Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2002 17:42:27 +0000 From: "Coronesi, Stephanie" Subject: Message 4 13:55 (2002.01.08) 64 Degrees 46.979' South Latitude 64 Degrees 04.395' West Longitude (Bismark Strait) Air Temp: 3.6 Degrees C SST (Sea Surface Temperature): 1.2 C Wind Speed: 7 knots 235 Degrees Air Pressure: 972.3 mBar Hey There!! It has been a very exciting past couple of days! On Saturday morning (1/5) we pulled into Palmer Station, the northernmost of the three U.S. Antarctic stations. We had to deliver a bunch of supplies that we had on board for Palmer and load on lab equipment and personal belongings of people who have joined us for the rest of our trip on the Gould. There were cranes and forklifts and lots of manpower transferring all of this material, and there was a curious penguin by the ramp watching the proceedings, clearly intrigued by what the funny people were doing. The Phytoplankton group had a lot of moving and setting up to do because most of our equipment had been at Palmer with our group leaders, but everybody took some time to enjoy the "Welcome Barbecue." It really is a little family down here, with many people having lived on station or sailed together on research cruises before. There has been a warm, reunion-type feeling flowing and it was especially evident Saturday night. At about 10PM a group of fourteen of us decided to take a trip up the glacier. You have to take a radio with you and sign out on the big blackboard in the station telling them who you are, where you're going, when you're leaving and when you expect to be back. If you are half an hour late returning they call you on the radio, and if they don't get an answer they come looking for you. There is a safe path up the glacier, marked by black flags on either side, and it's important that you stay on this path, as there are crevasses in other areas. A crevasse is a crack in the ice, which is often hidden by a covering of snow. They can be very long and wide and deep and you sure don't want to fall down one. It took about forty minutes for all of us to climb to the top and at least half an hour to take pictures, play tag, throw snowballs and make human pyramids. As the sun got lower on the horizon the snow peaks around us turned rose-colored, making the already beautiful landscape even more glorious. The climb down was much quicker than the climb up, I can assure you, and we passed a female Elephant seal who had been napping on the same rock all day. I'm going to send a picture of Palmer Station with this message, but I will try to get you a picture of the seal at some point this week. One of the strangest things here is the absence of nighttime darkness. At just about midnight, while we were climbing down the glacier, the sun dropped behind the horizon. Just before it disappeared from view it turned into a little green flash of light. I don't know exactly why this happens, but it's a pretty well-known phenomenon down here, and I was psyched to get to see it for myself. The sky never actually got dark, though it did get dimmer, and by 3AM it had started to get lighter again! We left Palmer Station last night and now the serious twenty-four hour science has begun! I've started filtering my water samples for chlorophyll, and there's actually another batch of water coming up in the CTD right now, so I need to get going. I will explain exactly what it is that I'm doing once I'm completely certain, but for now I'm having fun pouring things into various vials and cylinders and feeling like a mad scientist. Mwaaa-ha-ha-ha! ;) Steph (Miss C!)