Sunday, November 14, 2010

Update

I have been in the Dry Valleys for about a week. Most of Antarctica is covered in snow and ice, but the dry valleys are very cold deserts with mostly bare mineral soil. My understanding is that this place is too windy and dry for snow to stick around the same way it does in other parts of Antarctica. However, there are lots of snow packs, which are places that are sheltered from the wind where the snow accumulates. The people I am working with are trying to understand more about these snow packs. In some of the new pictures I've posted you will see some instruments that my colleagues were using to take precise measurements of the size of the snow packs. They do this a few times over throughout the course of the year to determine how the snow packs change through a season.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Dear Eric,

We are really enjoying being able to
see pictures and hear so many details about your Antarctia adventure. From the recent pictures of your campsite in Fryxell,it looks like a solar panel on the right side of the camp. Is this how the buildings are warmed and what other uses do they serve?
Mrs. Lindahl

Mrs. Radner's Fourth Grade Class said...

Dear Eric,
We saw your pictures of the Dry Valleys and we read your blog. Our first question is: Are any of the tools you use similar to tools that we use not on ice? Is there a place to wash up and where water is not frozen? We know you saw a penguin. Have you seen any other animals, like polar bears or seals, yet? Our librarian, Mrs. Freedman, gave our class some books about Antarctica so we can learn more about where you are.
Take care!
Mrs. Radner's fourth grade class

Mrs. Radner's Fourth Grade Class said...

Dear Eric,
We just finished reading one of the books about Antarctica and we learned a fascinating fact. The word "arctic" comes from a Greek word meaning "bear" because the "Great Bear" constellation seems to revolve around the North Pole. "Antarctic" means "opposite to the Arctic" and interestingly, no bears live in Antarctica. So now we know you could not have seen a polar bear in Antarctica!
Homework for tonight is to write how you are a pioneer like Laura Ingalls Wilder. We can't wait to read all the ways in which our class compares you to Laura Ingalls Wilder! Have a great day!
Mrs. Radner's Fourth Grade Class

Eric Sokol said...

Hi everyone,
We get most of our electricity from the solar panel and a wind generator. We also have a diesel powered heater for the james way hut where we have our kitchen. We stay warm in the tents by boiling water and putting it in water bottles in our sleeping bags for heat.

The tools we use are similar to what people use elsewhere. The survey equipment that was being used to survey the snow packs is used for many other types of things. I have met other researchers that use that type of equipment for surveying streams and rivers in Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia. Most people use these instruments to take precise 3 dimensional measurements of things. We use this to measure the snow packs because we can use it to estimate the volume of snow in a snow pack.

I have seen other wildlife, but not much. We have seen a Skua, which is basically a fat seagull, and we have also seen mummified seals. These are seals that started walking up the valley and presumably got lost and died in the dry valleys. It's so dry here that they were essentially freeze dried. Some of them are over a hundred years old.

That's really interesting about the etymology of the word Antarctica. I had no idea that "Arctic" was a reference to bears. Thanks for letting me know.

Those sound like interesting essays. I'd be interested in hearing how you compare an antarctic researcher to a pioneer.

Mrs. Radner's Fourth Grade Class said...

Dear Eric,
Thank you for your recent comments! We enjoyed reading about how you keep warm. We learned that in early America people used to keep warm by putting 'covered frying pans' filled with burning coal in their beds to heat up their sleeping areas, which is pretty similar to how you keep warm.
In the Dry Valleys, is there more snow or land? We can't tell from the pictures.
We are still interested in understanding how you wash up, especially if the water freezes.
We were very fascinated by the mummified seal and wondered how you knew it was 100 years old. We googled 'mummified seal' and there is a picture of a mummified seal in the Dry Valleys that we saw on our Smartboard.
We thought you were a pioneer like Laura Ingalls Wilder in the following ways: 1. You are exploring places most people have never gone to. 2. You are living in the middle of nowhere. 3. You have a limited supply of food. 4. You have to make your shelter out of the natural resources in the area. 5. You have to adapt to the climate and to different daylight hours. 6. Obtaining water is difficult. You have to melt glacier ice, and LIW had to dig wells. 7. Not many people are in the area where you are living.
We thought that getting food by helicopter was amazing! We wondered why all the snacks are past the expiration date (and Mrs. Radner is amazed that there is such a thing as a 'bad' chocolate chip cookie!).
That's it for now.
Mrs. Radner's Fourth Grade Class

Mrs. Melamed and Mrs. Michaelson said...

Dear Eric,

My first grade class is currently on an "imagination vacation". We are visiting all of the continents and this week, we arrived in Antarctica :)

We have loved viewing your blog and seeing your pictures.

My class has a few questions for you:

1. Where do you go to the bathroom?

2. What do you do if you run out of food?

3. What happens if you get sick? Do you have medicine with you?

4. Do you get to change clothes?

5. Is is negative degrees there?

Thanks!
Becky Melamed and 1st Graders at Hillel Day School

Eric Sokol said...

Hi Everyone,
Here are some short answers to the additional questions from Mrs. Radner's class. The Dry Valleys are mostly bare land right now, but I have been told that they can be covered in snow during certain times of year when. As far as washing up goes I don't do it very ofter out in the field. We do keep water relatively warm in the hut at the field camp with a diesel stove, and we use this to wash our hands. We don't really know too much about the seals, but one of the other scientists told me some of them can be 100 years old. I'll post more pictures soon.

Thanks for sharing your ideas about how pioneers with me. That is really interesting. I didn't know they used similar methods to keep their beds warm.