Gearing Up

Today I went to the U.S. Antarctic Program office in Christchurch to be outfitted for gear I will need in Antarctica. I wear a lot of my own personal clothes and gear, but I also use a lot of special issued gear. The board in the picture shows the variety of clothes they give us: everything from long underwear and socks to coats and hats. We have to try on all of the clothes to make sure they fit.


Because Antarctica is very cold, we have three layers of clothes for warmth. We wear polypro long underwear pants and shirts , and then two layers of fleece. On top of the warm clothes, we have a wind-proof layer of overall pants. Here you can see me wearing my long underwear shirt and pants, topped by my wind pants.The boots I'm wearing are called "bunny boots". They are very insulated and water-proof to make sure our feet stay warm and dry. The insulation makes these boots very bulky and heavy, so walking in them can become hard!

On top of everything, we wear a down parka with a fur-lined hood. The giant red parkas is nicknamed "Big Red". There is a also a light-weight, red wind-breaker, which is called "Little Red". Big Red is very warm, but it is very large and bulky. Unless it's very cold, I prefer to wear Little Red for my field work.


Once we have picked out all of our clothes, we pack everything into the two orange duffel bags. Those two bags contain all of the gear and clothing we will use for the next two months!

Our flight to Antarctica is scheduled for very early tomorrow morning. We have to leave the hotel by 6 A.M. Let's hope the weather over McMurdo stays good so that we can get out of here on time!

In Christchurch, New Zealand

I have landed safely in Christchurch, New Zealand. This marks the end of the first portion of the journey. I will spend a couple days here getting prepared (and enjoying some summer weather) before I head down to McMurdo.

Check out this photo I took as we were flying over New Zealand near Christchurch. It's a beautiful country!


The river that you see running through the middle is called a "braided river". It's a series of smaller channels of water that twist together and are separated by sand bars. This type of river is found in areas where the ground is easily eroded to create a lot of sediment (which creates the sand bars) and where there are rapid changes in the amount of water flowing in the river. The mountains in the background are geologically young, and easily erode to create that sediment.

Braided rivers are common here in New Zealand, but also in Antarctica. Here's a photo I took a few years ago when I was flying over the Onyx River in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, where you see the same braided pattern:


(You'll notice one thing unique about Antarctica: there are no trees, roads, or houses to give you a sense of size, like you have in the New Zealand photo. This photo was taken from a helicopter pretty high up, but you wouldn't know that if I didn't tell you!)

And I'm off to Antarctica!

I'm about to head to the Phoenix airport to begin my journey towards McMurdo Station, Antarctica. First, I'll fly commercially to Christchurch, New Zealand. I have a short hop from Phoenix to Los Angeles, followed by a very long flight to Auckland, New Zealand and another short hop to Christchurch, New Zealand. It'll take a total of 24 hours from the time I leave my home in Phoenix until I arrive in Christchurch, but because of the International Date Line, I'll land there 2 days later.


Check out this interactive map if you want to find out more about my travel plans.

I'll be in Christchurch, NZ for 2 days before I finish the trip and fly to McMurdo Station in Antarctica. While in Christchurch, I'll get fitted for all of my Extreme Cold Weather gear, receive some safety training, and of course enjoy some of that great New Zealand summer weather!

Let's hope the weather is good for our travels and that we don't encounter any major delays! The next time I post, it'll be from Christchurch, NZ!

Getting packed to leave the U.S.

My departure for Antarctica is approaching quickly! I leave for Antarctica on December 3. I'm finishing all of the work that needs to be done at ASU before I leave and getting my personal gear packed up.

Here's my partially-packed suit case. There are normal things in there that everyone packs when they travel: clothes, socks, and shoes. You can see that there aren't a whole lot of clothes. Really, there's just one stack of pants and shirts. We aren't able to bring down a lot of stuff, even though we're there for a long time. I only bring down a few pairs of pants and a couple of shirts, but several sets of under-layer clothes (like long johns and undershirts). Most of the clothes in the stack are fleece, silk, or polypro for warmth. I don't have to pack pajamas, because I always sleep in my long johns. I also pack lots and lots of warm socks. I can tolerate wearing dirty pants and shirts when I'm in the field, but dry socks are like gold! You can see thick socks crammed in all of the corners of the suitcase. (My grandmother has given me most of those socks over many Christmases.) And of course I pack hats, mittens, and hand warmers (just a few, for those really, really cold moments). I also always pack sandals. Those are handy for when you come inside after being out in the field and you want to take off your giant boots and let your feet air out. In the lid of the suitcase there are also some books to read and my notebooks from previous years on the ice. In the small pocket I have things like my camera, batteries and the charger, and my iPod. There's a Christmas present in the suitcase, too. I will be at one of the field camps for Christmas, and every year we play the "gift game". There's something good inside the gift I'm putting in...

The red backpack will be my carry-on during the flight. It has all of my toiletries as well as some warm-weather clothes for my time in New Zealand. I carry all of that stuff on the plane so that, if my luggage gets lost, I can still take a shower and put on clean clothes after the long flight across the Pacific! It also has my passport and other travel documents so that I can get into New Zealand.

There are still a few things that need to be packed. I have to include my eyeglasses, sunglasses, underwear, and other things I'm still using at home. I'll finish packing tonight and tomorrow morning, then I'm off to the airport! Let me know if you notice anything important missing from the suitcase, so that I can make sure to pack it before I go.

Welcome to Season 4!

Welcome to another field season of research in Antarctica with the polar soils research group!

I am making preparations to leave the U.S. and head to McMurdo Station on December 3. It is a busy time of preparations for me! I have a lot of work to finish up, travel plans to arrange, and supplies and equipment to gather. One big difference from the past three seasons is that I am now based at Arizona State University, so I am far away from my fellow teammates at Dartmouth College. That makes preparations a bit more complicated. But, in just a couple weeks, I'll be on my way.

If you are new to the Polar Soils blog, here is some information that might be useful to you:

Where we go:
When most people think of Antarctica, they think of ice. When you're on the continent of Antarctica, it's referred to as being on the "ice." However, the area we study is a polar desert called the McMurdo Dry Valleys, where the glaciers have retreated. Just like deserts in the U.S., such as the Sonoran Desert where I now live, there's very little precipitation, so there's actually bare soil, not just ice and snow! The red dot on the map shows where McMurdo is located:

What we do:
Our research is in the field of soil biogeochemistry, which is just a big word that means we study the way nutrient elements move in the soil. We are especially interested in carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, since these three elements are so important for all forms of life. We study how the living organisms influence nutrients in the soil. All of the animals in the dry valleys are microscopic (except for the scientists, of course). While other areas of Antarctica have penguins and seals, the dry valleys' largest animal is a nematode. A predatory nematode is the top of our foodchain- the equivalent to a lion in the Serengeti! We also study the mosses growing in the dry valley soil. Mosses are the only plants growing in the dry valleys and the only living things you'll find above the soil- the equivalent to the redwood forests in America!

Who we are:
Our research team is a little bit different from last year. There are four soil scientists going to Antarctica from Dartmouth. The leader is Dr. Ross Virginia, a professor at Dartmouth who has been going to Antarctica for many years. Also on the team are me (Becky, a professor at Arizona State University), Jenn (a graduate student at Dartmouth College), and Mike (a professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania).

While on the ice, we will continue to work very closely with another group of scientists from Colorado State University led by Dr. Diana Wall that specializes in the nematodes (they have a special nematode blog). Together, all of us study the nutrients and biology of the McMurdo Dry Valley soils.

About the blog:
Our blog is designed to be an educational tool for elementary and middle school classrooms, but all readers are welcome to follow along! Teachers interested in using the blog in their classes are welcome to contact me (contact information available through my website, listed under my Profile on the bottom-right).
On the right-hand side, there are some links with additional information that is useful for both kids and adults. Many links are added throughout the season, so keep an eye on them!

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!

One Final Weather Delay?

We are currently waiting for our transport to Pegasus Airfield to catch our flight back to Christchurch, New Zealand. We woke up this morning to low clouds and snow, so we are concerned that we will have one more weather delay to our field season!

Since weather has had such a big influence on our field season this year, I thought it would be appropriate to blog about some of the neat weather-related sites we've seen this year.

Lenticular CloudsThis is a cloud formation we saw when we were trying to fly to Cape Crozier. Mt. Erebus is the southern-most active volcano in the world, and it sits on Ross Island, overlooking McMurdo Station. Flying to the penguin rookeries on Ross Island has taken us in a circle around Mt. Erebus. The first time we tried to fly to Cape Crozier, it was very windy! These lenticular clouds form at high altitudes when winds moving over a mountain circulate on the downwind side. If the temperature is cold enough, moisture in the air condenses and forms clouds. They are aligned perpendicularly with the wind and form a lens shape, hence the name "lenticular". Pilots tend to avoid lenticular clouds, because when they form, you know there is wind and turbulence!

Low Ceiling

When we finally made it to Cape Crozier, the weather was nice. By the end of the day, however, a cloud system had moved in to cover Ross Island. When that cloud cover sits very low to the ground, it's called a "low ceiling" because the cloud cover is so dense, it's like having a roof over your head. Above the cloud layer, helicopters can fly, because pilots can see in front of them. But, they can't fly through a ceiling, because all they would see is white (and it's dangerous when your pilot can't see in front of him!). If the ceiling isn't too low, pilots can also fly under it. That was the case when we were at Crozier. We could fly above or below the ceiling, just not through it. Luckily for us, our pilot found a "window", or a break in the ceiling, to get us out of Crozier and above the ceiling. We flew at a higher altitude over the island, where we could see over the clouds. So you can see the ice covering the base of Mt. Erebus at higher altitude, and the low ceiling surrounding it. McMurdo Station is below that ceiling! Luckily, our pilot found a hole in the ceiling on the other side of the island that got us back below the ceiling so we could land at McMurdo. This is what it looked like as we were dropping back below the ceiling. Cloud ceiling above our heads, low-elevation coastal Ross Island below.
Cloud MiragesThis is the view we had last night from our lounge window that looks out over the Ross Sea. The mirage is the mirror image of the mountains hovering just above them! This happens when the air is very pure and dry and there's virtually no wind, like last night. There also needs to be a strong difference in air and ground temperature. Light refraction in cold, dense air causes the reflection to occur in the clouds. The mirage we saw moved throughout the evening. Sometimes the reflection was low, so that the actual mountains and reflection melded together, but they would separate again like you see here.

The same weather system that brought us those mirages are what brought us snow this morning, and we're concerned will keep us from leaving for Christchurch today! We are supposed to transport to the airfield in just a couple hours, so we hope the plane will be able to land and take us back north. Keep your fingers crossed!