking ahead to 10 months of labwork and analyses on the samples we took. All of our samples are being shipped home on the ocean vessel that will bring them to the U.S. after our return. Then, we'll be on our way back down again next winter!

3 comments:

  1. Hi Becky,

    I just stumbled on your blog today, and am very excited!

    There are very few soil blogs (I also have one) and I will be sure to add you too my blog roll.

    Antarctic soil intrigues me, and I look forward to back-reading your work. Also, I can not even remotely imagine the problems with research in a land of extremes!

    Cheers,
    Jess

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  2. I just realised I did not add my blog: http://www.soilduck.com

    I am a PhD student in soil biogeochemical cycling, focusing on landscape rehabilitation. I am very much interested in functions, interactions and cycles in soil related to physics, chemistry and biology. My main focus is learning about these processes and how to restore them in highly altered landscapes.

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  3. Dear Dr. Becky,

    I am doing research on Antarctica and this blog really helped. Thanks a lot!

    ReplyDelete