The 10 p.m. twilight glints off Mount Suess, as seen from a helicopter hovering over the Mackay Glacier north of McMurdo Station. This photo was takenby Yann Arthus-Bertrand, an Antarctic Artist and Writers grantee this season. For a better view of his photos, see a full-color version of The AntarcticSun at www.polar.org and at his website, www.yannarthusbertrand.com. Turn to page 11 for more photos and page 12 for a profile of the photographer.

Antarctica from Above

October 24, 2004

Published during the austral summer at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, for the United States Antarctic Program

www.polar.org/antsun

Photo by Yann Arthus-Bertrand/Special to The Antarctic Sun

By Emily StoneSun staff

The Antarctic meteorite hunters knewthey’d found something good when theyspotted the crusty black rock on a MillerRange ice field last year.

“The field notes said, ‘this is very,very, very sexy.’ Three verys,” saidRalph Harvey, head of the U.S.Antarctic Search for Meteoritesprogram (ANSMET).

The hunters had to waitmonths before learning whatthey had discovered. Thefist-sized rock first had to be

carefully collected by the 4-person team,shipped frozen to NASA’s Johnson SpaceCenter in Houston, and then split so that asmall chunk could be sent to the Smithsonian

Institution for analysis.In July, the team learned

they’d found a piece of Mars.The piece is a 1.3 billion-

year-old volcanic meteorite,weighing 715 grams.

Martian meteorites arerare finds. Eleven of the 31known Mars meteorites

Lava holds clues tomagnetic flip — page 7

I N S I D E

“Antarctica is madeof chocolate andmarshmallows.”

Q U O T E O F T H E W E E K

- Woman admiring photosof ridges rising from the

snow near the Dry Valleys.

Ground ozone playshide and seek — page 9See Mars on page 8

Chip off the red planet

A Mars meteorite found last season.Courtesy of Ralph Harvey

By Kristan HutchisonSun staff

Frank Thompson smelled grass andtrees before his plane even landed inChristchurch, New Zealand.

“It’s amazing how tuned your sensesare,” said Thompson, three days afterreturning to Christchurch from his fourthwinter as an aircraft ground equipmentmechanic at McMurdo Station.

A heightened sense of smell is just oneof the changes people deal with as theyadapt to life after a winter in Antarctica.Months of isolation also leave them high-ly sensitized to sound, light and people.Suddenly they are doing things theyhaven’t for seven months, including dri-ving and paying bills. It takes some adjust-ment, but after seven months or longer onthe coldest, driest continent smelling noth-ing but diesel, food and humans, most rel-ish their return.

“The best thing about going to the Ice isleaving,” said Thompson, who plans toreturn for another winter in January.

On the flight to New Zealand he felt thehumidity in the air while the plane wasstill several miles from Christchurch.Walking down the street after landing hesensed a strong whiff of flowers and fol-

lowed the scent for 40 meters before find-ing the flowerbed.

Renee Magyar was on the same flightand rejoiced in the rain that greeted herwhen she stepped off, the first she’d felt ina year.

“Everything was so fresh and moist.There was a slight rain when we landedand it was a lovely feeling to have rain onmy face,” she said.

In the morning she was excited to see acat at the hotel and ducks swimming onthe Avon River, the first animals she’dseen in 12 months.

The winterers also are hyper-sensitiveto noise and people. The sound of birdssinging woke Lynn Hamann at 3 a.m., soshe woke her husband, Tom, to hear it, too.

Two months after returning to the “freeworld,” Traci Fisher is still so in awe ofthe beauty and colors in nature she some-times becomes teary eyed while running inthe park in Manchester, England, whereshe is now.

“I just don’t take the beauty in nature,especially all of the colors, for granted likeI used to,” she wrote.

Surprisingly, though they just spentmonths in temperatures -40C and below,many winterers wind up shivering inChristchurch’s damp spring weather.

“You’d think you’d be acclimated to allof that,” Thompson said. “I think it has todo with the humidity.”

Used to dining in a cafeteria night afternight, the returning Ice people indulgetheir cravings. Tom Hamann went straightfor a crisp iceberg lettuce with creamydressing. Matt Miller immediately boughtan apple and four oranges. Fisher spent

hours in cafes drinking coffee.Thompson’s first night back, he

walked through Christchurch streets withhis friends making a mental list of all thekinds of food they wanted to eat — sushi, Thai, Mexican. ... They’vechecked off quite a few since, though healmost walked out of a restaurant with-out paying — a classic mistake for win-terers who haven’t needed money forseven months.

“The reality hits too when you remem-ber you’ve got to pay to do your laundry,”said Tom Hamann.

Remembering to pay can be easier thanremembering how to drive, especially onthe correct side of the road. When Fisherfirst arrived in New Zealand she rented acar for a 10-day road trip — in the left lane.

“I scraped along a few curbs and gothonked at a few times while going throughroundabouts,” Fisher said. “But it wasgreat to be on the road again.”

While they revel in the food, smells andfreedom, winterers also become frustratedby waiting in lines and dealing with somany people. Fisher found she’s more irri-table in crowds.

“You notice when you come back offthe Ice how much time we spend waitingin traffic and waiting in line and thingsthat I just consider a waste of your life,”said Lynn Hamann.

Thompson sometimes slips away to hishotel room or the Botanical Gardens forsome quiet, but like many of the wintercrew, he’s headed somewhere even better.

“This time next week I’ll be in Fiji,”Thompson said. “I think anyone can adaptto that.”

October 24, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 3

For those leaving the Ice, it’s ...

A fresh, wonderful world

FrankThompson,left, sharesa beveragewith fellowwinterersat Bailie's,a favoritewatering-hole forpeoplereturningfromAntarctica.

KristanHutchison / TheAntarctic Sun

Kristan Hutchison / The Antarctic SunJust three days after leaving a winter inMcMurdo, Tom and Lynn Hamann preparefor their next one by having their tuberculo-sis skin tests checked at a Christchurch hos-pital as part of the physical.

Discovering new days in the long nightBy Peter Rejcek

A friend of mine who previously win-tered at the South Pole imparted these wordsof wisdom shortly before he got on theplane at the end of the 2003-04 summer:

“Pete,” he said, with deadpan serious-ness, “wintering at the South Pole won’t bethe worst mistake you ever make, just thelongest.”

I must admit there have been days herewhen his words came starkly to mind. Likereading tea leaves at the bottom of a cup, Iwould look at my cracked and bleedinghands, starved for moisture, and see a dis-mal and endless future of cold, darkness anddrudgery. Only a few months before I camehere I had been diving on some tiny islandsoff the east coast of Malaysia, contemplat-ing life as a dive bum for the next few years.

But now, as I write this, outside my win-dow there is an orange and golden sliver onthe horizon, auguring the return of the sun,and casting a new light on the winter.

I’m reminded at a time like this of theFrench existentialist novelist and philoso-pher Albert Camus. In his famous essay“The Myth of Sisyphus,” Camus draws avery important lesson from a condemnedman. Sisyphus was an ancient Greek king,banished to Hades for a crime against thegods. His punishment was to roll an enor-mous boulder up a hill every day, and afterreaching the top, the rock would tumbleback down the hill. Sisyphus would thenrepeat his task ad nauseum.

Camus drew a parallel between the mythand the drudgery of everyday life (not tomention the endless six-month night at theSouth Pole). He posited that at the momentwhen Sisyphus was at the hilltop and beforehe returned to the task of retrieving the boul-der, there was a fleeting moment of tran-scendence — when a person is at the pinna-cle, and for however briefly, can rest amoment and see the vastness and value oflife before him.

That’s life at the South Pole.Most days start around 6:20 a.m. for me.

Out of bed, grab a bagel and off to the com-puter lab to read an electronic copy of TheNew York Times Digest. The rest of the dayis even more regimented: Begin work at 7 a.m. and keep at it until 9:30 a.m., break;work until 11:30 a.m., lunch; back to work

at 12:30 p.m. and work until 2:30 p.m.,break; and then back to work until 5 p.m.Three days out of the week I go to the gym,where I ride the stationary bike to nowhere,though I’ve probably put on enough milesto cycle to McMurdo and back.

The evenings are mainly spent readingand watching movies and surfing theInternet (though with the changing satellitetimes, the latter pleasure is now mainlyreserved for the weekends). I sometimeswonder how people wintering at the SouthPole ever survived here before the Internet,and certainly no one outlasted the long win-ter night without watching scores of movieson worn-out VHS tapes and scratched-upDVDs, right? After a winter here, myknowledge of the cinema is second only toRoger Ebert’s.

Sundays are rarely less disciplined thanthe weekdays. We get up for our 9 a.m.movie — a particular highlight was discov-ering a Beta copy of that garish 1960s car-toon version of “The Hobbit” — in thelibrary and drink coffee until we reach a caf-feinated nirvana. More surfing, more read-ing, maybe the gym, martial arts class, crib-bage, movie and bed.

Then repeat.But then there are moments that shake

you out of your routine, that remind you thatperhaps only a thousand other human soulsout of the billions that have lived and diedhave ever experienced this particular spot inthe dead of winter.

One of those moments occurred whenthe temperature first plunged below that

magical threshold of -100F (-73C). Thathappened June 7, though only for a fewminutes. It seemed inconceivable, almosthorrific. How could you survive out there,even with every stitch of extreme coldweather gear available? A few Polies, thevanguard, joined the 300 Club that day. Ithought it wasn’t for me.

Yet a few weeks later, on a long week-end, the temperature once again plungedand perhaps the greatest membership driveof the 300 Club began. I remained adamantagainst joining, yet that evening against allbetter reason, I found myself completelynude and in the sauna with four other guys,cooking ourselves in that little oven at about200 degrees Fahrenheit. Finally, unable tostand the heat anymore, we made our dashto the Geographic Pole and into one of theworld’s most exclusive clubs.

I can’t honestly say I experienced at thetime the sort of epiphany Camus believeshis protagonist Sisyphus undergoes. Mygoals were far more modest: reach the poleand return to the dome before losing anyvital extremities. Only after the ordeal wasover, talking about it with all of the otherPolies, hacking the bitter cold out of ourlungs and warming frostnipped ears, did Ifind myself on that pinnacle. There I didn’t find isolation, but rather a communi-ty that I finally felt a part of in a way younever can in Dallas or Boise, Idaho. I final-ly understood, if just below the surface andbriefly, what it meant to be here.

There have been other moments, thougheven more brief and ineffable: my first auro-ra that shimmered like a green drape in thebreeze; looking out on the moonscape of theice plateau and knowing this is the closestI’ll ever come to outer space; and meetingand making friends who have lived in mudand straw huts in Kenya or biked their wayacross America.

There is a rather annoying minstrel in“The Hobbit” cartoon who sings a dittythroughout the movie in a wavering voice. Itbegins, “The greatest adventure is the onethat lies ahead.” But we don’t understandthose adventures until a new day has begun.

Peter Rejcek wintered at South PoleStation. He has written for The AntarcticSun and Kwajalein Hourglass.

4 • The Antarctic Sun October 24, 2004

Perspectives Perspectives

Photo by Andrea Dixon / Special to The Antarctic SunPeter Rejcek outside the elevated dorm (left).

week in weather

Summer begins ...Kerry KellsPalmer correspondent

After a smooth crossing of the DrakePassage, the Laurence M. Gould arrived atPalmer Station on Oct. 3. The last ship haddeparted Palmer June 2 with the remainingsummer scientists and crew. The pancakeice we passed on the way down was a pre-cursor to the station’s situation. Surroundedby thick ice and snow, Palmer Station was amere few buildings in a blanket of cleansnow with no open water in sight. Thicksnow covered Arthur Harbor on our northand Hero Inlet on our south. Sheathbills,Elephant and Crabeater seals had alreadyarrived at station.

The wintery weather continued this pastweek, with gusts to 100 kph and 10 cm ofsnow falling. Open water could be seen pastthe islands in front of the station with a hugetabular iceberg on the horizon. Snow andwind are not unusual to Palmer Station, butwarm weather is common during the australsummer months.

It was a busy five day port call with pal-lets of new science equipment, station mate-rial, station refueling, mail and freshies.Seven people departed station, but the pop-ulation grew to 32 with summer personnel.Two scientists also arrived at station: BrettPickering with Bill Fraser’s Long TermEcological Research (LTER) in penguin andseabird research and Ryan Said with UmranInan’s Very Low Frequency group.

On Oct. 13, Said, a graduate student atStanford University with the Department ofElectrical Engineering, gave the science lec-ture on his work titled “Lightning, the Sun,and Aurora: Where Palmer Fits In.”

His research studies global thunderstormactivity, its affects on radiation belts and thelower ionosphere. Said explained the layersof the atmosphere and the ionosphere, theEarth’s magnetic field, solar wind and thedata collected at Palmer Station. With anaudio sample, we listened to the clicks ofradio atmospherics emitted by lightningstrikes and the whistles of lightning-gener-ated “whistler waves.”

His research group collects data fromaround the world. Inan’s program maintainsa buoy that collects data from the SouthPacific Ocean, several hundred miles south-east of New Zealand. The research is alsolinked to the HAARP facility (HighFrequency Active Auroral ResearchProgram) in Alaska where some local resi-dents believe the mass of antennas is thegovernment’s attempt to read their minds.They protect themselves from possible“mind reading” and “mind control” bywearing tin hats. In appreciation of Said’sscience lecture, he was greeted at dinner thenext day with a variety of aluminum foilhats to protect against mind control.

... winter’s nearly overBy Peter RejcekSouth Pole correspondent

What a long, strange trip it’s been.The winter of 2004 is nearly over at the

South Pole, and the sun once again is cir-cling the horizon in its slow ascent towardsummer. That means it’s time to start pol-ishing the good silver — and finding the restof the silverware — because company iscoming.

Preparation for the incoming summercrew, which will reportedly top out at about240 people as early as mid-November, start-

ed in late September and really picked upsteam the first week of October.

At the top of the prep list is the skiway,with the seasons first flight scheduled forOct. 23. Operators Jake Speed and RobShaw started leveling the skiway in earlyOctober, and then began grooming it. Theprocess takes many days, and a week’sworth of work can be lost in a single storm.

The utility crew of Slay Harwell, NickBuchinger and Moe Madding are on thefront lines of readying the outlying build-ings, like the Jamesways in summer camp.Among their responsibilities, the utilitytechnicians must fire up the furnaces andmake the buildings accessible by the timethe winter population moves out to summercamp. That happens in the last week beforesummer to make room for the new crew.

The cargo/materials department is alsopreparing for the arrival of summer. DehliaSprague, South Pole materials supervisor,and her crew will prepare the do-not-freezestorage area for incoming freshies and otherperishables, restock the janitorial arch anddome for the summer crew and stage theflight line for outgoing cargo before the firstplane arrives, among other work.

Speaking of supplies, the biggest wintercrew ever at the South Pole has put quite adent in the food stores. Sprague estimated

October 24, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 5

around the continentPALMER

SOUTH POLE

McMurdo Station:High: 16F / -9C Low: -13F / -25CMax. sustained wind: 29 mph / 47 kphWindchill: -47F / -44C

Palmer Station:High: 39F / 4C Low: 7F / -14CMax. sustained wind: 45 mph / 73 kphWindchill: -9F / -22.8C

South Pole Station:High temp: -48.3C / -54.9FLow temp: -58.3C / -72.9FPeak Wind: 24 mph / 39 kphHighest Physio: 10,916 ft / 3,341 m

see Continent, page 6

Photo by Ryan Said / Special to The Antarctic SunPalmer people guard against unwanted intrusions of the mind while poking fun at visitingscientist Ryan Said whose project uses groups of antennas to study auroras. It’s said somepeople near a station in Alaska wear aluminum foil hats fearing radio waves are havingsome influence on them.

her crew transported about 450 kg of food aweek from the dome to the new station, fora total of more than 14,500 kg of food forthe winter. The crew also moved almost25,000 kg of food from the outdoor storageberms into the dome, with the help of Shaw.

“Yes, we are big eaters here at Pole,” shesaid.

At the other end of all those numbers isDan Naber, the South Pole waste manage-ment specialist. Not including the waste generated by Facilities,Engineering, Maintenance and Construction(FEMC) the community produced about 19metric tons of food waste, more than 2 metric tons of glass, 4 metric tons of burn-ables, 4.5 metric tons ofcardboard and more thana metric ton of alu-minum. It will take about25 flights to remove allthat waste, Naber said.

“As long as we haveenough people and time,it should be flown back(this) summer,” he said.

Though the list ofwork to accomplishbefore the summer’s firstflight was long, construc-tion will continue unabat-ed until each member ofthe FEMC crew rede-ploys. It’s been thebiggest construction win-ter ever at the South Pole,with about 45 people outof the 75 wintering work-ing for the department,according to CarltonWalker, FEMC manager.

Building pods B1 andB2 will be completewhen the first planearrives, except for someflooring, some minor work and installingfurniture. Communications areas on the firstfloor of B3 will be ready for cable work thissummer, added Walker, also known toeveryone as C-Note.

The biggest challenge of the winter forFEMC was getting materials in and out ofthe new station, especially in July, the sec-ond-coldest month ever on record for theSouth Pole. FEMC burned through thematerials as quickly as they came. Nabersaid the winter crew produced about 50metric tons of non-recyclable waste, 6.5metric tons of cardboard, more than a met-ric ton of plastic, 9 metric tons of light metaland 44 metric tons of wood debris.

Though a veteran of 16 seasons with thepolar program, this was C-Note’s first win-ter at the Pole. Of the experience, he said,

“If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’tdo anything different.”

While a prodigious amount of work wasaccomplished this winter, there is still muchto do before the new South Pole station iscompleted in 2007. One can get a sense ofwhat’s still left to do by looking at thewhiteboard in C-Note’s office — filled endto end with notes like a physicist’s chalk-board full of formulas trying to unravel thechaos theory, uncertainty principle and the-ory of relativity all at once.

An even larger winter crew of more than100 people, about 70 of them working forFEMC, will eclipse this year’s record popu-lation to make one last push toward the2007 final construction goal.

“It’s going to be huge,” C-Note said ofthe 2005 winter.

A six-day workweek throughout the win-ter kept everybody busy, but some found thetime to do more, like Naber and Sprague.

Naber, from Alaska, pitched in to helpwith snow removal and skiway grooming.Most mornings he can be found in thekitchen dish room helping clean breakfastdishes. But it’s the chance to get back into aCaterpillar tractor that excites him.

“I’ve been looking forward to it formonths. I love driving,” he said. “I had anawesome winter. Ever since I got into theprogram I’ve wanted to winter here.”

Sprague, who also has wintered atPalmer Station, frequently lent her culinarytalents to the kitchen. She cooked gourmetmeals and kept the FEMC crew well fat-

tened with chocolate chip muffins. Andalong with plumber Frank Garcia, Spraguehelped ensure many Polies didn’t look tooscruffy by offering free haircuts.

Sprague was certainly one of the Polieswho carried on the long tradition of volun-teerism here.

“No matter how spectacular the aurorasor how extreme the weather is, it is reallythe people that we live and work with thatmake the winters here at Pole so unique andspecial,” she said.

— Angie Rutherford contributed to thisreport

Nathaniel B. PalmerCompiled from reports by Karl Newyear

The research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmerleft Lyttelton, New Zealand around mid-night on Oct. 12. It took a couple days forpeople to get their sea legs, and the crewwas treated to snow flurries on the morningof Oct. 15th.

Beginning that day, researchers startedconducting hourly measurements of thewater temperature at different depths, whichcontinued nearly flawlessly through the restof the week. Researchers also got good dataon the ocean currents.

The ship crossed an oceanic front onOct. 16, which was demonstrated by a 4Cdrop in the surface water temperature. Thenumber and variety of seabirds seen fromthe bridge dropped correspondingly. Thewhale observers have yet to make a con-firmed sighting, though not from lack oftrying. The next day, the NBP crossed over60 South latitude and arrived officially inAntarctica. The ship, headed toward MertzGlacier, shifted its course a little to thewest based on recent ice images.

As of Oct. 18, no whales or sea ice hadbeen spotted. The barometer was droppingand winds and seas were picking up. Thecrew hopes to be inside the ice edge soon.

Laurence M. GouldCompiled from ship reports

The research vessel Laurence M. Gouldrecently returned from annual maintenancein Louisiana, where the ship managed tomiss being hit by four hurricanes. TheGould returned to work at the end ofSeptember and is currently dropping offpenguin researchers at Copacabana FieldCamp before continuing on to PalmerStation.

The ship arrived in Punta Arenas inSeptember through wintry rain, snowand wind, “a far cry from the heat of theGulf,” wrote marine projects coordinator

6 • The Antarctic Sun October 24, 2004

SHIPS

Continent From page 5

Photo by Peter Rejcek / Special to The Antarctic SunAngie Rutherford inscribes hername on the 2005 South Pole geo-graphic marker Oct. 1, as AllanDay looks on. Day spent about 60hours working on the new marker,which is made of bronze and cop-per. Dehlia Sprague designed themarker, which will be officiallyunveiled Jan. 1. At left, carpenterDave Nastrom glues down vinyl forflooring in a closet in Pod B2 in thenew South Pole station.

see Continent, page 7

October 24, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 7

By Brien BarnettSun staff

Paleomagnetist Lisa Tauxe has a betwith a colleague, but already knows shewon’t collect on it.

Perhaps 500 years from now if theEarth’s magnetic field holds steady anddoesn’t reverse polarity, her heirs mayreceive a token treasure. Meantime, she’strying to learn more than she alreadyknows about the invisible but real magnet-ic field that encircles and moves throughthe Earth.

Last season, Tauxe, of ScrippsInstitution of Oceanography and author of“Paleomagnetic Principles and Practice,”and three other researchers dotted the RossIsland area with 70 sample sites, eventual-ly drilling some 700 rock cores. The basaltflows they sampled date back 1 million to5 million years. The team cored at sitesincluding Hut Point, Cape Crozier, CapeBarnes, Taylor Valley and the foothills ofthe Royal Society Range.

“We didn’t have a single day to spare,”she said Tuesday by telephone. “We gotthe 70th one and looked at each other andsaid, ‘We’re done.’ ”

Locked inside the stone-cold lava flowsof the Mount Erebus region are clues tothe age of the flows and changes to themagnetic field.

The Antarctic collection is one of anumber of sites worldwide that are beinginvestigated and analyzed to determinecharacteristics of the planet’s magneticfield.

Other sites include Chile, the Azores,Costa Rica, Arizona, Idaho, Alaska,Australia and the far north nearSpitsbergen, Norway. Well-dated lavaflows are key to this research because reg-ular volcanic eruptions provide records ofthe Earth’s magnetic field.

As that lava cools into solid rock its

components begin to align with the mag-netic field. Once fully cooled, the rocklocks in this record. Flow after flow beginsto reveal a history of the magnetic fieldand may reveal when the field changedpolarity or otherwise was different than itis today. Scientists have shown that flipsoccur at random, the last one being about800,000 years ago.

Back in the lab, Tauxe and a graduateresearch student will coax clues from therock in a delicate, labor-intensive process.They will heat and cool the samples instages — to temperatures as high as 580degrees Celsius and back again — untilthe scientists detect both the direction andintensity of the magnetic field at the time.Other researchers will determine the ageof the rock using radioactive isotopes.

There are several reasons to study mag-netic history, Tauxe said. Because themagnitude of the field has dropped sub-stantially during the last few thousandyears, some wonder whether it is headedfor a reversal, or flip. By studying how the

field behaves normally, Tauxe said scien-tists can understand better the likelihoodof it changing.

The magnetic field shields againstharmful cosmic rays from the sun andaffects telecommunications equipment.But modern researchers and companieshave little to go on to predict majorchanges in the field.

“It’s no enormous health hazard,”Tauxe said. “But (if the field changes)solar storms could be more severe andcommunications could get messed up.”

Tauxe, who started working in paleo-magnetics in 1977, said she believes therecord in the rocks will reveal some of theanswers to questions such as:� What is the structure of the average

geomagnetic field? And,�Why does the magnetic field reverse?Her questions are not new. In the 1600s,

William Gilbert looked at records ofsailors who used the magnetic field fornavigational purposes to make his hypoth-esis likening the field to a bar magnet. It’ssimilar to when iron filings are placed on asheet of paper next to a bar magnet. Thefilings align to the current and form a pat-tern of wide arching curves radiating fromnorth to south on each side.

Modern research has been conductedsince the 1950s. The differences in today’sresearch, Tauxe said, are the vastly betterlaboratory methods and tools to obtaininformation about the magnetic field fromsamples. The goal is to establish a baselineof prediction for the next 200 years or more.

“You have to find out what it does onaverage to figure out whether it’s unusu-al,” Tauxe said.

And when she does, she may be able tocollect on that bet.

National Science Foundation-funded research in thisstory: Lisa Tauxe, Scripps Institution ofOceanography, http://sorcerer.ucsd.edu/index.htm

Antarctic lava holds record of magnetic field

Photo by Lisa Tauxe / Special to The Antarctic SunJasper Konter prepares to drill a core sam-ple in a basalt lava flow in the Ross Islandregion. The plastic sheeting protects himand his clothes from water and glycol usedin the drilling process.

Steve Ager.The Drake Passage calmed down for the

Gould’s first passage of the summer season.But sea ice slowed its progress to PalmerStation and interrupted some of the watertemperature measurements, as ice broke thewire holding the sensor.

The Gould arrived at Palmer Stationaround 9 a.m. Oct. 3 to find the pier coatedwith ice from recent rains. Tying up tookseveral hours. Then the containers on thepier had to be chopped free of ice beforeanything was unloaded. After five days ofunloading cargo and fuel, the Gould headed

north again on Oct. 8.The voyage north through the Gerlache

Strait and then west of Brabant Island wasspectacular, but winds remained high, gust-ing to 107 kph.

The winds and seas forced the crew todraw the first two water samples with asubmersible pump, rather than launch asensor off the back deck.

The seas calmed on the final day of thevoyage and several seasick passengersemerged from their cabins for their first realmeal in days, wrote marine projects coordi-nator Andy Nunn.

After four days of reloading and collect-ing new passengers, the Gould was at seaagain, following the familiar route south.

RPSC contract extendedRaytheon Polar Services Company will

continue providing support services forthe U.S. Antarctic Program through 2010.The $546 million, five-year contractextension runs from April 2005 throughMarch 2010.

Raytheon’s initial contract began in April2000 as five-year contract with an option torenew for an additional five years. Raytheonprovides science, operations, maintenanceand communications support for theNational Science Foundation’s U.S.Antarctic Program.

OTHER NEWSContinent From page 6

8 • The Antarctic Sun October 24, 2004

were found here. This meteorite is particularly valuable because it belongs to a

group of Mars meteorites known as nakhlites. This is the seventhnakhlite on record. All the nakhlites are believed to have comefrom the same volcanic event and are among the oldest knownrocks from Mars. They are named after the Egyptian city ofNakhla, where the first meteorite of that type was retrieved in1911 after, as legend goes, fragments struck and killed a dogthere.

The older the rock, the more it can tell scientists about Mars’past, explained Harvey, a geology professor at Case WesternReserve University in Cleveland.

“The rock has potentially recorded not only a volcanic event1.3 billion years ago, but all of the ensuing activity on Mars,” hesaid, like the rock’s interactions with the planet’s fluids andatmosphere. “What you’ve got is a little recorder, if you will.That’s what us geologists do – we play that back.”

Eighty-five scientists have requested a small piece of the rockto use in their own experiments, according to Timothy McCoy, thecurator in charge of the national meteorite collection at theSmithsonian.

The scientists will analyze the samples with different goals,such as searching for evidence of life, or learning more aboutMartian volcanoes. Others might dissolve a piece and measure thedifferent isotope levels inside.

“There are a lot of little signs there that lead us toward a pic-ture of the environment of Mars over the last billion years, andthat’s pretty cool,” Harvey said. “Thirty chunks of rock from 90 billion miles away is really more than we could ask for. It’s adream.”

McCoy, who was in charge of classifying the meteorite, said hecould tell it was a nakhlite as soon as he looked through a micro-scope at a one-inch long, hair’s width thick piece known as a thinsection. Nakhlites are full of minerals that crystallized in the rocksas they hardened. Under the microscope, they look like bits ofbright stained glass against a dark background, or like the viewthrough a colorful kaleidoscope.

“The texture of this type of rock is so distinct that you can’tpossibly mistake it for something else,” McCoy said. “They’rereally pretty.”

McCoy said this meteorite has clearly interacted with liquid inits lifetime, but it’s not yet clear what kind of liquid. He is one ofthe people who requested a sample to analyze more fully. McCoyplans to compare the new nakhlite to volcanic rock from a lavaflow in Ontario, Canada. That flow is one of the few places onEarth that may be similar to the flow on Mars where the nakhliteoriginated. McCoy hopes the comparison will help determine atwhat depth in the flow the meteorite originated.

ANSMET teams have been searching for meteorites inAntarctica since 1976. Meteorites fall evenly all over Earth, butAntarctica is a particularly good place to look for them.

Antarctica’s advantage is two-fold, Harvey explained.“If you want to find

things that fall from thesky, lay out a big whitesheet,” he said. “AndAntarctica is a bigwhite sheet 3,000-milesacross.”

The second reason hasto do with the way iceflows across the conti-nent. The meteorites getsprinkled across the ice,and many end up getting

buried over time. The ice is slowly moving toward the sea, but itgets blocked in places by mountains and forms ice cul-de-sacs.Over millions of years, the ice surface at those bends evaporates,exposing more and more meteorites, Harvey said. ANSMET tar-gets these areas for their hunts.

ANSMET sends out two teams a year, a 4-person reconnais -sance team and an 8-person systematic search team. The recon-naissance team usually spends a couple days to a week at eachsite, checking to see if it’s worth returning there. If it’s deemed agood spot, a systematic search team will go there another year andspend the whole season collecting meteorites.

This year the reconnaissance team will work at a number of icefields throughout the mid-range of the Transantarctic Mountains,from the Zanefeldt Glacier in the south to Buckley Island in thenorth. The systematic search team will work at the LaPaz icefields, approximately 400 km from the South Pole Station.

Last year’s reconnaissance team found the nakhlite on Dec. 15,the third day of its six-week season. The group used snowmobilesto scan the blue ice field in the Miller Range of the TransantarcticMountains, about 750 km from the South Pole.

“We just knew it was something unusual,” said Nancy Chabot,a research scientist at Case Western who was on the reconnais -sance team.

The rock was particularly black and quite shiny, Chabot said.The black crust, called a fusion crust, is created because much ofthe meteorite’s exterior gets burned off when the meteorite entersEarth’s atmosphere traveling at 10 km to 20 km per second. It alsoappeared very crystalline, which Chabot said usually indicatesthat the rock came from a planet.

The two ANSMET teams collected a record 1,358 meteoriteslast season, Harvey said, including not only the nakhlite but a cou-ple new moon rocks and some interesting rocks from asteroids aswell.

Chabot said there’s little doubt about whether it’s worth send-ing the systematic search team back to the site.

“I can say that definitely with this discovery and the otherthings we found at the Miller Range, the answer is yes.”

Since 1969, more than 16,000 meteorites have been found inAntarctica, more than doubling the number available for study.For those working at or visiting McMurdo Station, there are threetypes of meteorites on display at the Crary Laboratory.

NSF-funded research in this story: Ralph Harvey, Case Western Reserve University, http://geology.case.edu/~ansmet/

Mars From page 1

A scientist at the Antarctic Meteorite Processing Center handles theMars rock collected last season in Antarctica.

Photo courtesy of Ralph Harvey/ANSMET

Answer to crossword

In the Arctic, the returning sunlight inter-acts with compounds stored in the snow totrigger the sudden loss of ozone near theground each March. She arrived atMcMurdo Station on Aug. 20 to see if thesame is true at the opposite end of the world.

“It’s a lot more complex a phenomenonthan people originally thought,” saidAvallone, who also has studied ground-based ozone on the sea ice north of Alaska,at Canadian Forces Station Alert in northernCanada and in Spitsbergen, Norway. Twoseasons ago she set up her $75,000 monitor-ing instruments at Arrival Heights aboveMcMurdo.

“We had such strange results two yearsago we decided to take a step backward andlook at some simpler things,” she said.

The most surprising data from that yearwere collected on a windless day in August.The cold, still air held in fumes from vehi-cles and boilers. Levels of nitric oxidespiked to 300 parts per billion, and theozone content plummeted to zero. The nextday the wind picked up again and the aircleared. The only other time Avallonerecorded that much nitric oxide in the air

was rush hour on Route 36 in Boulder, nearthe University of Colorado, where she is anassociate professor of atmospheric chem -istry.

Pollutants can react with the ozone andcause it to disappear, as demonstrated atMcMurdo that day, but that is only onecause of ozone loss near the ground. Shewants to determine the others.

In 1985 researchers discovered that sur-face ozone would occasionally disappearsuddenly in the far Arctic.

“It was happening in such remote placespeople didn’t really care,” Avallone said.

Now they do. The low-level ozone lossseems to occur only in springtime, oncethere is sunlight and open seawater.Avallone thinks snow may also play a rolein either absorbing or releasing chemicalsthat react with ozone. If that’s true, under-standing the process could help researcherspredict how the ozone will react aroundsnowy cities like Denver and Toronto in thewinter.

Ozone high in the stratosphere protectsthe planet from the Sun’s radiation, but it istoxic if breathed in high concentrations. Thepresence of ozone near the ground in con-centrations above 50 parts per billion is con-sidered a health hazard and the

Environmental Protection Agency puts outair quality warnings.

Another reason to study ozone is that itsmovement through the atmosphere is simi-lar to mercury. Mercury becomes a healthconcern when it works its way into the foodchain, building up to dangerous levels infish in some areas. In the atmosphere, mer-cury is too diffuse to track, but trackingozone, which is 1,000 times more common,could give scientists an idea of how the mer-cury moves from the air into the water.

This year Avallone moved her project toa hut on the ice 19 km from McMurdo,where the air remains pure. An unmuffledHonda engine rumbles inside the hut, keep-ing the computers and air analysis working.It’s exhaust is vented away from the plastictubes that run through the roof, sucking insamples of air to monitor the ozone, nitro-gen oxide and carbon dioxide. Avallonesnowmobiles out almost daily to crouch onthe floor in front of a laptop, checking thatthe instruments are working correctly.Usually graduate students Sean Davis andLars Kalnajs go with her.

“All you can see is what nature bringsyou,” Avallone said.NSF-funded research featured in this story: Linnea Avallone, University of Colorado, http://lasp.colorado.edu/~avallone/winfly04.html

October 24, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 9

Generally ozone near the ground, where Linnea Avallone studies it, doesn’t receiveas much attention as the protective layer of ozone 24 km above the Earth. At that ele-vation, the ozone layer acts as a sunblock for the world. The seasonal thinning of ozoneabove the Antarctic, first reported in 1985, is like a gap in the sunscreen, leaving thecontinent exposed to the full force of the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation for several months.

Science technicians at the South Pole send up balloons regularly to measure theozone hole caused by ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons. This year the hole wasabout 20 percent smaller in area than last year. It currently covers about half the conti-nent, exposing Antarctic workers to higher levels of ultraviolet radiation, according tothe most recent World Meteorological Organization Antarctic Ozone Bulletin.

Near the ground the same ozone plays a different, more destructive role. The USEnvironmental Protection Agency regulates ground-based ozone as one of five majorair pollutants. Usually ozone makes up 25 to 30 parts per billion of the air we breathe,but the concentrations have been increasing worldwide in pace with the burning of fos-sil fuels. Eventually this could hurt plants and animals, including humans. A high con-centration of ozone can cause shortness of breath, chest pains, wheezing, coughing andinflammation of the lung lining. It also can inhibit the growth of plants.

Ozone’s two sides: high and low

Seeing through ozone’s disappearing trick

Atmospheric chemist Linnea Avallone checksozone monitoring equipment while graduatestudent Sean Davis watches. Above, theyreturn to the hut after collecting snow samples.

Photos and story by Kristan HutchisonSun staff

Linnea Avallone is watching the Antarctic sunrise for signs thatit is setting off a chain of chemical reactions in the air we breathe.

By Brien BarnettSun staff

Two projects were particularlysuccessful this past austral winter atSouth Pole.

This winter the All-Sky Imagergathered images of proton auroras,according to Yusuke Ebihara ofJapan’s National Institute of PolarResearch.

The institute cooperates with theU.S. National Science Foundationto operate the imager in Antarctica.

The images of the auroras werecaptured with highly sensitiveoptics and a camera. They revealedthat in addition to electrons, ener-getic protons were precipitatingover Pole.

“We believe that the origin of theprotons is in most cases the vicinityof the outer edge of Earth’s magne-tosphere,” Ebihara wrote TheAntarctic Sun.

The magnetosphere is a cavity inwhich the Earth’s magnetic field isconstrained by the solar wind andthe interplanetary magnetic field.

“South Pole is the ideal site forcapturing such proton imagesbecause of less contamination fromthe sunlight during the austral winter season.”

In another project, an instrument to studythe birthplace and nursery of stars in the MilkyWay and other galaxies returned to service andmade its debut on the Antarctic SubmillimeterTelescope and Remote Observatory, AST/RO,at the South Pole.

The South Pole Imaging Fabry-PerotInterferometer, SPIFI, met the goal of provingit could operate at the station, reported ThomasNikola of Cornell University.

The spectrometer detects light in the sub-millimeter wavelength region of the spectrum.It examines radiation emitted by ionized nitro-

gen, neutral carbon and carbonmonoxide in and around the cloudswhere stars are born in galaxies.

“We try to find out how molec-ular gas is fed into the center of ourgalaxy and towards the centralblack hole,” Nikola said.

Despite some challenges,including poor weather and limitedhelium supply, the wintering scien-tists were able to put SPIFI intooperation.

Another obstacle the scientistsovercame was working outside inthe winter cold to operate a specialrefrigerator that cooled SPIFI to anoperating temperature of 0.06degree above absolute zero.

Once operational, SPIFIshowed it could record informationabout ionized nitrogen in the MilkyWay and other galaxies. Thiswavelength is not accessible at theinstrument’s alternate home atopMauna Kea in Hawaii.

“SPIFI is currently the onlyinstrument that has the large band-width and sensitivity to carry outthose observations in externalgalaxies,” Nikola said.

This summer, Nikola and otherswill add some equipment so operators canswitch easily between submillimeter windows.That will allow data to be recorded even onpoor weather days. SPIFI will return to servicein the next austral winter.

Also this year, SPIFI team members sub-mitted a paper to the Astrophysical Journalbased on earlier research. It is being reviewedbefore publishing.

NSF-funded resarch in this story: Masaki Ejiri, NationalInstitute of Polar Research (Japan),http://polaris.isc.nipr.ac.jp/~asi-dp/; Gordon Stacey,Cornell University, http://astro.cornell.edu/~spifiweb/spifi

10 • The Antarctic Sun October 24, 2004

All-Sky Imager, SPIFI report back from winter night

Many winter astrophysicsprojects depend on liquid heli-um to keep the instrumentscool enough to gather data, butliquid helium is notoriouslydifficult to store. It boils at -269C and can escape throughhairline cracks. This year thesupply of helium lasted untilaround Aug. 8, said NicholasTothill, the wintering stationscience leader at South Pole.

“That was pretty unexpect-ed,” said Jesse Alcorta, cryo-genic technician for RaytheonPolar Services. “We wouldhave hoped for at least anothermonth out of that.”

Since then, the astrophysi-cal equipment has been wait-ing for a resupply of helium,due at the Pole Nov. 8.

Alcorta expects the difficul-ties with storing helium maybe solved by the constructionof a new cryogenic facility atthe South Pole, which shouldbe completed by January. Thebuilding will keep the heliumstorage containers protectedfrom the Pole’s extreme weath-er and allow technicians totransfer helium inside.

“It’ll probably be a big stepforward,” Alcorta said.

For a fuller explanation ofhelium at the South Pole, seethe June 21, 2004 AntarcticSun.

Holding onto Helium

Courtesy of YusukeEbihara/Japan’s National

Institute of Polar Research

From top to bottom,three aurora snap-shots from June, 14,show proton (blue),electron green (green)and electron red (red)precipitation over theSouth Pole.

What are you most excited to see or do in Antarctica?

Delma Irvinchef, County Offaly,Ireland, third season

Kelly KozdrasChicago, Ill., SouthPole electrical engi-

neer, first season

“To see theplants that grow

near PalmerStation. I had noidea that plants

grew inAntarctica.”

Cara FerrierSr. Asst. Supv. Lab

Operations, Denver,Colo., first season.

“Making oursupplies last andstill being able to

deliver tastyproduct to ourcold, hungry,overworked,

underpaid staff.”

“Penguins…when I’m backin McMurdo.”

October 24, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 11

Light is so important in my work, to showme the shadow, the color, the move-ment,” Arthus-Bertrand said.

the ground. He uses the helicopter like a fly-ing tripod, instructing the pilot to nudge itdown or over until he finds the right angle.

“The pilot is very important for me,” he said.“They are really between me and the photo-graph.”

The black and white shapes created byfreezing and thawing in the dirt behind BlackIsland remind him of elephant skin and hebegins snapping. The Erebus Glacier Tongue islike a fish bone laid on a white dinner plate.

“To see something beautiful like that with-out a camera — I become mad,” he said.

Antarcticafrom

Above

Flying through golden evening light over the Dry Valleys, Yann Arthus-Bertrand,arguably one of the world’s most famous photographers, set down his owncamera and turned to the journalist beside him.

Photo by Kristan Hutchison/The Antarctic Sun

Yann Arthus-Bertrand shoots outa window installed for him inone of the Petroleum HelicopterInc. A-Stars.

Photos by YannArthus-Bertrand

A ridge in the Asgard Range.

West Beacon peak.

It was 10:30 p.m. and the light was fading when the heli-copter stopped to refuel at Marble Point for the trip backto McMurdo across the sea ice. Even though she’d beenrousted from bed to pump gas, fuelie Wendy Mahovlic greet-

ed Arthus-Bertrand with a smile. He insists on taking her photo too.Though people rarely appear larger than ants in his most

famous photo book, Earth from Above, Arthus-Bertrand has akeen interest in the people he flies over.

“You must love people. If you don't love the people, youneed a different job, so when I'm flying like this I think I needto speak with the people,” he said.

“Here, let me take one for you,” he said, reaching for The Antarctic Suncamera. “The light is better on my side.”

These are those photos...

From above, he seeks out patterns on

12 • The Antarctic Sun October 24, 2004

Prof i leBy Kristan HutchisonSun staff

Four thousand feet above anAntarctic glacier last week, Frenchphotographer Yann Arthus-Bertrandslid open the helicopter window

and leaned forward into the blast of freez-ing air. After a few measured clicks of thecamera, he tucked it between his knees andselected another from the collection laidout on the back seat, the largest with a lensa half-meter long and as big around as asalad plate.

In two weeks at McMurdo Station,Arthus-Bertrand spent 30 hours in the airand used up 250 rolls of film. The best pho-tos will become part of a scientific data-bank of the Earth seen from above, whichhe started in 1995 under the patronage ofthe Ecological Science department of theUnited Nations Educational Scientific andCultural Organization.

“When I began the project, I was think-ing to do it in five years and now I knowthat I am never going to be finished,” hesaid. “It is a life job.”

His first application to the NationalScience Foundation was turned down.The US program usually only givesgrants to Americans. Arthus-Bertrandwent instead to the French base at TerraAdelie in 1999 and published photos fromthere in Earth From Above. The book ofaerial photos from 150 countries becamehighly successful, selling close to 2 millioncopies. More than 30 million people haveseen the free photo exhibit.

“Mr. Bertrand has an enormous follow-ing; Earth from Above is everywhere, andone indeed wonders why others’ aerial pho-tographs don’t do for the viewer whatBertrand’s do. But that is the art and theartist at work,” wrote Guy Guthridge, whooversees the Antarctic Artists and Writersgrants for the NSF. He invited Arthus-Bertrand to reapply. “I see the potential fordelivering new and memorable antarcticimages from one of the most viewed partsof Antarctica—the McMurdo Soundregion.”

At first, Arthus-Bertrand hesitated toreturn to the Antarctic, assuming the areaaround McMurdo would be just more snowand ice.

“It’s so far to go to work for 10 days,” hesaid. Others on his staff convinced him itwas too good an opportunity to turn down.Last week he e-mailed them to admit theywere right.

“Really, I think it’s one of the 10 besttrips I’ve taken,” he said.

Antarctica’s beauty comes with chal-

lenges. He lost about 20 rolls of filmbecause the cold made them so brittle theybroke. Shooting out the open window of ahelicopter, his fingertips froze through thethin fleece gloves he wore, but anythingthicker would have made the camera hardto handle. He didn’t notice the cold anywayuntil he set down the camera.

Taking off around 7 p.m. most nights tocatch the best light, Arthus-Bertrand trav-eled to Mount Erebus, through the DryValleys and Transantarctic Mountains andsouth over Minna Bluff.

As the helicopter hovered over a semi-circle of black moraine on a white glacialfield near Garwood Valley, he happily sanga few bars in French as the shutter clicked,then whispered “merci.”

“It’s like a gift you receive, the picture,”he said as the helicopter moved on. “It’sexactly the thing I want to do with aerialphotography, you know, to show the thingyou cannot see from the ground.”

In many of his well-known aerial pho-

tos, the ground becomes a tapestry, a richweaving of color and texture that only at acloser look becomes a place. He hopesviewers will see in it not just the beauty ofthe Earth, but a deeper message.

“All my photography is done to think.It’s not to say, oh, the world is beautiful,” hesaid. “We are trying to explain everybody isresponsible for this planet.”

Arthus-Bertrand already had a love fornature when he discovered both photogra-phy and flight. He began using a camera todocument a pride of lions on the MasaiMara reserve in Kenya from 1976 to 1979.

“In this time, I became a photographer,because it was quite evident to me thatsometimes what you can explain in photog-raphy, you cannot explain in writing,” hesaid.

At the same time he was taking touristsup in a hot air balloon to support his fami-ly, and discovered another perspective fromthe air.

“When you fly, there’s no border,”Arthus-Bertrand said. “Everybody’s thesame from the top. There’s no religion, norace.”

A decade later he was back in Africa andhad another experience that led to hisnewest video project, Six Billion Others.His helicopter landed in a small village of

three homes and he visited all day with thefamily living there. He took them in thehelicopter. They killed a goat for him. Bythe end of the day he and the patriarch ofthe family were speaking like brothers.

“Speaking with him very deeply, hetold me his only ambition was to feedhis children,” Arthus-Bertrand said.“My ambition and his ambition wasvery far away.”

This awareness of the people he fliesover and photographs stuck with Arthus-

Bertrand, who decided two years ago tobegin interviewing them. He and his staffare asking the same questions of 20,000people around the world, from Indian farm-ers to UN chief Kofi Anan. In McMurdolast week he videotaped more than 20 peo-ple answering questions such as: Whatmakes you angry? What is your favoritesong? Why is there war? And what do youthink happens after you die?

So far, the answers from more than 700people representing more than 16 countriesshow how much everybody is the same,and at the same time different depending ontheir culture, economy and experiences.

“It’s interesting when you’re challengedwith some of these questions,” said AlanShaw, a worker in fleet operations whomArthus-Bertrand interviewed. “They’re thesort of questions you don’t ponder unlessyou’re put on the spot.”

As a continent shared by all, Antarcticaalready is an example of what the worldcould become, Arthus-Bertrand said.

“It is a country of everybody, everybodyis your family.” Arthus-Bertrand said. “Wehave to live together. When you think aboutecology, everybody thinks about sustain-able development now, but first live inpeace. Nothing’s going to happen if wedon’t live in peace.”

Sharing a higher perspective

“When you fly, there’s no border.Everybody’s the same from the top.”

— Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Photo by Kristan Hutchison/The Antarctic Sun

French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertranddirects the helicopter pilot as they fly over theDry Valleys near McMurdo Station, searchingfor the perfect shot.