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| Penguins are slowly starting to invade Rothera as the snow melts and we are left in a quarry. |
After the JCR left we have been all stations back to work, the weather was variable all week changing from really sunny, to windy or low cloud. The weather is highly changeable here, and when I say that it can change within just a few minutes.
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| WAVE...I got very excited, i really want to go gliding here, it would be incredible. I'm working on it.... |
One of my main jobs is to liaise with Sam and the other scientists to see when it is best for us to go out on the boat and water sample. We need to discuss the weeks weather and what's happening with the phytoplankton bloom to decide when it's best for us to sample. The wind direction dictates most of our limits, for example if it's blowing a strong southerly then all of the brash and pack ice blows towards the wharf where we take the boats in and out of the water, if this gets blocked then we can't get back to Rothera and there is nowhere else safe to moor up. The wind also needs to be light so that we do not drift off from site 1 which is out in Ryder bay and at 500 m depth; the RaTs project has been sampled from there since 1997 so it's important not to drift off site. We have two back up sights if the weather does not allow us to sample there.
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| Schools sent us some homemade flags to celebrate Antarctica day ! |
This week one of our winter's had an accident and had to get flown back to the UK to have his tendon repaired - he should be back in 6 weeks! This week I had my first dive under ice! We have been waiting to access North cove and Hangar Cove and finally it was within safe limits for us to get near to the site where the heated settlement plates. I dived with Gail, where we swam to the bottom and then under the ice to her site, we were attached by a line the whole time. The first part was so scary. You had to think about the ice being above your head so making sure your buoyancy was impeccable, also about exits for if there was an emergency. I was not allowed to go near Gail's plates as she is looking at settlement so only one diver can complete the work by taking photographs of the plates, it's also best to not have much movement around them, Whilst she was doing that I was on seal watch, I also collected sediment sample, The highlight of the dive was that we were actually diving in poo, as North Cove is where the STP (basically burns our poo) outlet is, so I also collected a water sample so that we can measure the coliforms (bacteria) so see how well the STP is working!
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| This iceberg looks like it rolled over and broke!!! |
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| Elephant seals are loud and smelly ... so funny to watch! |
It was a sunny and calm day on Thursday this week, most the of base walked around the point. It was beautiful and we all saw our first chinstrap penguin of the season!
Anna, Emily, Matt and I went to the crevasse at the weekend with Blair our field guide. It was nice being in a small group so that we could spend sometime looking at the ice formations and taking some photographs.
With the summer now starting the warming has increased which has increased the snowmelt into the crevasse, this meant that the access hole was a bit smaller than last time which made it a bit exciting! We are also definitely going to make an ice bar down there during winter!
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| Sam & I have the mission to set up the transport aquarium which will leave with Sam on the ship in March. We need to get it set up now so the system is stable and that the bacteria in the filters grows ready to keep the tanks healthy. |
Chao for now, hope you're all enjoying being back at work!
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| Very spoilt to have a view like this everyday! |