Iceburgs and Other Things...

This morning a colleague of mine called me at 6:00AM to alert me that there were 2 iceburgs within “camera range”. I eagerly ran up the 4 flights of stairs to the bridge and saw my very first iceburg(s). These 2 ‘burgs’ were relatively small ones, and soon a large 2-mile wide tabular burg was on the horizon.

We are nearly at 65 degrees latitude, just 60 miles shyof the Antarctic Circle, but there is no doubt that we are in polar waters. The water temperature has dropped to 0.3°C, and the air temperature is -1.0°C with a wind chill of -17°C. It is now daylight for almost the entire day and the only difference between night and day is the intensity of sunlight. We should hit the pack ice within an hour or so at which time our research vessel will begin its task of ice-breaking, leading us into waters in which we can sample and conduct experiments and eventually into an ice-free region – known as a polynya – and to McMurdo Station, where we will disembark for a couple of days before continuing on with our research in the polynya.

Antarctica, here I come!