glitter glue and sparkling snow

We recently began decorating our office for the holidays. The first task we were assigned was to put turkeys on the door. I can’t remember the last time I traced my hand and decorated it for Thanksgiving, but this has to be the best ones ever! It seems like such a little thing, but when I went into our supply drawer to find glue, I was gleefully surprised to find glitter glue! When I see stuff like that, I have to wonder if Raytheon shipped in on the cargo plane, if it made it’s journey with other supplies on the boat, if someone squished it in their suitcase, or had it mailed down. Glitter glue is just one of those novelties I didn’t imagine running across here.

I attended Sea Ice School yesterday. This is an entire day dedicated to learning about Ice conditions, cracks, and how to determine if they are drivable. If the sea ice is greater than 30 inches, any light vehicle can travel over it (light vehicle includes the 67,000 pound TerraBus because it’s weight is distributed so well that it’s likelihood of sinking in is less than that of a 240 pound human).

The day was actually quite fun. Matt, our instructor was informative and lead an hour-long classroom session on what we should look for and how the ice typically develops cracks.

From their we grabbed lunches and headed out in a Hagglund, across the shiny glittering snow (the picture illustrates how bright it was outside) to find some cracks to assess. We found some pressure ridges that have formed over the past 5 years (since the B-15 iceberg broke off). Because the temporary ice shelf hasn’t broken up the past years, pressure ridges have built up larger than normal. This year, since we assume the ice is going to break up, these areas are particularly volatile.Let me clarify here, that when I talk about a fracture in the ice, it usually does not indicate that there is water sloshing around between the two sides of ice. It can happen, but most of the time, these cracks are a result of tidal movement, pressure, or a slow warming, and many times ice will move and crack and refreeze in between. This simply makes the ice weaker than the ice shelf around it.

First, we dug out a trench perpendicular to the crack itself and exposed the ice below the snow so we know what sort of fracture we have. Most cracks will look like stairsteps down to a center point.

Then we took readings of each level of the crack to determine the thickness of the ice. To do this we used a drill. Both motorized and hand drills were available. We were required to use both. My apathy towards power tools prompted me to enjoy the hand drill more.

After drilling out the different levels of ice, we took a tape measure and a weight that catches under the ice and measured the thickness of the ice. Of the 3 cracks we assessed, all had 2-3 meters of ice beneath them.

The trip was capped off by another Weddell Seal sighting. Some smart scientists who attended Sea Ice School with me, suggested that I try holding him, so that's me holding a Weddell Seal below!