"Adventures on Ice:" An undergrad's take on Antarctica
In the past month, Ohio State senior Liz Miller has taken five airplane flights, melted snow for drinking water, hobnobbed with John McCain, and trekked over a field of snow with a bucket over her head.
Anything in the name of science.
Miller, a geological sciences major, is one of two Ohio State undergrads studying in Antarctica until mid-February. She and April Jacobs, the other undergrad, are analyzing lake and stream samples for clues of global warming. (The bucket drill was a “survival school” test to warn her how little she would see in a polar blizzard.)
When she’s not doing research, Miller, who has worked at Ohio State's Byrd Polar Research Center for more than a year, is documenting her every move on a blog, Adventures on Ice.
Here are some highlights:
January 19: It always amazes me how quickly weather can advance in Antarctica, as well as how localized weather systems are. This morning, 4 of us headed out to Taylor Valley, Kathy and I to sample some ponds and collect the last few rock samples I need, Berry and Byron to collect some soil and water samples from over in the Wright Valley. It was incredibly windy this morning, but the helos were still flying, so we headed over to Taylor Valley around 10.30. An hour later, after flying around Taylor Valley for a while, Kathy and I realized that we were not going to be getting dropped off at the terminus of the Marr Glacier...the glacier wasn't even visible!
January 17: I'm back! I apologize for the delay in updates...I'll take some time to explain what I've been up to the past few days, and you'll see why I haven't had time for updates! So, we finished up our time at Lake Hoare Camp on Saturday morning, then caught a helo flight over to F6, another camp in Taylor Valley. Unlike Lake Hoare, which has a camp manager, separate lab area, and "rocket toilets" (relatively "normal" toilets in which human waste is combusted each night), F6 is a small hut with a kitchen and lab, and a small outhouse outside. A "tracer experiment" was scheduled at a stream near F6 on Monday morning; the experiment involved taking many many water samples over a nearly 24 hour period to determine how nutrients in the water interact with the soil both above and below the ground.
January 11: Tent-sleeping always helps me sleep...the calm (and amazing quiet around here!) always creates such a great atmosphere for sleeping. I guess the only thing that tends to keep me awake is the constant sun; it's difficult to convince your body that it's time to sleep when it's still completely light outside! But last night I slept incredibly, and I was ready to go for another fun-filled day in the field. Our helicopter arrived at 9, and we were out in the field above Taylor Glacier around 9:15.
January 9: We've had quite a few "Distinguished Visitors" (DVs) here over the past few days, one of which was Senator John McCain. I met him tonight and he's a really cool guy!
January 5: I was beginning to think that Antarctic summers were all just sun and blue sky (for 24 hours a day!), but it started snowing last night and snowed through today. It's amazing how much the visibility decreases--the top of Observation Hill, which is only about 700 feet, wasn't even visible.
December 28: Happy camper school was insanely tiring, but so much fun. The conditions were pretty bad when we got there--you couldn't see any of the surrounding mountains--but it made for a great "survivor skills" lesson. We learned how to set up tents, build a wind wall out of snow blocks, and (most importantly!) build the Taj Mahal of igloos! Our instructors left us to fend for ourselves around 5, so we had to cook dinner and melt snow for drinking water. The igloo stayed pretty warm, which was impressive. The second day consisted of cleaning up camp, learning how to use radios, and then two "survival scenarios," one of which consisted of us walking around with buckets on our head to simulate a Condition 1 storm/white-out.
December 24: I hiked up Observation Hill yesterday, which was a mile up, straight up! The top provided a beautiful view of McMurdo, as well as the ice shelf. Today I did the hut ridge hike, which is about three miles long, and actually takes you out of view of McMurdo. I’ve got to check out some of the most beautiful places on earth while I have the opportunity!
December 23: Our first look at the continent really was breathtaking. We landed on an ice shelf, so we were walking around on snow-covered ice. For 360 degrees, it's completely white, besides the occasional volcanic mountainous remnants that dot the landscape. The fog that surrounded everything made it all seem so surreal.
December 20: We went to the clothing distribution center (the CDC) today to get all our cold weather gear. We watched a briefing video, then headed into changing rooms to try on all our stuff. "All our stuff" included three pairs of pants/long underwear, two shirts (also long underwear), wind pants, three hats, a balaclava, big white "bunny" boots, six pairs of socks, about 10 pairs of gloves (plus three liners), a parka, and lightweight coat. On the plane tomorrow we’re wearing two pairs of long underwear (top and bottom), fleece pants, wind pants, a fleece jacket, a parka, a hat, and sunglasses. We'll all be sweating like crazy till we finally get to the ice!
Read more at Liz Miller's Adventures on Ice blog
Visit the Office of Undergraduate Research
Read about Liz's faculty mentor, Berry Lyon
Learn more about the Department of Geological Sciences
(words/stills: Liz Miller's Adventures on Ice blog)
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