The Eastern Peninsula

Mattias Cape and Maria Vernet collect an ice core.

Yesterday we had a great day, after arriving on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula. We are searching for a safe way to get close to the coast through all of the sea ice, which has proven to be tricky. The Araon can break 1m of ice going at a speed of 3 knots, which is pretty slowly. We started having to break ice around 5am yesterday, and it sounds like there is an avalanche outside when we are doing it. Needless to say, we did not sleep much during that process. We also have to back up and change direction often, in order to find the best path through the ice. In the end we were surrounded by ice bergs without a clear path to the coast, so tomorrow we will have the helicopters fly around and try to determine a good way for us to travel.

The top 1m of an ice core, with the layers shown from shallow to deep.

Otherwise, the weather was so beautiful and we are close to James Ross Island and Snow Hill Island, which are beautiful and full of massive tabular icebergs that look like mesas. There is also tons of wildlife around these islands, so we saw tons of penguins! There were small emperor penguins, and adele penguins near the ice edge, and lots of birds and some seals. Since we have to wait around until we find a clear path, we decided to do an ice core station on the ice edge. The ship pulled up next to the ice and we were allowed to get off the ship to drill some ice cores. It was so fun! We took so many pictures, and did lots of hard work drilling the ice cores.

Young emperor penguins on the eastern side of the peninsula.

The sea ice on the eastern side of the peninsula accumulates over many years, and leaves a thick layer of ice, in this case it was almost 3 m thick (9 feet!). We have a large coring device that we have to do by hand in order to core this entire length of sea ice, and because it was so long we had to do it in 3 separate cores. Then, we remove the cores and and place the layers into separate bags and label them according to the depth of the core where the layer came from. The ice forms in layers like sediments, so we measure the temperature in each of the layers and then take chlorophyll, pigment, and isotope measurements in each layer. This gives us information about the conditions under which each  layer of ice formed: what the atmospheric temperature was, if there were sea ice algae present, etc...The ice is interesting in that it will (approximately) maintain the temperature of the atmosphere in which it formed, so each layer can have a different temperature. Pretty cool!

All were happy at the end of the day after seeing the penguins, and we celebrated by having a nice dinner in the galley and staying up late chatting and sharing pictures. A great time!!!

Up, Up and Away

Minke whale off the stern in Beascochella Bay.

Helicopters on the Araon about to take off with a group of glaciologists.

We have spent the past few days in the fjords on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula. These bays are really beautiful, and they are full of sea life and beautiful mountains. We were able to see some Minke whales and a bunch of different types of sea birds, like Cape Petrels and Snow Petrels. When we enter one of these bays, we start by using the multi-beam (an instrument to map the sediments) and then we begin other types of sampling including using the CTD (conductivity, temperature and depth), and net tows to collect phytoplankton and zooplankton. Some scientists have also taken sediment cores in order to look at the sediments formed in these bays in the past, in order to gain some information on whether or not the bay used to be completely iced covered or not and when that has changed over time. The CTD gives us information about what the temperature, oxygen, phytoplankton and salinity are like from the surface all the way down to the bottom of the bay.

Even more exciting are the group of glaciologists on board the ship, who are studying the melting of glaciers in this region. They have to install and gather data from the top of the glaciers themselves, and in order to do that they take a helicopter from the ship. Yesterday we had the first helicopter flight and it was very exciting! The helicopters are piloted by two Chilean pilots and two other Chilean engineers, and then 3 other scientists were also on board. Communication was difficult on these flights, because the pilots speak Spanish, the scientists speak English, and the captain and crew speak Korean. They had to have several meetings before the flight in order to work out all of the safety details to make sure everyone was on the same page. The flights went really well though, and all of the scientists and pilots were very happy. Their pictures and videos look amazing! We are compiling a bunch of video clips from the cruise, so I will share that at the end of the trip.

Scientists from University of Houston, Hamilton College and Colgate.

We are now headed over to the east side of the Peninsula, which everyone is very excited about because that is where we were supposed to go initially. We had decided to come to the west side instead because there is too much ice on the east side right now, but now it has opened up again and so we are going for it! The ship has the ability to break through about 1 meter of ice and we have a special "ice pilot" (Russian ice expert) on board, so we will be able to hopefully get some data from over there. The east side of the peninsula is very interesting because a large ice shelf just collapsed there in 2005, called the Larsen B, and the scientists on the Araon are interested in how the ecosystem has changed because of it. The ice shelf was about the size of Rhode Island, and used to cover the ocean in that area but now the ocean is open to the sunlight which can allow for phytoplankton to grow, which are at the base of the food web. So there could be some very important effects from the collapse of this ice shelf. More updates from the Larsen B soon!

Life on board has been great so far, we wake up everyday and have breakfast in the galley (ship term for dining area), and then we do some science throughout the day and have usually had a break at night. Sometimes at night people play cards, chat together in the lounge, watch movies, or start a mad game of ping pong in the gym upstairs. The Koreans are dominating everyone on the ship, of course. They are really good!

Land Ho!

First view of the Antarctic Peninsula

Today we reached the Antarctic Peninsula, into one of the many fjords
(glacial carved bays) on the western side. We arrived to a snowy,
windy landscape with numerous seabirds and lots of floating icebergs
nearby. Our trip across the Drake Passage was miraculously calm, which
was very lucky for all of the new scientists on board so we could get
used to the rolling of the ship and gain our "sealegs" so we won't get
seasick. Last night we hit a small storm which caused a lot more
rolling of the ship, but early this morning we arrived into the
protected bay and are much more sheltered.

Mattias Cape, a marine biologist on board, enjoys Korean BBQ.

It is very cold outside now, and in order to go outside I have to put
on several layers of clothing including:

- long-underwear pants and shirt
- pants
- wool socks
- another shirt
- fleece jacket
- fleece gloves
- down jacket
- wind proof jacket
- neck protector
- beanie
- boots

This is a lot of clothing for this southern California girl! It is
worth the beautiful view outside though. One of the goals for the
scientists on this cruise is to fly to the land from helicopters we
have on-board the ship in order to sample the glaciers and install
some new weather stations on the continent. The weather was not good
enough for the helicopters to fly today, so now we are going to map
the seafloor sediments using a multi-beam, which basically allows the
scientists to see what the seafloor looks like in this bay, and where
there might be interesting sediments for them to sample. I am part of
a small group of scientists on the ship that is interested in taking
samples from the water, or water column as we call it, in order to see
the types of phytoplankton (plants in the water), and nutrients that
are present in these narrow bays. We will be starting our sampling
tomorrow by going out on a zodiak (small inflatable boat) to collect
some glacier ice to start an experiment. More soon on the science!

Setting Sail

The Araon as seen from a fish-eye lense at the dock in Punta  Arenas

We have now set sail! We began our journey in Punta Arenas, Chile (the very southern tip of Chile) by first loading all of our scientific gear onto the ship, the Korean ice-breaker the Araon (in Korean meaning "the whole sea"). This is a very complicated process because we have to load all of our scientific equipment, as well as all the food, clothes and safety equipment needed for one month at sea in Antarctica. We managed to do all of this in only 6 hours because the ship arrived late and we were trying to remain on schedule. This was very busy indeed! Loading the ship involves using cranes to bring the heavy equipment on board, and then everyone pitches in to help put everything in its place, and also to tie it down before we set sail. We have to "secure" everything because as the ship starts moving, all of the equipment and supplies start moving too.

Leaving the dock in Punta Arenas heading for the fuel dock.

The Araon is the largest ship I have ever been on, it is more than 100 m (about 300 feet) long and 20 m (about 60 feet) wide. The Korean scientists on board gave us a tour once we arrived, and they showed us some of the amazing features of this boat; it has spacious bedrooms with couches and TVs in each one, the toilets have about 10 buttons on each one (including one that plays music and heats the seat!), there is a sauna, several lounges for movies and games, and a karaoke room (!).

We first went to a fuel dock to get some fuel for the journey, which took about 2 hours of travel and then we were docked there for 9 hours. Last night around 10 pm we left the fuel dock, and are making our way through the Straits of Magellan toward the Atlantic Ocean. It will take us another day to reach the very southern tip of Chile, and then we will cross the Drake Passage (the part of the ocean between southern Chile and Antarctica, across the Southern Ocean) to Antarctica. We will be going to the western Antarctic Peninsula, and we will be sampling very close to shore because some scientists on board will be flying helicopters to the land in order to collect ice and rocks. More on the science on board another day! Wish us a safe passage across the Drake, known as one of the roughest seas to cross in the world. Lucky for us, the forecast looks good!

Our proposed cruise track from Punta Arenas, Chile to Antarctica.

 

Saharan Dust

Saharan dust storm in 2003. We are just south of the frame of this picture

Now that we are nearing the coast of Africa, we have been seeing lots of Saharan dust coming from the continent. Why would anyone care about this dust, you might be asking? The Sahara Desert is the second largest desert in the world (Antarctica is considered the first), and is a vast dry area full of sand and dust. Strong winds often sweep over the continent from Europe, and can carry this dust thousands of miles-it can be seen across the Atlantic Ocean and into the United States. These large dust storms can carry important nutrients, as well as harmful things into the ocean and onto land, and is one of the important sources of nutrients to the ocean that is being studied on this cruise.

Aerosol samplers on the flying bridge with lots of dust!

Some scientists on board from University of Alaska, Fairbanks and from Florida State University, are studying these dust storms and other "aerosols" in the marine environment. Aerosols are tiny particles that are generally made up of some kind of dust or sea salt, and water. They are called aerosols because they are a mixture between a liquid and a solid, and are found floating in the air. Aerosols are comprised of many things, and oceanographers often distinguish between anthropogenic aerosols (aerosols that are human-derived, often forms of smoke/smog and other pollution) and natural aerosols (like those from the Sahara). By measuring the sizes of the aerosols, and the different metals and nutrients in the aerosols, scientists can often distinguish where these particles originated from and how far they have traveled. This is just what scientists on our ship have been doing everyday of the cruise since we left. They have large aerosol samplers on the "flying bridge" of the ship, which is the highest desk on the ship above everything else so that the samples don't get contaminated by any pollution coming from the ship itself.

Red/orange Sahara dust in the medium size range

Black/gray anthropogenic dust in the small size fraction

The dust from the Sahara is visibly orange/red and is generally greater than 1 micron in size. Knowing the size of the dust is helpful, because both the color and size can help scientists distinguish it from other types of dust, like anthropogenic dust, which is generally gray/black in color and in the small size range (0.45-0.95 micron). Each type of dust contains different levels of metals, and when it lands on the ocean it may have different effects on the resident phytoplankton communities.

Sahara dust on the aerosol filters

For example, dust from the Sahara usually has high levels of iron, an important nutrient for phytoplankton, so a dust storm could mean an increase in nutrients that the phytoplankton need. On the other hand, anthropogenic dust from industrialized areas has high levels of toxins such as lead and sometimes mercury, which can be potentially harmful to phytoplankton and other organisms.

The Scientists Take Over the Galley!

Menu items

I think most people would agree that the most difficult job on the ship is the cook and the stewards (other cooks, who help with preparing meals). They have long hours, have to feed up to 60 hungry people 3 times a day, all with different likes/dislikes and diet requirements. They usually get up at 4 am each day to make breakfast, and chop and prepare other items to be used throughout the day. They stay up working until around 7pm, when they have finished cleaning all of the dishes for the day, and have planned meals for the next day. Talk about a tough job!

Melissa and Chief Scientist Greg Cutter preparing the meal

The scientists on the ship felt that the cooks had therefore been working way too hard over the past 30 days, so we asked if we could give them something in return and cook for them and all of the crew. They agreed, so a feast was prepared. The Chief Scientist, Greg Cutter, decided on making his legendary fajitas recipe, and we took the job in shifts in order to make sure we made it on time, and had enough food. Other scientists made some other delicious dishes, including homemade hummus by Chris Measures, salsa and guacamole from some of the other scientists, and desserts by Ana Aguilar-Islas and Rachel Shelley. I helped to serve the meal to all of the crew members and scientists when they came to eat.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and we definitely had a lot of fun. I think all of the cooks enjoyed the break too, and we definitely appreciate how hard they work everyday! We were in the galley (another name for the kitchen on a ship) from 10am-7pm just for one meal! It was also nice to cook a little bit for those of us who enjoy cooking, because it is usually one of the things that we miss from home when out on these cruises.

Finished product!

We are continuing on in our journey, and are almost done! We pull into port on Sunday morning in Cape Verde, and are currently on station 22 out of 24. The countdown has begun!

Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Relative amount of particles in the water over the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

We just finished a station over the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a huge plate boundary that runs down the middle of the Atlantic ocean as a long underwater mountain range. Some parts of this mountain range are more than 3000m (about 9000 ft) higher than the surrounding ocean floor. This is only slightly lower than Mt. Whitney in California. This huge mountain range under the sea is a divergent plate boundary, or an area of the Earth's crust where two plates are moving apart from one another. In this case, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge forms the boundary between the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The plates are moving apart at about 2 cm/yr. When the plates move apart, lava and other chemicals are emitted into the water that we can measure. Once the lava hits the seawater, it rapidly cools off since the seawater is colder than the lava, and looks like black smoke when it comes out of the vents. Due to this, these underwater volcanoes are often called "black smokers." Black smokers are interesting for a group of scientists studying metals, because some of these metals are emitted in extremely high concentrations near these hydrothermal vents, or underwater volcanoes. Some of the metals that were found in high concentrations at this sight were iron, and mercury. In order to sample in the plume from the ridge, we first put some sensors into the water, including one that can measure the relative amount of particles in the water at different depths. This is called a transmissometer, and where the measurements rapidly decrease (due to an increase in particles), is generally where the plume should be. We therefore collected samples in the plume, as well as directly above and below it for comparison. We also got our instrument a little too close for comfort to the bottom of the ocean at this station, and had a little bit of a scare that we might have damaged our equipment, but all was well when it came back on board (phew!).