Thanksgiving weekend

Holidays here in Antarctica are a lot of fun.  These are the only times when we get extra days off from work.  Most people here work Monday through Saturday and only get Sunday off.  That gets a bit tiring, so it is nice when the holidays roll around and we get a two-day weekend.  Thanksgiving meal is a huge feast with great food. The turkey trot is held Thanksgiving morning.  It is a fun race and, of course, lots of great costumes. 


Starting line for the Turkey Trot.




Runners before the Turkey Trot.




One of the best costumes at the race.  Not sure how he ran in this.



Tables decorated for Thanksgiving.





Lots of desserts

















Freezing Man

The Freezing Man festival was this past weekend.  It is patterned after burning man, though not near as large or with as much to do,  but we do our best.  We had several fun things, and tons of great costumes.  There was a hugging booth, hoola-hoops, Antarctica twister, face painting, a mayan advent calendar to tell you how you are going to die, and tons of other great things.  Lots of fun. 



Just pick up a brush and paint whatever is on your mind




Antarctic twister,  the mat was nearby.



Dancing or making figures behind the light screen.





Very large freezing man statue

Fish

Fish have been studied here for years, especially the ones that have the antifreeze protien in their blood.  They are Dissostichus mawsonii and there are always many of them in the lab for studying.  This year they caught some that are fairly large.  The oceans around Antarctica have been overfished, expecially by the Asian countries, so they have not had the larger fish in the aquarium for many years.  These fish are really good to eat and are sold under the name "Chilean seabass".  They are also known as the Antarctic Toothfish.

Brittle Star in the "Touch Tank".  They are constantly adding creatures
to the "Petting Zoo".  They add things that they find while diving or
before they release them back to the ocean.

Octupus





Dissostichus mawsonii





Growth chart for fish in the aquarium

This fish was hungry



Pressure Ridges

The pressure ridges are the result of the sea moving beneath the ice and buckling and cracking the ice above it.  The ice is starting to get softer with the warmer temperatures so the ice is moving around more and creating some great formations.  These formations are huge and some are almost 15 ft tall. 
To start off my Thanksgiving holiday weekend I went down to hike through the pressure ridges.  It was a warm day, about 30 degrees, and no wind.  What a wonderful way to start the weekend.

The pressure from the waves is breaking up the sea ice



Some impressive cracks in the ice



Melt pools-where the water melts on top of the ice. 

Castle Rock is the small rock to the left, Mt Erebus is the
volcano in the middle

 

Constantly changing

It seems like everything in Antarctica changes constantly.  I was reminded of this when I went outside and the ground was getting muddy as the snow was melting.  It was actually pretty warm out, even though it was only about 20 degrees.  In less than an hour all of that sun was covered by clouds, the temperature had dropped about 10 degrees and it was windy.  Where the snow had melted was suddenly a sheet if ice.  Even the light changes constantly, it seems the view is never quite the same. 

The temperature has been getting warmer every day.  The sea is moving and forming cracks in the sea ice.  The water on top of the ice forms melt pools that are brilliant blue and the seals use them to make breathing holes. 

About a month ago, there was a lot more drifted snow on
top of the sea ice.

Now, there are melt pools on top of the sea ice and much less snow.



Snowy day





Mt Discovery



Driving around Antarctica

Most of the people here walk everywhere.  Let's face it, the town is small enough for that.  The people who get to leave the town and go out on the sea ice and the snow have some pretty hefty vehicles to use.  The drifting snow is a constant problem on the roads here.  There is a 24 hour per day crew who is out constantly grooming the roads, runways and around town.  The scientists and their crew often go out on the sea ice to collect data.  They use either snowmobiles, hagglunds or piston bullies.  There is also trucks and vans here for use around town and when the weather is still cold enough that they don't just sink into the snow. 

Piston Bully-Quite a rough ride, but works great in the snow.

Delta

Hagglund



Kress-this is a new vehicle that has only been down here for a few years.
Cargo also has one that is a trailer for hauling instead of the passenger
area on the back.



Ivan the Terra Bus

This is really old, but they are still using them.

Some of the trucks are outfitted with mattracks to work
better in the snow

Spring is in the air

Since I am in the southern hemisphere, spring is arriving.  It has been a long dark cold winter and now the sun is up all day and the weather is warming gradually.  The edge of the ice is still over 15 miles away, but that is decreasing every day.  It is hard to imagine that there will be open water around the station and McMurdo sound will be full of wildlife in a little over a month.  Though we do get some brutal spring storms here, the weather is generally much nicer.  There have been four emperor penguins out wandering around and they are believed to be juveniles or females who haven't mated and are looking for a new colony.  The seals are here year round, but now they are out sunning themselves.  They are Weddell seals and are quite adorable.  They have big puppy eyes.  These seals do not eat the penguins, they live on little fish.  When the ice starts to crack they use their teeth to "chew" a large enough hole to crawl through and they keep that breathing hole from freezing back over.


The seals come out between the pressure ridges and sun themselves.



Aren't they cuties??

This seal came up to peek inside the dive hut.  They will use any opening for a breath hole.

The only other wildlife around here this time of year is the skua birds.  They are a scavenger type bird, similar to a seagull, but larger.  They get a bad reputation because there is little to eat here, so we must keep any of our food waste in a tightly closed container.  They will see you carrying a piece of food and fly into you and grab it.  Yep, they can be quite aggressive.  We are not allowed to touch them in any way or disturb them, which can get tricky sometimes.

First skua sighting of the season