Royal Visit

His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco is visiting Antarctica as part of his interest in global ecology and climate. Americans may remember that he is the son of Prince Ranier and American actress Grace Kelly.

Wednesday, January 14, he visited the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and Thursday he visited McMurdo Station. He spoke with the assembled people in our dining hall at 7:15 pm. His comments were extemporaneous and unrehearsed. He spoke of his pride that Monaco is one of the signatories to the Antarctica Treaty, that the principality participates with Italy and France in other environmental issues and that his trip to both the Artic and Antarctic arose from his interest in the vital roles the poles play in global ecology and climate.

As you can see in this underexposed photo, he spoke to the crowd for about 15 minutes then he took a few questions from the audience. The questions were generic in quality as were the answers. He describes Monaco as a 2.2 square mile area with 33,000 residents, the majority of whom are not Monegasques (the name given to natives of Monaco....they are not Monicans). There are over 125 different nationalities living in Monaco where they receive over 4 million tourists annually. Prince Albert's grandfather was also a polar explorer, according to his remarks.

From McMurdo he travels to Antarctic bases of other countries: Concordia (France & Italy), Vostok (Russia), and Davis (Australia).

Arrived at the South Pole

Greetings from the South Pole. I flew here from McMurdo Station aboard a USAF LC-130 Hercules. The flight took approximately 3 hours. I sat in webbing alongside the interior. There were seven of us on the plane plus the crew made up of the 139th Air National Guard out of New York. 

The nominal altitude at the South Pole is 9300 feet. That is the measured altitude. However, due to less atmosphere and gravity at the poles, the barometric pressure is much lower here at any given altitude than would be seen in most of the world. The effect of this is that the effective altitude varies daily, but today was 10, 240 feet. I took Diamox before leaving McMurdo and will continue to take it for three more days to minimize symptoms arising from living at significant altitude. 

Sunday was a great day here for me. It turns out that over the past couple of days some tourists (yes, you read that right) skied into the South Pole. They were guided and outfitted by a company and paid no less than $50,000USD for the privilege. They stay in tents outside the station. They brought their own provisions. They spent money to get where I am and I am making money being here. Go figure. Anyway, since they were here a tour of the Ice Cube science experiment was arranged and I got to tag along. 

Ice Cube is an experiment where neutrino detectors are placed 2500 meters below the surface in an attempt to detect neutrinos passing through the Earth….from north to south. These neutrinos enter the Earth in the arctic or far northern regions, pass all the way through the Earth and are detected on their exit from the South Pole. It turns out that this is the best place on the planet to do this research because the Earth filters out all the other cosmic rays coming from that direction and leaves just the neutrinos to pass through. So, to get these detectors so far down under the ice, they use a hot water drill under extremely high pressure to melt a cylindrical column of ice 0.65 meters in diameter. It takes about 5000 gallons of fuel to generate the extremely hot water (88° C) for each hole. This summer they will drill about 19 holes. That will give them about 40 holes to their goal of about 80. Once the hole is drilled, they lower a specially made Digital Optical Module, or “DOM”, down into the hole.

 The water in the hole refreezes over a couple of days. The DOM is spherical and clear with electronics inside. It can withstand about 10,000 psi pressure. The DOM is attached to the surface by an umbilical cable. All the cables from all the DOMs are gathered together in a common computer room that receives the data in real time. Massive banks of computers process the data and it is uploaded via satellite to the US nightly. The principal investigator for this $270 million project is at the Univ. of Wisconsin. Of the $270 million, about $240 million is funded from the National Science Foundation with the rest coming from a variety of European countries.

The drilling work can only be done during the austral summer months, but data collection and transmission is performed 24/7/365. This is pure research. Detecting neutrinos by a multiple detector array can give the approximate location of the source of the particle. The scientific question is: will knowing the sources of these particles lead to discovery of previously unknown things in the universe? It’s wildly expensive, highly theoretical, uses vast amounts of fuel (2/3 of all the South Pole fuel supply goes for Ice Cube), but it is science and that is what we are here to support.

After returning from that amazing tour, I went with Wayne, the Physician Assistant here, on a tour of the bowels of the station. He took me to the ice tunnels (See page 3 of this link). These tunnels were carved out of the ice 15 meters (45 feet) below the surface. The tunnels are about 6 feet wide and 10 feet tall. They house the fresh water and sewage lines for the station as well as the electrical cables. As you might imagine, we melt ice to get fresh water (more on that later). The wells that are melted are called Rodriguez Wells, or just Rod Wells for short. Any one Rod Well will have a useful life of about 7 years. Then they have to begin a new Rod Well. The former Rod Well is now an immense cavern deep within the ice. It becomes a storage depot for sewage which freezes solid over time. These ice tunnels take the fresh water out of the current Rod Well and return sewage to a former well, all via insulated piping. Did I mention that in the ice tunnels it is a consistent minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit? You better believe it was as cold down there as I have ever experienced. My eyelashes, mustache, and beard were all frozen with ice crystals. The hairs at the end of my nose were frozen. After about a half hour touring the ice tunnels, which Wayne tells me few people get to visit, we went to the power plant and water plant.

The power plant uses one Caterpillar generator for routine power generation and a second one for peak loads. There are two more generators: one for backup and one undergoing maintenance. Nearly all the heat produced by these massive diesel generators is recovered. They use the heat to provide all the heat to the station, provide domestic hot water, and heat the water for the Rod Wells. With the heat recovery these generators are 70% efficient – a huge number in power generation.

From there it was on to the water plant right next door. The water from the Rod Well is exceptionally pure…in fact it is the purest water on the planet. That makes it not great for drinking. We humans like the taste of minerals in our water and the deionized water from the Rod Well would leach minerals from our bones and the water pipes. Also, the pipes like the pH to be slightly alkaline to reduce corrosion. So the water plant adds Calcium Chloride, Soda Ash, trace minerals and a tiny amount of chlorine for protection against germs. Water quality is analyzed daily, more sophisticated analysis is done weekly, and a lead and chloroform assay is done monthly. It always passes.

From there it was on to see the carpenter shop and heavy vehicle maintenance facility.

 In the latter they had a giant Caterpillar snow mover’s rear section dismantled. The transmission area was so large a person could get inside. Some of their wrenches were larger than my arm.

Our next stop was the geographic South Pole. It turns out that the South Pole’s ice cap moves over the land some 3000 meters below. Over the course of a year the ice moves about 10 meters relative to the actual pole. So, on January 1st of every year the geographic South Pole marker is moved. I got a photo of me at the geographic marker and know that since it was taken on January 4th, it is truly at the right place. Next stop was the ceremonial South Pole marker with the flags of the original signatories to the Antarctica treaty around it in a horseshoe configuration.

My first day was filled with science, exploration, discovery, and learning. Tomorrow I start work as the station doctor for approximately one week. The current station doctor, a delightful lady named Ella Derbyshire, is going to McMurdo for some rest and relaxation. Weather permitting, I’ll fly back to McMurdo on 12 January.

South Pole Bound

I just received confirmation that I will be spending a week in January at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. This is an exciting and welcome opportunity. The physician at the South Pole will be staying there over the winter. Consequently, she will come to McMurdo Station for some rest and relaxation in early January. While she is out, I will fill in for her at the pole.

Tonight is Christmas Eve. I am on call tonight and tomorrow. Our Hanukkah party two days ago was fun and well attended. The food included such favorites as latkes with applesauce, smoked nova lox, challah, Hanukkah Gelt (not exactly a food) and other less traditional items such as cookies in the shape of a Magen David and spinach-artichoke dip.

Tonight is an all-station Holiday Party festively decorated in the Christmas theme. This will be the first time the Holiday Party is not held in the cavernous heavy vehicle maintenance facility (VMF) but is instead hosted in the gymnasium. I also understand from those who have been her before that in years past this Holiday Party had been quite the blowout with food, potent potables and live music. This year's event promises to be more sedate with none of the prior amenities. I'll let you know how it turned out, if I get to go.

Christmas Dinner will be served tomorrow. On the menu are roasted breast of duck, chilled crab legs, and prime rib. It's about the prime rib.....or the lack of it. It seems that the galley staff put the prime rib into the thawing refrigerator a few days ago. Shortly thereafter, 160 lbs. of it disappeared. Gone. Vanished. It has yet to return. It is unlikely that it could be cooked anywhere on station and everyone not smell it or discover it. Therefore, it is my speculation that it was purloined beef destined for another location. I know I've told you this story before, so this is just an update to let you know the prime rib is still on the lam (groan).

So here's wishing you and yours a very happy holiday season. 

Season's Greetings

Season's Greetings to all my readers. Once again, I have been the lucky recipient of handmade holiday cards from many of the students at Forest Elementary School in Forest, Virginia. Thanks to all the students that made cards and especially to the students in Mrs. Shuwarger's fifth grade class. I love receiving your cards and very much appreciate the time and energy you took to make them and send them to me.

The McMurdo community is getting all geared up for the upcoming Solstice, Hanukkah, and Christmas holidays. The dining hall is decorated with a Festivus Pole, Christmas tree, garland and many other seasonal items. The Jewish members of the community hope to complete work on a large scale paper representation of a Hanukkah menorah to display there too.

There will be a Christmas dinner on the 25th. I'm told there will be breast of duck, chilled crab legs and prime rib. Just one thing....there will not be as much prime rib as the galley staff planned. It seems that while the prime rib was out thawing, two of them were purloined. Yes, we have a beef thief. The irony is that now that the word is out about the missing prime ribs, who in their right mind would think they could cook and serve it without being discovered? It is the community's hope that the missing 160 lbs. of prime rib magically reappears. Naturally, this event sparked numerous jokes and rumors. The latest is this graphic I received in an email from a friend.
On a sadder note, this has been a busy week in the medical department. We had three medical evacuations this week, one of which was for very serious trauma. Our flight nurse went out on the first medevac and on the day she returned to MacTown she had only time enough to change clothes and there was another medevac waiting to go out. Her gear had not been returned to the hospital yet by the cargo department, so she had to cobble together an entire second set of equipment, supplies and drugs to take our second patient out. This patient flew in a Bell Helicopter from the hospital to Pegasus White Ice Runway where it met up with an Australian Airbus A319 that was scheduled to leave hours earlier, but was delayed specially for this mission. This beautiful twin jet is equipped and outfitted to enable an ambulatory patient to be medically treated. There are numerous 110 volt 60 cycle outlets along the walls and in the seat arms. The seats fold flat to allow litter placement.

Our third medevac patient was not fortunate enough to ride on this plane, nor was he ambulatory. He flew by helo to the airfield, then flew to Christchurch on an Air National Guard Hercules LC-130. The ride north normally takes about 8.5 hrs, but this crew made it in 7.5 hrs. The patient is in the ICU, is stable and is expected to make a full recovery.

Ob Hill, Discovery Hut, and Helicopter Inspection

Yesterday, Dr. Hanson and I got to tour the helicopter facility here at McMurdo. We saw the New Zealand helicopter in the hangar and the AStar and Bell helicopters out on the pad. We evaluated the set up and arrangement of the helicopter for aeromedical evacuation.
Today, Air National Guard officers and I toured Scott's Discovery Hut at Hut Point.
SSgt McMannus was our official guide. This hut, erected in 1902 for Scott's Discovery Expedition, was originally designed and manufactured in Australia of Jakarta wood. The design worked well in hot dry Australia to keep the interior cool. That was not the best design for Antarctica. Later built huts were designed to retain heat inside.

According to Wikipedia:

"In selecting a base of operations for the 1910-1913 Expedition, Scott rejected the notion of re-occupying the hut he had built on Ross Island during the Discovery Expedition of 1901-1904.


This first hut, known as the 'Discovery Hut' was located at Hut Point, 20km south of Cape Evans. Scott's ship, the Discovery, had been trapped by sea ice at Hut Point, a problem he hoped to avoid by establishing his new base further north. Discovery Hut was never fully occupied during the Discovery Expedition, as most expeditioners elected to live aboard the ice bound ship. Ten years later when members of the Terra Nova Expedition journeyed south from Scott's Hut at Cape Evans they found Discovery Hut intact (although full of snow and ice), along with supplies left over from 1903. Discovery Hut was cleaned out and used during 1911 and 1912 as a staging and rendezvous point for Terra Nova expeditioners heading south towards the Pole from Scott's Hut at Cape Evans."






















After visiting Discovery Hut, Maj. French, TSgt Green and I climbed Observation Hill (referred to generally as Ob Hill).



Again, from Wikipedia: "Robert Falcon Scott's party was found by a search party led by the surgeon Dr. Edward Atkinson. They were found dead by the members of the base camp, who took their photographic film, scientific specimens, and other materials. They had to leave Scott and his men in their tent, and later parties could not locate the campsite, since that area had been covered in snow. So Scott's party eventually ended up drifting out to sea as part of an iceberg as the ice shelf made its way to the sea.

The search party then returned to what is now known as McMurdo and climbed Observation Hill. There they erected a large wooden cross, inscribed the names of the fatal party and a short quote from the Alfred Tennyson poem "Ulysses", which reads "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

The photo below shows MacTown from the vantage point of Ob Hill.

Birthday Wishes Arrive

Mrs. Shuwarger's Fifth Grade Class at Forest Elementary School send me handmade birthday cards! I am proudly displaying them for all to see on the wall outside my office.

All the cards are great and I so enjoyed receiving them. Thank you to all the children in the class. One of the cards gave me an extra laugh. It is from Peter. His card reminds me of a TV show and book by the late comedian, Art Linkletter: Kids Say The Darndest Things. The picture below is of the card Peter designed.

What can I say? 

Pressure Ridges

Monday night I got to tour the pressure ridges located just beyond Scott Base. Tours of about 10 persons were taken by bus to Scott Base. We then walked up and down a defined flagged route through the pressure ridges. Click on the photo below to see a whole gallery of images taken last night.


The above photo is of me with Mt. Erebus, an active volcano, in the background.

A pressure ridge is formed when sea ice encounters the Ross Ice Shelf. The mostly immovable ice shelf acts as a backstop for the sea ice. The sea ice is compressed against the ice shelf through a variety of different forces including tidal action and the expansion of water as it freezes. The pressure upon the sea ice causes it to develop a variety of shape changes from gentle undulations to violent upheavals. These changes take place over years.

Many of the tall ice formations have veins of blue and grey running through them. The blue is from water's ability to filter out the red and infrared spectrum of light. This is said to be some of the purest ice on the planet. The pressure that forms these structures causes small bubbles of gas to become trapped within the ice. If some of this ice is chipped off and put into a glass of water, the melting ice will release these trapped pressurized gas bubbles with a cacophony of hissing, popping and spitting.

In the background of the last of these photos can be seen Scott Base, Castle Rock, and Mt. Erebus. You will notice the tiny plume of smoke trailing off to the right from the cone of Erebus, an active volcano.