Touring at the Bottom of the World (updated with pix and video)

From Mindy, dated 9 January:

Swimming Chinstrap Penguins
(click to enlarge)

Pintado flying
(click to enlarge)

This morning the seas have finally calmed.  We are 63 miles away from Elephant Island, and we have 1.5 m swells.  The water is now .75 degrees C, with floating ice all around.  We have a 10 knot headwind and the barometer is at 983.

Tabular iceberg (click to enlarge)

This morning we heard a talk by Ted Cheeseman (the tour operator - Ed.) about the Antarctic Treaty and how tourism fits in with the politics and physical environment of Antarctica.  But first he showed us some imagery of the tabular iceberg we saw off of the coast of South Georgia Island.  The iceberg, named B15, broke off of the Antarctic (specifically the Ross Ice Shelf) in March 2000.  At that time it was 80 miles or so long, and now 13 years later it is still about 9 miles long!

Elephant island panorama
(click to enlarge)

The Antarctic Treaty is an interesting agreement in that any land claims are deferred so long as the treaty is in force, and also that any new laws/rules will be passed only by unanimous consent of the treaty members.  So, for now the use of Antarctica is restricted to peace and science (no mining, no whaling, everything must be shared).  Unfortunately, the initial treaty did not anticipate things like tourism, and with a requirement for unanimous consent it is impossible to take on very controversial decisions.  There are a good number of bases on the continent, to include abandoned bases.  At one point the U.S. had an experimental nuclear power plant there, but when the treaty organization passed a no-nuke policy, the U.S. had to take down the
plant (and they even removed the topsoil around the plant to dispose of at a Navajo reservation back in the states).

Ted has become quite involved with the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) who work to be more responsible to the environment while practicing tourism in the Antarctic.  He shared some statistics with us about the number of tourists that come to Antarctica each year.  In the 2010-2011 season, approximately 33 thousand tourists came (about 1/3 from the U.S.), and about half of those came by ship with landings on shore (about 18 thousand).  Nearly 14 thousand of the total came by ship and never got off of the ship.  After that season, there was a ship that sank (Odd, Mindy never mentioned that when she was telling me about this trip! - Ed.) (The Explorer, thankfully nobody died), and since then there have been much fewer tourists each year.  Depending on what happens with the Antarctic Treaty, trips like ours might not be possible in another 5-10 years time.  The thing to watch for in the future is krill fishing.  A sustainable catch is calculates to be 500 thousand tonnes per year, and right now it is only being fished at 100 thousand tonnes per year.  There is market potential here, and this might be a contentious issue for Antarctica in the near future.  We are truly lucky on this expedition to be led by Ted and to have his insights on the wonder and complexity of these places!

Elephant Island geology

After Ted spoke, we heard from Ian Dalziel about the geology of Antarctica. This is a continent with very little actual land exposed.  Generally, the continent can be divided into East and West, with the East being mostly a Precambrian craton (the stable part of a continent), and the West is a sort of archipelago that is largely below sea level (by about 2 km, even after the land rebounds from the weight of the ice above it).  Antarctica is one of the least mobile continents on the planet since Pangaea ("Mobile continents" = further proof that geologists have a different time scale than the rest of us - Ed.).  There are still active volcanoes on Antarctica, some under the ice along the rift between East and West and one that we will get very close to at Deception Island.

Elephant island statue (click to enlarge)

 Off the coast of Antarctica are the South Shetland Islands, of which we will visit Elephant Island.  Elephant island (where Shackelton left most of his men to winter over while he took a rescue party) is an island of metamorphic complex, ranging from low grade metamorphism to the northeast and higher grade metamorphism to the southwest.  We will try to do a landing to see some rare ultramafic rocks and blue schists (everyone is very excited about these on the ship) (Because really, who doesn't get excited about schist? - Ed.).

Zodiac whale-watching
(click to enlarge)

Whale Tail (click to enlarge)

As we near the end of the day, it seems that the ice is not cooperating with our landing plans.  We at least got to sail around Point Valentine, but alas could not land.  We did get to launch zodiacs and cruise around to see the actual beach that is likely where Shackelton's men spent their miserable winter waiting for rescue.  Stories tell that each day the men would pack up their tents and sleeping bags in hopes that Shackelton would return that day.  They spent over 100 days in the Antarctic winter doing this and didn't lose a single man!  A statue sits on the beach to commemorate the site.  On the way back to the ship we encountered a few whales!  At least one humpback (Thank you, Captain Kirk - Ed.) and several fin whales.  They put on quite a show for us and came very close to our zodiacs!  What a treat!

Maybe tomorrow for our lovely rocks... We'll see.