How to Get Warm on Antarctica Without Really Trying (updated with pix, links, and video)

From Mindy, dated 13 January 2013:

Deception Island (click to enlarge)

We have a very exciting day today.  Early wake up to watch from the boat as we sail through Neptune's Bellows, which is the entry into an active volcano known as Deception island.  Overnight we cruised at about 12 knots.  This morning we have overcast skies, 2.5 degrees C air (still warmer than Arizona - Ed.), 1.5 C water, and 20-25 knot winds.

Stormy bay (click to enlarge)

As we sailed through Neptune's Bellows, it lived up to its name.  I went outside at the level of the bridge and had trouble standing upright from the wind.  Throughout the day we contended with the wind, those who hiked high had hurricane-force gusts, and those of us who stuck a little closer to shore still had 35 knot winds!

Red lava face (click to enlarge) 

Volcanic boulders (click to enlarge)

Deception Island is a broken-circle shape, with the break at the southeast. The volcanic rocks that make up the island are Cenozoic age (younger than 65 million years old) (awww - baby rocks, how cute! - Ed.), and there have been large eruptions as recently as 1969.  There are geothermally heated sands and waters along the shore.  More on the water in a minute...

Lichens (click to enlarge)

Sprouting grass (click to enlarge)

Chilean Base (click to enlarge) 

Whaler's Bay Tractor
(click to enlarge)

There are two abandoned bases on Deception Island.  One is a Chilean base that was destroyed in 1969 when hot mud flows came off of the glacier-covered mountain behind the base.  Nobody died, but those manning the base were able to hike to the other side of the island and seek rescue from the British Antarctic Survey base.  That base was destroyed later the same year by more volcanic activity.  The old British Antarctic Survey base was a little more intact than the Chilean base.  There is still a hangar building and several other buildings from the base (somewhere out there, a British real estate agent is preparing a "fixer-upper" flyer - Ed.).  Next to the base was an older whaling station, and in fact the bay here is called Whaler's Bay.

Mindy swims! (click to enlarge)

The black sand beach (click to enlarge)

OK, here comes the good part...  At the end of the day, as the tide came in, about 20 or 30 of us stripped down to our bathing suits and swam in the thermally heated waters!  The only slightly crazy thing is that the waters weren't that warm.  The air temperature of the air was about 3 degrees C, and the wind was blowing at about 20 knots or more.  The water that was moistening the black sand was maybe 90 degrees F or so, closer to 100 F if you dug your hands and feet into the sand.  But, I wasn't going to let a little cold weather prevent me (OK, who are you and what have you done with my wife?! - Ed.) from dipping in a hot spring, so I ran into the surf up to my shoulders, then screamed up to the beach to warm my hands and feet in the sand (Ah, there she is. Never mind. - Ed.).  Now I can say that I have swam in the Southern Ocean! And inside of an active volcano!  What an amazing experience, and I'm so glad I am warm again as I write this.

Mindy above the crater (click to enlarge)

The hardest part was putting my 4 layers of clothes back on while I couldn't feel my fingers.  Back to the ship for hot tub and then sauna!! Sailed out back through Neptune's Bellows and off to more adventures tomorrow!

Land Ho! (updated with links, pix, and video)

From Mindy, dated 12 January:

Rainbow mist (click to enlarge)

Woke up to calm swells in the Antarctic Sound.  Quite significant head winds are keeping progress slow (20-25 knot winds).  The air outside is right at 0 degrees C (this is where I point out that Arizona is colder than Antarctica right now - Ed.), water temp -.7 C, and barometer at 981.  We sailed through a storm earlier in the morning, and when we had our wake up call we were 25 miles from Hope Bay.  The original plan for the day was to start by landing at Brown Bluff, but the ice and weather prevented us from doing that.  So we sailed on, and got treated to a short lecture (what we call "opportunity training") by Richard Alley on ice cores.

Richard Alley started his lecture with a song he wrote called the Great Penguin Waltz (complete now with pictures of penguins from our trip).  He reviewed several of the methods used to date ice cores, including radioactive isotopes, borehole temperatures, and fractionation of noble gases (I prefer counting how many licks it takes to get to the center, but to each his own - Ed.).  Good review for those who know of ice cores already, and neat summary for those who didn't.

Esperanza Base (click to enlarge)

Mindy in Hope Bay (click to enlarge)

Joanna (click to enlarge)

After lunch we managed to land near an Argentine base in Hope Bay.  The base is named Esperanza Base, and is where many Argentinians live permanently (as a way of establishing some political claims to land down here).  Babies have been born on this base, weddings have been performed, and there is even a school here for the 20 or so kids that live on the base Best field trips EVER - Ed.).

Turbidite (click to enlarge)

Trace fossils (click to enlarge)

Our luck with weather returned and we had a delightful afternoon
enjoying geology and penguins.  This is our first actual steps on THE continent of Antarctica!  For many on board this marked the 7th continent they have visited.  For me it makes the 6th (someday I'll make it to Africa to claim my 7th continent).  On shore we saw some volcanic rocks from the Antarctic Peninsula Group (Cretaceous age), and turbidite sequences from the Trinity Peninsula Group (Triassic age).  Mount Flora towered over us while we roamed the beach, then we cruised over to another section of the beach to see a large colony of Adelie penguins (As opposed to Adele penguins, which sing soulfully - Ed.).

Adelie Baby (click to enlarge)

Diving Adelies
(click to enlarge)

Adelie posse (click to enlarge)

The Adelie penguins were very cute!  They spent most of their time going back and forth to the coastline (on little penguin highways that were very orderly), picking up rocks to build (and maybe decorate) their personal spot of land in the colony, and looking after their babies that were not quite old enough to be left alone.  Penguin antics get funnier and funnier as you spend more time with them, and I likely now have thousands of pictures of the little guys.  I also kept thoughts in my head of how much my son, Daniel, loves the cartoon "Penguins of Madagascar" (in the back of my head I kept hearing "Rico, Kowalski!") ("The Private probably won't survive" - Ed.).

Thousands of Adelies
(click to enlarge)

Walking away (click to enlarge)

After 5 hours of penguins, we were just about ready to head back to the ship (although many of us would have stuck on the beach for a few hours more).  The ship captain was getting a bit nervous about the ice coming into the bay (I like this guy! - Ed.), so we quick-like shimmied out of there while the sun was setting.  The sunset lasted for about 5 hours, and was still beautiful when I finally went to bed near midnight.  This is likely our last shot at seeing tabular icebergs, and the Antarctic continent is beautiful, so nobody was keen on getting to bed.

Adelies saying goodbye (click to enlarge)

Tomorrow is another exciting day, where we'll visit an active volcano, hope that it won't erupt while we are there (Once again, things that were left out of the itinerary briefed to me - Ed.), and swim in some geothermal pools of water at Deception Island.  Should be great!

Bacteria in the snow (click to enlarge)

Adelies on a berg
(click to enlarge)

Adelie footprints (click to enlarge)

Earth, Wind and Fire (and Ice) (updated with pix)

From Mindy, dated 11 January:

This morning we are socked in with fog and no visibility.  We are navigating slowly through large packs of ice, moving at 9 knots.  Overnight the winds were quite stiff at about 25 knots, but this morning there is no wind. Barometer is at 986, air temp is 2.5 degrees C, water temp is -.725 C.

The conditions at the time (click to enlarge)

We tried all morning to find a good landing at Cape Melville on King George Island.  The group of rocks at Cape Melville is known as the Moby Dick Formation (wooden legs optional - Ed.).  As we attempted to launch zodiacs a storm rolled in rather quickly and we had to abandon the landing plan for safety.  We couldn't see the beach and the winds were rising quickly off of the water.  So, we relaxed on the ship while our wonderful ship captain sailed along to a new location.

Natalie and the markers
(click to enlarge)

Admiralty Bay city marker
(click to enlarge)

Lunch, hot tea and coffee, and good company.  Super awesome to just relax and have nothing to do.  By the afternoon we managed to get near a Brazilian base that gave us permission to land near them.  The base itself burned down last year (burning down a base in one of the coldest places on earth - strong work, Brazil - Ed.).  We agreed not to take pictures of the base, but it was a dismal sight.  It still smelled of smoke, and there were piles of charred, rusty metal strewn along the beach.  The personnel manning the base now live on a German cargo ship anchored in the bay, and get resupply from a Brazilian Navy ship.

Cousteau's whale bones
(click to enlarge)

Jellyfish (click to enlarge)

On shore at the landing sight we saw a nearly complete set of whale bones that had been gathered and arranged by Jacques Cousteau many years ago.  The whale is sort of an "every whale" species because it is hard to definitively say what species the bones are (or of they are all from the same whale) (how do you say "smorgasbord" in French? -Ed.).

The hot tub team (click to enlarge)

It was nice to get off the ship for some exercise, but the steady rain and the fog made conditions quite miserable.  So, it was back to the ship and my roommate and I (together with a few others) hit the hot tub to warm up on the ship.  After getting out of the hot tub in a steady cold rain, we topped off the experience with a quick trip to the sauna (set at a toasty 81 degrees C, about 170 degrees F) (hot tub and sauna are, of course, essential elements of the scientific method - Ed.).

Krill! (click to enlarge)

Tomorrow we expect to make it to the actual continent of Antarctica, but a lot depends on the ice.  Here's hoping!

Lookout! (updated with pix and video)

Sunburst on Shetlands
(click to enlarge)

Humpback! (click to enlarge)

We are so lucky on this expedition!  Another day of calm seas that is surprising our crew and staff.  We have glassy seas, an air temp of 0 degrees C (All of you are witnesses - Mindy just called a freezing temperature "lucky" - Ed.), water temp 1 C, no swells, and no wind.

Shetland islands panorama (click to enlarge)

Jumping Chinstrap
(click to enlarge)

Chinstrap overwatch

Unfortunately, the site with the blue schist rocks has about a mile of ice in front of the beach, so we cannot do landings to see them in person. Instead we'll sail around the island some more and land at the southern tip, called Point Lookout.

Metamorphic rock (click to enlarge)

Gentoo penguin (click to enlarge)

Point Lookout has a colony of about 20 thousand chinstrap penguins.  We had fun climbing over beautiful metamorphic rocks (grey schists, green schists, garnet-mica schists, and even some deformed cherts) (What, exactly, makes a rock "deformed"? - Ed.).  We also saw fur seals, elephant seals, and gentoo, macaroni, and adelie penguins.

Pink and Green chinstraps
(click to enlarge)

Gibbs Island Bird (click to enlarge)

In the afternoon we did another landing, this time on Gibbs Island.  There is a small spit of land between two tall bluffs that was barely big enough to allow two zodiacs to land.  We took turns spending 20 minutes or so on the beach and then went on zodiac rides to look at caves and glaciers along the shore.  At the landing site there were lots of chinstrap penguins so we had to be cautious.  We saw a leopard seal sleeping on a small iceberg floating in the water.  We also took time to enjoy some very impressive serpentine rocks (many of them had square chunks of magnetite in the rocks). All in all another great day.  Tomorrow we will attempt to land on the Antarctic peninsula.  We hope our good fortune stays with us for calm seas and little ice in the way.

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.