Mindy's Antarctic Adventures: 'Allo Falklands! (Or, Ola Malvinas!) (Updated with Pix and Video)

From Mindy, dated 29 December (we had some email sync problems - Ed.):

Glacier off Argentina. (Click to enlarge)

Today we depart for our expedition. Up bright and early to catch an 8am flight to Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands (the only flight each week). Along the way we get to fly across South America and see volcanoes and glaciers when the clouds allow. We did end up seeing one volcano that was letting off smoke and steam. Not violently, but a calm off-gas that was drifting in the wind. The glacier we saw was the ?? (Google Earth suggests this was the Piedras Blancas in Argentina - Ed.) It was very striking from the air and had large lakes past its snout (end or tip).

Port Stanley Street (click to enlarge)

Once in the Falkland Islands (Malvinas to the Argentines), there were no photos at the airfield - it is a British military base. Our bus was escorted to the front gate and we drove to the port at Stanley. The whole population of the islands is under 3000 (including temporary residents), and the military base has the only movie theatre and bowling alley (for diplomatic relations, we hear that things like the Harry Potter screening are turned into events where non-military residents can be bused in).

Our "tour guide" on the short bus trip was a crack-up! He told us a bit of local legend, stories of the culture and economy, and let us stop at two places to see interesting geology.

Frying Pan Quarry (click to enlarge)

Our first stop was a rock quarry called the Frying Pan quarry. Not sure about the name - previous experience with things called frying pan are that they are really hot (Frying Pan Gulch near Dillon, Montana), but this place was cool and rainy.

Falkland Islands Road (click to enlarge)

Very neat rocks (Fitzroy Tillite that corresponds to the Dwyka in South Africa) used for gravel roads. The road here are all gravel - too expensive to pave - with the exception of a few segments that ice over too badly (each paved section is no more than half-mile or so).

Diddle Dee Berries (click to enlarge)

Most residents use peat for fuel. To live on 100% peat, it takes about 120 cubic meters per year per household. One cubic meter is about 1 ton. The peat here is less smoky-burning than the peat in Europe. There is a resin in the peat from the Diddle Dee bush that is similar to tree resin and burns well. The Diddle Dee bush has berries that locals make jam out of also. The traditional separation of labor is for the man to cut the peat (yes, they just dig right into the ground to about shoulder height), and for the woman to "rickle" the peat (stack it into small pyramids). Stealing another man's peat is second only to adultery here, but our tour guide tells us there is a simple solution for this. You put a bullet inside a block of peat, and when the thief burns the peat the bullet cooks off and puts a hole in the peat stove... a new peat stove costs about 15 thousand pounds, so this expense is discipline enough!

Stone Runs (click to enlarge)

Our second stop is to a patch of stone runs (described by Darwin). Scientists still dispute the cause of the runs, but they are basically long stripes of rock fields (blocky quartzite boulders) all about the same height and size. Likely the cause is a combination of solifluction and frost-heaving (I have no idea what this means either - Ed.) My favorite geologist Dr. Richard Alley used a fun way to describe it (think of the glacier rumbling as it moves...the melting ice lubricates the rocks and mud to allow them to sort vertically and laterally, and the rumbling shakes the large boulders to the top like when you open a bag of kitty litter and all the large chunks are at the top).

The economy here is mostly from fishing licenses, wool, and tourism. Electricity is 40% wind (6 turbines on island with plans to build 3 more for the military base).