A full moon shines over the darkened shutters of the South Pole station. Despite the calm exterior,inside the station the largest-ever winter construction crews continue work. See page 10 for detailson their progress.

Quiet polar nightJune 21, 2004

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

www.polar.org/antsun

Science toocool for theSouth Pole

Page 15

Submergedvolcano found

Page 17

Photo by Sean Ryan/Special to The Antarctic Sun

INSIDE

By Kristan HutchisonSun staff

Using hot water and ice, researchersplan to build the world’s largest scien-tific instrument to detect some of theuniverse’s smallest particles.

Called IceCube for its size, theproject will turn a cubic kilometer ofice below Amundsen-Scott SouthPole Station into a detector of highenergy neutrinos. The subatomic par-ticles exist in large quantity, but areinvisible, having no charge andalmost no mass, and rarely reactingwith anything as they speed throughthe universe. In the time it takes toread this sentence, 10 million neutri-nos are rushing through your body.

This lack of interaction is both theappeal and the challenge of neutrinos.Because nothing stops them, neutri-nos reach Earth from the edges of theuniverse unchanged, but they are alsodifficult to detect. An existing experi-ment at the South Pole proved neutri-nos could be detected by loweringstrings of light-sensitive optical mod-ules into deep holes in the ice. Theglobe-shaped glass optical modulesfreeze in place and watch for the faintblue flash occurring on the rare occa-sions a neutrino crashes into a proton,creating another kind of particlecalled a muon. IceCube is the nextgeneration of the Antarctic Muon andNeutrino Detector Array (AMAN-DA), also led by the University ofWisconsin.

By Kristan HutchisonSun staff

The same chemical thatsaves sea squirts from hun-gry starfish may somedaycure people of skin cancer.

A science team working at Palmer Stationdiscovered the potential cancer drug whileresearching ways Antarctic marine plantsand animals protect themselves with organicchemicals.

“We aren’t down there prospecting fordrugs,” said Charles Amsler, a seaweed spe-cialist on the multidisciplinary science team.

“We’re down there trying tounderstand why the speciesare using these chemicaldefenses.”

In the process, the scien-tists sometimes stumble

upon a chemical that could have medicalapplications. They’re more likely to findsomething new there than in more temperatewaters, simply because the Antarctic is lessstudied.

“The utility of doing these sorts of studiesin Antarctica is that this is in many respects

See IceCube on page 18See Chemical on page 23

Melting holesbuild IceCube

to

Chemical defenses could become strong medicine

Bad luckleads to bigdinosaur dig

Page 25

Midwinter

special

The greeningof Antarctica

Page 21

Storm of thedecade strikesMcMurdo

Page 20

“(Antarctica) is in manyrespects the last frontier.”

- Bill Bakernatural products chemist

2 • The Antarctic Sun June 21, 2004

Matt Davidson

WinterWinter population at the stations: 190at McMurdo, 75 at South Pole, 19 atPalmer.

Number of communion wafers conse-crated by the Catholic priest in prepara-tion for winter at the South Pole: 100.

The best time to see auroras at theSouth Pole: Lunchtime, when theauroral oval passes over.

When McMurdo and South Pole ranout of stored fresh produce: May.

How eggs are kept fresh for the 6month winter at McMurdo Station: halfthe eggs are rubbed with vegetableoil after last flight in February.

Favorite winter entertainment at allthree stations: watching videos.

Most winters on the Ice: Rocky Nesswith 15

Sources: Station reports, Ethan Dicks, JanJasperson, Glen Kinoshita, Rocky Ness

Cold, hard facts

The Antarctic Sun is funded by theNational Science Foundation as part of theUnited States Antarctic Program

(OPP-000373). Its primaryaudience is U.S. AntarcticProgram participants, theirfamilies, and their friends.NSF reviews and approves

material before publication, but opinionsand conclusions expressed in the Sun arenot necessarily those of the Foundation.

Use: Reproduction and distribution are encouraged with acknowledgment of sourceand author.

Senior Editor: Kristan HutchisonCopy Editors: Elizabeth Zwick,

Hanya Zwick, Mark SabbatiniPublisher: Valerie Carroll,Communications manager, RPSC

Contributions are welcome. The next issuewill publish in October. Contact the Sun atAntSun@usap.gov.

Web address: www.polar.org/antsun

Scientific serendipity

Welcome to the first midwinter issue of The Antarctic Sun. The Sun usual-ly publishes only during the austral summer season, but Antarctic sci-ence and the stations that support it continue year-round, so we thoughtwe'd bring readers a glimpse of this winter work.As luck would have it, a theme emerged while writing this issue. Biologists

studying the chemicals that marine plants and animals use to ward off predatorsaccidentally found a possible cure for skin cancer along the way (page 1). Whenpaleontologists couldn't reach their intended dig site and were dropped off on a dif-ferent island, they were sorely disappointed, but their mood changed when theyfound a new carnivorous dinosaur in an unlikely spot (page 21). When ice blocked acruise from reaching the site of the now disintegrated Larsen B ice shelf, the geolo-gists instead found a new volcano, still warm under the frigid waters (page 20).

Luck has often played a role in scientific discovery. The story of Newton andthe apple, whether factual or not, holds true in its essence - sometimes it's the unex-pected event that helps us see or think in a new way. But scientists also knowthere’s nothing dumb about luck. The biologists send samples of chemicals theyfind to the National Cancer Institute, just in case they'll get lucky. The paleontolo-gists didn't stay in their tents moping when they ended up at a site where they weresure they wouldn't find dinosaurs. They went out looking anyway. And when thegeology cruise had to detour, the chief scientist had a backup plan to check an areaof interest he'd noticed in a previous year.

I'm reminded of my mother, who has a knack for finding four-leaf clovers. Shedoesn't find them just once in a blue moon. She practically harvests them as shewalks along, gathering enough to give away and still fill the pages of our dictio-nary. As a child her amazing luck awed me, until she shared her secret. She looks.Her eyes are always open to the world, noticing the colors in the trees, what's bud-ding on the ground, the patterns in the clover. If that pattern changes from threeleaves to four, she notices.

Scientists do the same, scanning the field of data to understand the overall patternand notice what breaks from it. They're constantly trying to find better ways to look,like IceCube, the neutrino detector being built at the South Pole as an expansion ofAMANDA, the Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array (page 1). The vision-ary astrophysicists building the one cubic kilometer detector in the ice expect to findlots of things, but they are most interested in what they don't expect, the stroke ofscientific serendipity. As IceCube's chief investigator Francis Halzen wrote:

“In the past, every time astronomers have set their sights on a new wavelength,they have discovered more than they expected…. If, after nearly twenty years ofworking on AMANDA, we only discover what we have set out to discover, it willbe, in many ways, the most disappointing result imaginable.”

Imagine how our own lives would be different if we walked out the door eachmorning with our eyes and minds open to discovery. Try it. This could be yourlucky day.

So, Count, the first question for your psych eval is:Just what attracts you to wintering-over in Antarctica?

By Kristan HutchisonSun staff

As science papers go, RonNaveen writes a bestseller.used in treaty discussions, researchplans and by just about every touroperator headed to the Antarctic. TheEnvironmental Protection Agencyrecently printed a second edition ofhis 382-page Compendium OfAntarctic Peninsula Visitor Sites andcopies have been sent to all membersof the International Association ofAntarctic Tour Operators. Somealready hang enlargements of his sitemaps in their ships.

“It’s very, very nice to have ourwork so respected and so used,” saidNaveen, who operates the inventoryunder the auspices of his Maryland-based educational and science founda-tion, Oceanites.

Launched in 1994 with a NationalScience Foundation grant, the site inven-tory involved a simple, yet novel, concept.Catching rides on the many tour shipsalready going to the Antarctic, Naveen anda team of associates survey each touriststop. Penguins, shags and other seabirds,lichens and mosses are tallied and pho-tographed. During the past decade theinventory team made 570 visits to 89 siteson the peninsula, creating a comprehen-sive document of what’s where and howit’s been affected by tourism.

“What that document’s great for is itlooks at over 50 of the sites the tour ships goto in Antarctica, where all the wildlife is,where the nesting sites are,” said DeniseLandau, Executive Director of theInternational Association of Antarctic TourOperators, which distributed the inventory'scompendium to its members. “It’s reallygood site information.”

After hitching rides around the AntarcticPeninsula for 10 years, Naveen has takenhis research a step further with a new five-year grant from the NSF. On Nov. 14Naveen landed back at Petermann Island,where he’s been many times before. Thistime the ship dropping him off was theresearch vessel Laurence M. Gould andwhen the Gould pulled away, Naveen andhis research group stayed. They pitchedtents in several meters of snow, thenmapped the mile-long rocky island usinghandheld GPS and began the census work.

By staying on the island for a month inNovember/December and again in

January/February, Naveen’s team was ableto make a more careful and completecount of the Adelie and gentoo penguins,along with their eggs and chicks. The gen-toos in particular tend to nest in nooks andcrannies scattered around the island ratherthan central rookeries, so counting all thenests or chicks can take a day. By stayinga month, Naveen could survey the birdsseveral times and ensure the censuseswere achieved at appropriate times.

“These are really the best counts we’veever gotten there,” Naveen said. “Whenyou’re working off a ship and getting in forthree or four hours, it’s a different thing.”

Camping on the island also gaveNaveen a chance to observe different tourgroups coming ashore. Among the 245Antarctic locations tours visit, PetermannIsland ranks sixth for number of visits. InNovember and December Naveen hadonly a few visitors, but in January andFebruary tourists came ashore almostdaily. The 30 tour groups Naveen metwere all careful not to disturb the plants oranimals, he said.

“For the most part there’s a lot of expe-

rience among the operators. Theyknow where to go, what to do, whatnot to do,” Naveen said. “My view isthey’re doing a fairly good job and,frankly, they need to do a good job,because if they’re not and theresource falls away they lose theirbusiness.”

The swift growth of tourism to theAntarctic has led to growing concernsfor the frigid and fragile ecosystem.In the past decade, the number oftourist landings on the AntarcticPeninsula each season increasedmore than 400 percent, from 164 to858. While the majority of landingsare concentrated in the ShetlandIslands and a dozen sites on the north-western part of the Peninsula, tourshave also been expanding to new siteseach year. Palmer Station ranksamong the top 20 most visited loca-tions in Antarctica.

The dramatic increases in visitshave led the international bodies govern-ing Antarctica to consider a coordinatedmonitoring system for all human activity,including tourism. In accordance with adecision made at last year’s AntarcticTreaty Consultative Meeting, experts metin Tromsø, Norway, in March, to discussways tourism might be managed. Naveenwas part of the U.S. delegation and will bepart of the discussions that continue at theAntarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting inCape Town in May.

He brings a uniquely rounded perspec-tive to the talks, having been to theAntarctic first as a tour leader in the 1980sand then as a scientist.

“The inventory database is right in thethick of things,” Naveen said. “Everybodyseems to want our information.”

Over time the inventory should showwhether penguins and other Antarctic ani-mal populations are changing because oftourists. So far, in 10 years Naveen hasn‘tseen any evidence that tourists are hurtingthe birds. The only definitive changeNaveen’s surveys have shown is a decreasein the number of blue-eyed shags through-out the Peninsula, irrespective of theamount of tourism. Naveen believes theshags are reacting to changes in the climateand prey availability rather than tourism.

“For the most part we scientists arerather convinced there’s global forcescausing change,” Naveen said.

NSF funded research featured in this story:Ron Naveen, Oceanites Inc.

June 21, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 3

Survey of tour sites widely read

Photo by Kristan Hutchison/The Antarctic Sun

The results of his annualAntarctic Site Inventory

Researcher Anne Petzel watches an emperor penguin onthe sea ice near Cape Royds, Ross Island, Antarctica.Penguins are curious and often approach scientists andtourists. Researcher Ron Naveen tracks how those inter-actions may affect the sea birds.

Like a photo?Find it, save it, use itwww.polar.orgAntarcticPhoto Library

Food for thought, food for fuelBy Mark Lehman

As mid-winter approaches, producing varied andtasty food for our population of 190 has become achallenge for the kitchen staff. Although fresheggs, potatoes and onions are still available, thehunt for vegetables now leads to the freezer.Maintaining a perspective on time and place is essen-tial. It helps to consider the history of food in thesesouthern latitudes, which travels back more than100 years. Although people today will never com-prehend the extreme circumstances the earlycooks faced, this fact remains the same: themorale of the crew and spirit of the communityis a reflection of the work we do.

Experienced in the field ofpolar travel, Roald Amundsenknew the value in carefullyselecting an expedition cookwhen he chose Adolf Lindstrom.Wintering 1911, Lindstrom played a vital role in theNorwegian team’s success in the race to the SouthPole. Although Lindstrom adapted well to the chal-lenges of cooking in Antarctica, providing a diverse andcreative menu was nearly impossible. While today wecan regularly rotate beef, pork, fish, poultry and vegetar-ian selections, Lindstrom was faced with tasks and wor-ries we no longer consider. Preventing disease likescurvy was a priority, and he stayed busy butcher-ing seal and penguin provided by hunting partiesso he could serve fresh meat. Amundsen recog-nized the need for a diversified menu and agreed toseal meat being served only two out of three mealseach day. In his book, The South Pole, Amundsenwrote, “We get to like seal steak more and moreeach day. We should all be glad to eat it at everymeal, but we think it safer to make a little vari-ety… I must frankly confess that I have neverlived so well.” Amundsen also described the“fabulous rapidity” with which the crew ateLindstrom’s hotcakes for breakfast. He respect-fully logged, “If it is a cook’s best reward to seehis food appreciated, then, indeed, Lindstrom had good wages.”

A flavor and diversity resource for us, a greenhouse was notavailable to early Antarctic cooks. Today we rely on Rob Taylor,our greenhouse technician. Regularly, he arrives in the kitchen,arms filled with morning harvests. Within minutes, tomatoes,cucumbers, peppers, sprouts, lettuce and herbs are on cuttingboards and incorporated into entrees and mixed salads. Though itis too small to produce bulk volume, the greenhouse is especial-ly important during winter. We have already worked through ourlarge shipments of New Zealand freshies. The produce walk-innow seems a massive space, containing an island of emptypalettes and mostly bare shelves. Long gone are the tall towers of

assorted, colorful and crunchy fresh fruits and vegetables.In McMurdo today, 24-hour Internet and phones allow

us to correspond home on a convenient and regular basis.In the dining facility, a daily news report is available forreading material. Satellites enable dining attendants to

scrub pots while listening to a feed from NationalPublic Radio. By comparison, when Charles Green

was hired as a replacement cook for Shackleton’s1914 journey, the letters he sent home inform-ing his family he was headed for Antarctica

never arrived. A German cruiser torpedoedthe ship carrying the correspondence and

Green’s family didn’t hear of his whereaboutsuntil he was rescued from Elephant Island in

April 1916. Where Shackleton’s men spent nearlytwo years without any outside contact as the eventsof World War I transpired, we are overwhelmedwith continued updates of our current war.

During most of the early expeditions, food wasused as a morale tool for transitional and trying situ-ations. The first night after his stranded crew help-lessly watched their ship sink into the Weddell Sea,Shackleton wisely called for a special meal to beserved. They had just spent an entire winter on board,and the situation was bleak at best. Recognizing theneed to keep spirits high, all hands were delightedwith the menu selection of fish paste and biscuits. An

indication of their remarkable state of mind, one ofthe expedition surgeons wrote in his journal,“Really, this sort of life has its attraction. I readsomewhere that all a man needs to be happy isa full stomach and warmth, and I begin to

think it is nearly true.” The Antarctic galleys ofthe heroic age were not without special celebra-tions. A June 22 mid-winter feast was a highlightfor the early polar crews. Traditional items likeroast pork and plum pudding were featured,appearing alongside foods like black seal soupand caviar Antarctic.

Considering hardships of the early Antarcticjourneys and contrasting them with facets of our

more modern experiences is helpful. One of the important lessonsto keep in mind, is as difficult as it must have been then, they stillmanaged to advocate and practice a culture of optimism. Formany, the choice of attitude saved lives. With this in mind, we arecontinuing the tradition of a midwinter feast started decades agoby the historic expeditions. The kitchen staff looks forward tocommunity involvement as we prepare for a spirited mid-wintergathering and dinner on the evening of June 19.

Mark Lehman is a sous chef at McMurdo Station this winterand has worked five summer seasons at South Pole Station.

4 • The Antarctic Sun June 21, 2004

Perspectives Perspectives

Chef Adolf Lindstrom wasimportant to the success ofRoald Amundsen’s expedition tothe South Pole.

Photo from Amundsen'sbook, The South Pole

winter weather (February-June)

Winter barbecues, igloosBy Peter RejcekSouth Pole correspondent

The sun has sunk below the horizon, itslight replaced by ghostly auroras and thepinprick glow of stars. The temperatureshave dropped as low as -36 C. Plane con-trails seem a phenomenon of a distant past.

The South Pole station is stoically endur-ing another winter.

Life here has often been likened to themovie “Groundhog Day,” about a bittermeteorologist doomed to repeat the sameday over and over again. Monotony is cer-tainly one feature of life at the bottom of theworld: Night seems eternal, and routinemainly revolves around work, food, moviesand sleep. But Polies are adept at keepingthe bugbear of boredom away.

In April and May, the station’s popula-tion gathered for a barbecue at the begin-ning of each month during two-day week-ends. Allan Day, an Australian working onthe DASI telescope, knows how to coax themost out of his briquettes at sub-zero tem-peratures. The barbecues bring nearly theentire population of 75 to the dining hall fora night of feasting and companionship.

“I enjoy cooking, and being busy is waybetter than being bored,” Day said. “It’s areal tough afternoon: ... bickies and cheese,smoke, singed flesh and a few laughs withmates.”

The South Pole’s volunteerband, known by several names,including Fear ofCommitments and the DanaHrubes Revival Project, playedat both dinner events. Like themany other afterwork activi-ties, the band highlights the cre-ativity and versatility of stationstaff. Richard Coppin, whowhips up magnificent meals asone of the two South Pole chefswhen he’s not singing andstrumming guitar, said playingin the band has been a high-light of his season.

“For one, it keeps us all real-

ly busy,” he said. “We do at least two two-hour practices a week, and sometimes three,and we all put [in] individual practice figur-ing out things.

“Of course I love performing and ourperformances, two thus far, have been ablast,” he added.

Polies also keep busy with tournaments.Heavy equipment operator Rob Shaw host-ed a poker tourney at the 90 Degrees Southbar in April. Some of the Pole’s best crib-bage players met on the proverbial battle-field in May.

Shaw won his own poker tournament,followed by Mike Scholz and BrideSweeney. In singles cribbage, Tom Bankswon bragging rights after beating AngelaDrexler. Peter Rejcek took third. Drexlerand Banks combined forces in the teamcribbage tournament to take first place,while Don Jeter and Scholz hung on forsecond place. Jules Hartnett and RandiDixon took third.

Radio darts with other Antarctic stationsis another popular diversion. South Poleteams play against McMurdo and ScottBase via high-frequency radio, whilePalmer exchanges scores through e-mail.

“It’s fun and we get to harass people onthe radio,” said Polie Sarah Kaye.

Other activities include weekly movies,rock climbing, bingo, yoga, and countlessmiles on the stationary bikes and tread-mills in the gym.

And one group of Polies has taken its

hobby into the frigid outdoors. A massiveigloo, some 3.5 meters in diameter and like-ly as tall when finished, is currently underconstruction out near the berms, away fromthe main station and the few red lights thatmark South Pole civilization.

While the project is old hat to an Alaskanlike carpenter’s apprentice Adam Rein, whois providing much of the technical know-how, it’s a first for others, like Kevin Dupuy,an East Londoner-turned- Kiwi.

“I’m a sheet metal worker from the eastend of London,” Dupuy remarked. “Whendo I have a chance to build an igloo?”

(Angie Rutherford contributed to thisreport.)

Station pulls together formedevac and big storms By Traci FisherMcMurdo correspondent

Oddly enough, some of McMurdoStation’s 190 winter residents consider thecold, darkness and wind to be the high-lights of the Antarctic winter. For others,it’s the 80 dozen homemade cookies bakedweekly in the dining facility or participa-tion in the bowling league, the Fridaynight Spanish class, or the weekly swingdance lessons.

With rooms of their own and one two-day weekend a month, though, somemembers of the community just choose tohibernate, finding the time and space to

June 21, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 5

around the continentSOUTH POLE

McMurdo Station (historical data)Avg. temp: 16F/-9C to -9F/-23CHigh: 21 F/-6C Low: -16F /-26CAvg. precipitation: 4in/10 cm.Peak wind: 94mph/151kph (May 16)

Palmer Station (Feb. 15-June 4)Avg. weekly temp.: 37F/3C to 25F/-4C High: 45F/7C (Feb. 20)Low: 16F/-9 C (May 9)Peak wind: 89mph/143kph (May 24)Total precipitation: 12 in/30cmSnowfall: 37in/93 cm

South Pole Station (Feb. 15-June 10Avg. weekly temp.: -33F/-36C to -86F/-66CHigh: -18F/-28C (Feb. 24)Low: -100F/-74C (June 6)Peak wind: 45mph/72kph (April 2)Top physioaltitude: 11,605ft/3,537m (June 6)

See McMurdo on page 6

The South Pole band plays at a winter party (left to right):Justus Brevik, Dana Hrubes, Richard Coppin, Kevin Torphy(far back), Ethan Dicks, Sarah Kaye and Kris Perry.

Auroras dance over the South Pole Dome.Photo by Kris Perry/Special to The Antarctic Sun

MCMURDO

Photo by Peter Rejcek/Special to The Antarctic Sun

relax and enjoy the slower pace that comeswith wintering at McMurdo.

Although most of the winter workfocuses on maintaining the station andpreparing for the return of the summer sci-ence season, Science Support SupervisorLaura Tudor is busy facilitating severalscience projects, including one whichgathers data about cosmic rays, atomicnuclei and electrons from outer space.Another winter science project, LIDAR(Light Detection and Ranging), uses anoptical radar which is visible to onlookersand gathers information about dynamicsof the atmosphere and thermal behaviorabove McMurdo Station.

In late April, the McMurdo communitypulled together in order to prepare PegasusAirfield and maintain runway equipmentfor a successful medical evacuation ofthree patients, who are reported to bedoing well after receiving medical care.The U.S. Air Force C-141 that carriedthem out will likely be the last plane toland at McMurdo until August.

Mid-May, McMurdo residents got toexperience what winter is really all about:big storms. This was one of the worst tohit McMurdo in the past decade, remain-ing at Condition I for 13.5 hours withwinds that sustained 34 meters per second(mps) in town (before the wind sensorbroke) and an incredible 65 mps at BlackIsland. Wind sensors picked up gustsover 10 mps higher at both locations.

When the storm subsided, the commu-nity quickly assessedand repaired the dam-age, including twodowned bay doors onBuilding 140 andanother at the VehicleMaintenance Facility,missing siding and roofsections on multiplebuildings, and snow-drifts which crestedover the tops of doorson several others.

Now living in totaldarkness and tempera-tures hovering between-28 C and -23 C, manywinter workers arebeginning to dreamabout their travel backto Christchurch, NewZealand, or about see-ing the sun again on Aug. 19, when it willmake its first appearance since setting inlate-April. And, of course, those stayingthrough WINFLY can’t wait to see whowill be back for “just one more season.”

Welcoming winterCompiled by Sun staff

The Palmer Station winter crew settledinto work and weather after arriving April 3.

On the same day the station had its last

visitors for the summer. The commanderof the Argentine icebreaker, AlmiranteIrizar, dropped in with researchers andofficers from the vessel. The group of 12arrived by helicopter and was given toursof the station and a reception in thelounge. The Argentinean ship was headednorth, as their station and most othersalong the peninsula hunkered down for thewinter.

Five days later the Laurence M. Gouldleft with most of Palmer’s summercrew. On June 21 the Gould willtake the remaining few, leavingonly 19 people, most of whomhave wintered at Palmer before.

“We just get up and go to ourjobs,” said winter station managerRocky Ness, who is on his 15thwinter.

Days are at their shortest, butbeing 197 km north of the AntarcticCircle, Palmer still gets light fromabout 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The last science team left onMay 19. Until then researchers, ledby Charles Amsler, Bill Baker andJim McClintock went divingalmost daily for marine samples,except when high winds andweather prevented boating. To getenough fish for one of their exper-iments, the station held a fishing

contest. About a dozen people tried theirhand, taking turns with the fishing rods.

“They all tried to do their little fishingtricks to figure out how to coax one to ahook,” said Ness, though the foot-longfish tend to bite any hook they see andcome up without a struggle. “It gave peo-ple a chance to get out of the house and dosomething different.”

Cook Marge Bolton won the contestwith her string of nine fish.

Station crew also volunteered as divetenders, giving people a chance to go out

McMurdo

6 • The Antarctic Sun June 21, 2004

From page 5

PALMER

See Palmer on page 7

Snow drifts block a door-way in Crary Lab after awinter storm in May.

Courtesy of the McMurdo community

Photo by Troy Marquez/Special to The Antarctic Sun

Dave Zimmerman and Laena McCarthydine on sushi at a recreation event in theMcMurdo Coffeehouse.

Antarctic wintercrews use holi-days and season-al changes tobreak the daily monotony.

“Winter’s neat that way.It’s broken into some prettyinteresting milestones,” saidSouth Pole station wintersite manager Pete Koson.

“They don’t just shut the door.”Winter creates challenges at all the stations, but it

is most extreme at the South Pole where the temper-ature drops as low as -82C and the physiological alti-tude rises to over 11,000 feet. At those temperatures,motors won’t start.

“When it hits 80 below, nothing works outsideexcept people,” Koson said.

Sometimes even people have difficulty. The 75

Polies are isolated for eight months with little privacyor outside contact. Half the winter staff have alreadybeen there all summer.

“It’s very easy to lose your perspective over win-ter. It’s very easy to forget there’s a big world outthere,” Koson said, comparing the Pole to an oldrecord player. “Pole’s an amplifier. It amplifies per-sonality. Some people have a very nice personalityand if you turn it up it sounds even better, and somepeople have a scratch.”

So far the winter has been quiet and Koson hopes itstays that way.

“I won’t have a problem if my watch is regarded asthe most boring winter at Pole ever,” he said.

Even a boring winter is broken up by natural andman-made events. The timeline along the bottom ofthe following pages was collected from e-mails,journals and reports from all three stations.

June 21, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 7

on the water and see whales and leopardseals. They had several startling run-inswith leopard seals, including one occasionwhen two leopard seals approached thedivers underwater.

Earth Day was too snowy to pick upgarbage on shore, but the research diversretrieved debris from the sea floor next tothe Palmer pier. They dragged up an oldtire, glass Coke bottles, scrap metal andtools. It was all covered in barnacles,“looking like a reef of its own,” Ness said.

Work on other science projects contin-ued into April as well. Members of theLong Term Ecological Research Team sur-veyed the Humble Island giant petrelswith the help of station staff and collectedsamples of phytoplankton. By May 10 allthe petrel chicks but one had left the nest-ing grounds.

After several failed attempts, when furseals blocked the way, the boating coordi-nator and lab manager photographed plantplots on Stepping Stone Island for biolo-

gist studying how climate change may bechanging the plants.

The ocean and glacier search and res-cue response teams have been consolidat-ed for the winter. Less boating occurs overthe winter anyway, as the short days limitboating hours and bad weather becomesmore frequent. That leaves the winter crewnowhere to go but up the glacier behindthe station. The search and rescue teamrepositioned the flags on the glacier to befarther from a recently enlarged crevasse.

Expanding crevasses are another signof the glacier recession. In order to trackthe recession, the science tech took digitalphotos and transit readings of the glacierface north of Arthur Harbor, as well asGPS readings of several spots in the OldPalmer and Norsel Point Island region.

The search and rescue team had achance to practice their skills April 28when a boating party failed to call in uponarrival to Humble Island. The boaters hadturned off their radios to avoid disturbingthe petrels they were weighing. ThreeSAR team members responded and deter-mined that there was no distress and estab-lished communications with the group.

The Palmer staff keeps monotony atbay by turning any excuse into a celebra-tion. One Saturday in late April scientistsbraved the 28 meters per second coldAntarctic winds to provide the station witha barbecue dinner. On Cinco de Mayo sci-entists and support staff pitched in to cookMexican food for a fiesta and make a piña-ta. They did such a good job that the star-

shaped piñata wouldn’t break, even whenpeople swung at it with their eyes wideopen.

But as the Laurence M. Gould pullsaway June 21, the station will enter threemonths of true winter isolation. The nextvisit from the Gould will be Sept. 28,when it comes to bring the winter crewhome and leave next year’s summer crew.

NBP - Gone fishin’Compiled by Sun staff

The Nathaniel B. Palmer has gone fish-ing for three months.

On May 17 the ship set out on the ICE-FISH 2004 cruise, trawling the water fromChile to Cape Town, South Africa, for 16species of ice fish. Along the way it willstop in the Falkland Islands, the SandwichIslands and tiny Tristan de Cuhna, theleast-populated island in the AtlanticOcean.

ICEFISH stands for the InternationalCollaborative Expedition to collect andstudy Fish Indigenous to the SubAntarcticHabitats. Northeastern University marinebiologist Bill Detrich heads the fishingcrew of 30 scientists from around theworld. He hopes their catch will answerquestions about the evolution, populationtrends, eco-biochemistry and eco-physiol-ogy of Antarctic fish. Among the specificquestions are the fish’s lack of red bloodcells and their bearing on treatments forblood-borne illnesses like anemia andleukemia. Research done on the cruisewill also touch on areas of biodiversity,biotechnology, fisheries, genomics andglobal warming. Detrich is chronicling thejourney and answering questions online atwww.icefish.neu.edu.

The journey takes the NBP 7,500 kmfrom McMurdo Station, which theresearch vessel had left Feb. 23, two daysafter the last flight of the season. Themiles and days between McMurdo and theNBP’s current venture as a research fish-ing vessel were busy. The NBP spent 47days taking measurements of current,

Palmer From page 6

SHIPS

See Ships on page 8

Palmer Station instrument technician BarbWatson weighs a giant petrel chick onHumble Island for long-term bird studies byPolar Oceans Group scientist Bill Fraser. Thechick grabbed her glove and wouldn’t let go.

Photo by Sonja Wolter/Special to The Antarctic Sun

Photo by Sonja Wolter/Special to The Antarctic Sun

Sparky DanWeisblattmakesgnocchi fora Sundaynight dinnerat PalmerStation.

Polies waved goodbye tothe last flight, knowingthey are on their own foreight months. Most people enjoyed the traditional screening ofJohn Carpenter’s “TheThing,” an alien invasionmovie set at the South Pole.

The last flight of thesummer season leftMcMurdo Station.

After coming in torefuel and changecrew one last time,the Nathaniel B.Palmer left McMurdoStation for the season

Feb. 23Feb. 21Feb. 15The last touristsof the season visitedPalmer Station, bringing the seasontotal to 2,624 touristshearing shipboard presentations and1,148 coming ashore.

Feb. 24

8 • The Antarctic Sun June 21, 2004

salinity and temperature in the northwest-ern Ross Sea for AnSlope, a multi-yearoceanic experiment. AnSlope focuses onthe flow of cold, dense water from theAntarctic Shelf across the continentalslope and into the adjacent deep ocean.This flux is important in the formation ofAntarctic Bottom Water and is balancedby onshore flow of warmer water fromdeep and surface layers.

The NBP pulled into Lyttleton, NewZealand, for a five-day port call April 10,then headed east to collect geophysicaldata across the south Pacific Ocean forJoann Stock of the Massachusetts Instituteof Technology and Steve Cande of ScrippsInstitution of Oceanography. Since 1995they’ve been studying the history of theseparation of the Pacific and Antarcticplates, important to understanding move-ments of the continental plates.

A stormchased the NBPback across thedateline in April.Despite difficultweather, the NBPcrews deployedbuoys designed todrift with the cur-rent and reportdata to satellites.

M i d w a ythrough the 26-day cruise toChile, the NBPcrew held anopen mike night,with blues guitar,Irish folk songsand jigs playedon the penny

whistle and fiddle. The next day, May 1,the weather intensified, with sustainedwinds to 90 km/hr churning up seven- tonine-meter seas for nine hours. Three dayslater another storm struck.

“This marks the third system in 20 daysreaching 50 kts and 25-ft seas. I guessthey call it the Furious Fifties for a rea-son,” wrote marine projects coordinator TJHurlburt.

The NBP steamed into the gale for six

hours, continuing to collect data. By May7 all 24 buoys had been deployed andwere working as the NBP headed to port inPunta Arenas to prepare for the ICEFISHmission.

After the two-month ICEFISH cruise,the NBP will return to New Zealand inSeptember for routine maintenance in anAuckland dry dock, then transit down toLyttleton in time for the beginning of anew summer season.

LMG - Ice and fire, wind and waves

Compiled by Sun staffAfter floating over an active volcano

and weathering waves so tumultuous atable was torn from the wall, the LaurenceM. Gould and crew are headed home for abreak.

Usually the Gould stops by PalmerStation almost monthly with supplies, butthis time the ship will be gone for threemonths. It is steaming north to Fourchon,La., where it will go into dry dock forannual maintenance.

The rest comes after a busy fall cruiseseason. In February scientists on boarddeployed more than 200 instruments andset up nearly 100 data collection pointsaround the Shackleton Fracture Zone inthe southern Drake Passage. Theresearchers were interested why largequantities of phytoplankton thrive on oneside of the fracture zone, while the otherside has much less phytoplankton. Theshape of the seafloor may affect the circu-lation and transport of iron, which phyto-plankton need.

The passengers celebrated “Leap Day”

by dressing up as favorite “passed-up andjilted Village People occupations” Stand-out entries included a fisherman, nurseand biker. Their work was interruptedbriefly on March 5, when sustained windsand confused seas sent the ship seekingshelter in the lee of Elephant Island.

Whales swam into the vicinity severaltimes during the cruise. A southern rightwhale came close to the ship, and a pod ofhumpbacks breached and frolicked near-by. The highlight came at the end of a stopin Paradise Harbor to repack gear, whentwo minke whales surfaced a meter fromthe zodiacs and dove directly under, giv-ing passengers a close-up view. The songsof many more whales were recorded oneight underwater recording devices theGould crew collected during the cruises.The recorders had been left in the 2001-2002 season to capture the sounds ofmarine mammals. John Hildebrand fromScripps Institution of Oceanography willuse the songs to try to estimate the popu-lation of mysticete whales in the area.

The next cruise went in search ofglacial debris and instead found an under-water volcano.

In mid-April Eugene Domack led ateam of scientists hoping to cruise into thearea where the Larsen B iceshelf disinte-grated in March 2002. His goal was togather sediments from the seafloor belowwhere the iceshelf had been, which couldtell him how long the iceshelf had coveredthat area.

But the winter sea ice was alreadyforming, and halted the Gould 26 km fromwhere Domack needed to be to take sedi-

Ships From page 7

See Ships on page 9

Photo by Sonja Wolter/Special to The Antarctic SunPalmer Station residents watch as the Laurence M. Gould leaves May 18

A “pyroheliometer”used two glassspheres on a stand tofocus the sunlight likemagnifying glassesand burn a record ofits elevation onto asheet of graph paper.

March 13The sun was lowat the South Pole andin 17 days was due todip below the horizonfor the first time.Polies bet on whatminute the sun wouldset.

March 1Polies celebrated thegrand opening of thenew South Pole storein the station buildingwith a tasting of winesthey’d been hoardingfor the past month.

Feb. 27In -30C and blowingsnow, crews at theSouth Pole flaggedroutes between buildings. They can’tuse lights, because thetelescopes need constant darkness.

Feb. 25

Lukhanyiso Vumazonkeof the South AfricanInstitute of AquaticBiodiversity holds askate that was collectednear the FalklandIslands during the ICE-FISH cruise.

June 21, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 9

ment samples.The ice was creeping northward and

blocking the Gould at every turn. At onepoint the ship became stuck in the ice formore than three hours, within a few milesfrom the coring site.

“At first light, the decision was made toleave the area before conditions deteriorat-ed further,” wrote marine projects coordi-nator Ashley Lowe.

Unable to reach his goal, Domackswitched to plan B, looking at the seafloornorth of Joinville Island in Larsen Channel.They mapped and videotaped the seafloor,then took samples of rock and sediment.The video revealed a young, submergedvolcano (see page 17) The discovery of thevolcano was made just in time, as thebarometer fell to 948.5 and winds rose to 51meters per second in the middle ofBransfield Strait on May 6. The Gouldrolled in large swells as it headed north forPunta Arenas. Chairs fell over and the tablein the chief scientist’s cabin ripped out ofthe wall and flew across the cabin.

Since then things calmed down and theGould shuttled several times betweenPuntas Arenas and Palmer Station, carry-ing supplies. On June 21 the Gould isscheduled to leave Palmer for a longerstretch.

When the Gould pulls into Palmeragain, it will be carrying the summer crewfor the seasonal shift change on Sept. 22.

New faces and new focus By Guy GuthridgeNational Science Foundation

Getting money and getting ready areNSF bywords in the off-season.

In its budget request to the U.S.Congress for fiscal 2005 (which startsOct. 1) NSF in its major research equip-ment and facilities construction accountgave highest priority to six current pro-jects, of which one is the South PoleIceCube Neutrino Observatory.

Funds requested for the U.S. AntarcticProgram as a whole slightly exceeded thefiscal-2004 number. New research wouldinclude polar genomics, drilling to investi-

gate key intervals in geologic history asEarth changed from a greenhouse to anice-house world, preparation for coordi-nated studies in meteorology and ice sheetdynamics, and a 3-year project to wrap uprecent observations of the southern oceanecosystem.

In the Office of Polar Programs, TomWagner in April took the position of pro-gram manager for antarctic geology andgeophysics, arriving from theFoundation’s Division of Earth Sciencesto replace Scott Borg, now head of theAntarctic Sciences Section. A volcanolo-gist, Dr. Wagner has worked and taught asfar afield as PapuaNew Guinea;Antarctica will benew territory forhim.

Sandra Singerin May became thenew facilities engi-neering, mainte-nance, and con-struction manager,replacing FrankBrier, who hadretired. Ms. Singerin the 1990s hadworked for NSF’sthen contractorAntarctic Support Associates, helping todevelop the cost and schedule for the cur-rent reconstruction of South Pole Station.More recently, she was a BechtelCorporation project manager dealing withdestruction of old Soviet Union weapons ofmass destruction.

International coordination also getsmore attention in the off-season, whenfolks are more likely to be home instead ofin the field. Staff are participating inAntarctic Treaty meetings in New Zealandand South Africa and in July will attend ameeting of the Scientific Committee onAntarctic Research in Germany.

Earlier this month, proposals for newAntarctic research projects arrived at NSFfrom investigators at universities all acrossAmerica to begin the annual triage of peerreview, operational review, and evaluationof financial supportability. The lucky fewwill see the light of day in Antarctica start-ing in the 2005-2006 austral summer.

No off-season in DenverBy Val CarrollRaytheon Polar Services

There isn’t a spare chair and the park-ing lot is full. The off-season in Coloradois full on. Over 300 full-time employeesand dozens of contracted staff are busyhiring, completing forms, making phonecalls, sending e-mails, asking questions,placing orders and handling the myriad ofdetails required to prepare for another suc-cessful season. The pace is similar to sum-mer in Antarctica.

Purchasers are buying everything fromsticky notes and lug nuts to liquid heliumand fruit juice. Gear is being ordered,cleaned and repacked and crates are beingbuilt. Transport schedules are beingarranged with airlines, Air National Guard,U.S. Air Force, Petroleum Helicopters Inc.,Ken Borek Air, U.S. Coast Guard, fueltanker, resupply ship American Tern, andthe research vessels Laurence M. Gould andNathaniel B. Palmer.

About 900 job-seekers from all over thecountry attended our in-house Job Fair inApril and recruiters have been scouringone end of the country to the other.Candidates for about 800 positions arebeing interviewed, hired, screened, physi-cally qualified and tracked.

Planned projects are being prioritizedand staffing requirements are beingapproved. Publications and procedures arebeing updated and printed. Budgets arebeing developed, scrutinized, revised, andagreed upon. Planners are working withscience teams to determine requirementsfor everything from snowmobiles, tele-scopes and tents, to parkas, lab space andtime on the Ice.

Along with keeping in touch with theirhearty-souled staff wintering on the Iceand completing reports from last season,management has been making recommen-dations for projects like revamping theice-runway, dismantling the dome, buyingnew software, improving bandwidth andinvesting in energy saving technology, —all to support Antarctic science.

...and, despite all these best-laid plans,we all realize that mother nature will havethe last word.

Ships From page 8

DC

DENVER

As most of the birdsmoved north for thewinter, PalmerStation residents wereallowed to explorethe islands nearby.

March 31Despite -55Cweather, Polies cele-brated their firstSaturday off with aband and barbeque onthe upper deck.

April 3TheLawrence M. Gouldarrived at PalmerStation with most ofthe winter crew.

April 3

Sandra Singer, facilities engineeringmaintenance and construction manager

Volunteers at PalmerStation made the finalSunday dinner of thesummer, with threekinds of pasta andfresh bread. Sunday isthe cook’s night off.

March 28The sun set at the

Pole. “It’ll be dusky for a

while though, but thewinter is moving in

fast!”

March 22

By Sun staff

The largest ever South Pole winterconstruction crew continues the fastpace set by the largest-ever summerconstruction crew.“Overall we are ahead of schedule,”

wrote Carlton Walker from the South Pole.Walker has 46 people working on a singleconstruction shift over the winter. Overthe summer he had a crew of about 100.

“There’s more people working for menow than were in the whole station when Istarted,” Walker said near the end of sum-mer, his 14th season at the station.

The large construction crew swells thewinter station population to 75 people, 30percent greater than ever before, requiringan extra cook and filling beds in both theDome and new station, said station man-ager Pete Koson. He’s found a larger pop-ulation has both benefits and drawbacks.

“In some ways it makes the winter a lit-tle less extreme, there are more outletsdown here now than ever before, I wouldguess,” Koson said. “On the other hand,75 people is just too many people to havethat extremely close family feeling, sothere is a sacrifice.”

The summer crews worked around the

clock, inside and out on the new station.Weather and flights were in their favor,allowing materials to arrive before the lastflight of the season in February. Nowenough steel beams and other buildingsupplies are on station to continue work-ing through next year.

“We have everything we need,” Walkersaid.

The summer crew managed to not onlycatch up on areas of the structure that hadbeen lagging, but get ahead, Walker said.They built the walls for two new sectionsof the building and did interior finish workon the medical facilities, computer room,library, laundry, recycling room and store.

“I’m just absolutely amazed at theprogress that’s been made this season,”Raytheon Polar Services president andgeneral manager Tom Yelvington told thesummer construction crew at the end ofthe season. “The turnaround’s just extraor-dinary.”

Now the winter crew is using some ofthe recently finished areas. Volunteersplanned to plant seeds in the newly assem-bled greenhouse in June. The post office isdone, but there won’t be any mail deliveryuntil the first plane arrives in late October.

The winter crew is continuing theprogress, working to get the interiors oftwo new wings, called B1 and B2, readyfor inspection next summer and a big starton another wing, B3. The new wingsinclude the emergency pod, designed toshelter the entire crew if a fire or other dis-aster destroyed the rest of the station. Theemergency pod contains berthing, a back-up power plant and kitchen, bathroomsand a television and game room. Once thepower plant is complete the old one underthe dome will be demolished.

“It’ll be huge,” Walker said.That leaves just two more wings for

next summer. The plan is to dedicate thenew building in 2007, the 50th anniver-sary of the station.

Winter construction at McMurdoStation primarily involves remodelingprojects. Carpenters are redoing bath-rooms in two dormitories, the carpentryshop and the waste water treatment plant.One dorm is also receiving new paint andcarpet. They are also in the first stage of athree-year effort to replace outdated sin-gle-wall fuel tanks with fewer double-walltanks to minimize the risk of fuel spills.

10 • The Antarctic Sun June 21, 2004

High speed construction builds new station records

At left, a carpenter cuts plywood in one ofthe new sections of the South Pole stationbuilding. Above, a carpenter’s apprenticeputs finishing touches on the hall walls. Anexterior view of the station is on page 1.

Photos by Kristan Hutchison/The Antarctic Sun

The Gould left PalmerStation with the summercrew, dropping the station population from35 to 26. Left with onecook, Palmer residentsmust now make theirown breakfasts.

April 8Temperatures atthe South Polebecame too cold touse latex balloons,which get brittle andpop before rising high

enough.

April 8As the sun sank in thenorth, it finally becamedark enough for SouthPole astronomers tobegin work in the Dark Sector.

April 7The Gould refueledPalmer Station for theseason with 65,000gallons.

April 5

By Kristan HutchisonSun staff

This weekend Antarcticwinter crews toast the dark-ness rather than curse it, cel-ebrating Midwinter’s Day, aholiday of unique importance to themost southerly continent.

Solstice marks the midpoint inthe long, dark Antarctic winter,when the sun ceases moving northand begins its slow return south.This year the sun will reach itsnorthernmost point at 8:57 p.m.June 20 Eastern Daylight Time.Because of time differences andwhere the international datelinefalls, it will be June 21 at someAntarctic stations, includingMcMurdo

Midwinter’s Day was first cel-ebrated in 1898 by the crew of theBelgica, which spent the wintertrapped in ice below the AntarcticCircle. Modern research stationsdeveloped their own traditions.Scientists and support staff at thethree stations run by the U.S.National Science Foundation takean extra day off, creating a longweekend. Usually they work sixdays a week.

“Midwinter sort of sneaks upon you,” said South Pole stationmanager Pete Koson. “We are allstaying pretty busy down here,which I think helps keep yourmind off the little things youmight start to miss.”

For Midwinter they trade goodwishes with other stations around the conti-nent and even the White House. PresidentEisenhower began the custom of sending anofficial greeting to the Antarctic stations onMidwinter’s Day. In recent years otherworld leaders have followed suit, includingthe British and Indian prime ministers.

“People involved in Antarctic activitiesknow the hardship and loneliness some ofyou are experiencing down South andhave high respect for the work of all expe-ditionary,” read a message from the

Brazilian Antarctic Program in 2001.“Now that the longest night has passed,let’s cheer the forthcoming return of thesun and let its brightness and warmth raiseour spirits.”

As the early explorers did, today’s wintercrew dress in their best and feast in style.

At McMurdo Station the midwintermeal starts with a cocktail hour. The sta-tion managers act as waiters, pouring wineand serving an assortment of hors d’oeu-vres: blackened sea scallops with tomatochili pepper and cumin aioli, roasted red

pep-

per and potato pancakes, pumpkinraviolis and sticky rice dumplings.The cafeteria is transformed withdecorations and linen table cloths.The greatest transformation is thepeople themselves, who for oneevening doff heavy parkas andCarrhart overalls to appear unrecog-nizably refined in button-down shirtsor dresses.

“Midwinter is a time of celebrat-ing and I usually feel like ‘Wow,we’re halfway done already?’” saidLynn Hamann. “Last year, we had afancy dinner in the galley with lots ofstarlight decorations, a dance, table-cloths and wine, and we all dressedup for the occasion.”

This year the menu includes roastduckling, green lip mussels andNapoleon of halibut, crab and shrimpwith saffron, garlic and thyme sauce.

“I have a very creative staff andexpect a wonderful meal,” wrote

McMurdo chef Jan Jasperson.Each of the 44 Antarctic stations cele-

brates with its own set of midwinter tradi-tions. A few people from McMurdoStation usually visit New Zealand’s ScottBase next door for the Polar Plunge.Hardy - or foolhardy - souls jump into ahole cut in ice meters thick to dunk in sub-freezing water. The landlocked South Polecrew has its own version - the 300 Club.Joining the 300 Club can happen only on

June 21, 2004 The Antarctic Sun •11

See Midwinter on page 12

Celebrating midpoint in the polar nightFrom the midwinter feast shared by Roald Amundsen andhis crew below, to the cabled greetings sent between stationssince the 1950s, Antarctic winter traditions continue.

Below, the midwinter photo sentthis year from the South Pole.

Palmer residents recognized Earth Dayby sending the diversdown to clean debrisfrom the seafloorbeside the pier.

April 21A partial solareclipse was visible on Palmer Peninsula.

April 19Science technicians atARO pressed the redWINTER button, turn-ing off solar instru-ments on the roof untilthe sun returns inSeptember.

April 16An emergency medicalflight picked up threesick people atMcMurdo Station anddropped off groceriesand mail. All threerecovered well.

April 10

12 • The Antarctic Sun June 21, 2004

days when the temperature outside dropsto or below -100F ambient temperature.Then the sauna is cranked to 200F andpeople run from one temperature extremeto the other lightly clad. At Palmer Station,people just jump off the dock into the har-bor.

For Palmer Station, June 21 is the daythey wave goodbye to the research vesselLaurence M. Gould as it leaves them iso-lated for three months. The 19 people leftat Palmer celebrate by sitting down togeth-er for a large meal, said station managerRocky Ness.

“For us it’s going to be the start of ourwinter, where there’s one small groupthat’s alone together uninterrupted, but it’salso beginning to be the end of winter atthe same time because the days are gettinglonger,” Ness said. “It’s kind of a contra-diction, both the beginning and the end.”

Both are worth celebrating, said Ness,who enjoys the solitude of winter.

“I like that feeling of just kind of beingon our own,” he said. “There’s less change.You know who you’re wintering with.”

Because it’s just short of the AntarcticCircle, Palmer never loses the sun com-pletely. Even on Midwinter’s Day they getdaylight from about 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.,though it’s usually muted by clouds. Still,they look forward to the day when the sunrises above the mountains that blocking itfrom direct view in midwinter.

“At Palmer the first time the sun clearsthe glacier, where you can see it, that’swhen people are like, ‘Whoohoo! Winter’sabout over,” Ness said.

Midwinter celebrations at Australia’sCasey Station typically start with a cham-pagne brunch, followed by a short dip inthe Antarctic water and a longer soak intheir outdoor hot tub, wrote John Rich, apast station leader at Casey. The meal startsformally, then relaxes into an evening ofpoetry reading, music and skits.

At the British Rothera Station, the entireweek before Midwinter’s Day is dedicatedto preparations, with all but the most nec-essary station duties put on hold while peo-ple plan games, go skiing and secretlywork on a handmade gift for the exchange,such as picture frames made from old

sledge runners, wrote Stuart Wallace, apast winterer at Rothera. When the dayitself arrives, the BBC World Servicebroadcasts a special half-hour radio showfor the winter crews at Rothera, Halley andBird Island. The broadcasters read mes-sages from the families and friends ofeveryone wintering, and play a songrequested by each station.

The type of celebration may vary fromstation to station, but they all share a senseof isolation, and a comradery across theice.

“Not everyone is cut out to be a winter-over,” wrote Lynn Hamann, now in herthird winter working for supply atMcMurdo Station. “It takes a certain kindof stamina. When the blanket of darknessis gently thrown over Antarctica and onehas four long months of night to look for-ward to, it can be overwhelming for some,both physically (circadian rhythms) andmentally (depression).”

The sun set for the winter three monthsago at the South Pole and two months agoat McMurdo Station on the coast. Twilightlingered about a month after, but since thenthe scientists, construction crews and sup-port staff have lived in the dark, day andnight. At the South Pole they can’t eventurn on lamps to light their way, since tele-scopes in the Dark Sector rely on the con-stant darkness. The windows are all shut-tered to keep indoor lights from polluting

the darkness.The winter staff have quickly become

as attuned to the phases of the moon as weusually are to the daily track of the sunacross the summer sky. Waiting for thenew moon, their eyes adjust to starlight.

“Words are not suitable to describe theclear night skies with millions of colorful-ly twinkling bright stars in formations wedon’t see in the States, such as theSouthern Cross,” wrote Hamann. “The‘upside down’ moon is breathtaking, espe-cially in those dark months in Antarctica inthe winter. The full moon is so bright inMay, June and July it seems like the sun.”

But nothing really can replace sunlight,the vital source of vitamin D that triggersour bodies’ sleeping and waking cycles.Without it, people often find themselvessleeping more and feeling sluggish.

June 20 is the turning point in the sun’sseasonal circuit, the longest summer day inthe northern hemisphere and midnight inthe southern winter’s night. From now onAntarcticans will be counting down untildawn, coming first to McMurdo August 21and then to the South Pole September 23.

“I am sure that other people are reflec-tive (as I am) about when the next time wesee the sun will be,” Koson said. “But ofcourse, the sunrise isn’t even close to theend of the winter, just another milestone ofsorts, along with last flight, sunset, totaldark, midwinter, first light and first flight.”

Midwinter From page 11

Typical wintergreeting fromPalmer Station.Many of the samepeople are backthis year.

Midwinter’sDay

June 20-21(depending what side ofthe dateline you’re on)

The Gould willleave 19 people at

Palmer Station, wherethey will be isolated

for three months whilethe ship goes into dry

dock.

June 21A storm laid waste toMcMurdo Station,tearing out doors andwindows, but hurtingnobody.

May 16A lunar eclipse wasvisible at McMurdo.Palmer residentscouldn’t see it, but cel-ebrated Cinco de Mayowith a fiesta and piña-

ta.

May 5The U.S. stations willcelebrate American

Independence Day inthe dark. McMurdo

usually holds a carnival and indoor

parade.

July 4

McMurdo Ground Station Science WorkshopMarch 9-11, Columbus, OhioWorkshop participants discussed options for col-lecting data from the next generation of polaroperating satellites, which could be in orbit by2006. The new satellites offer increased capabili-ties and open the doors to new science and possi-bilities for observing and learning about theatmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, lithosphere andbiosphere system. However, they require newreceiving equipment. The ground station, locallyknown as the “golfball,” was installed in 1993 bythe National Science Foundation and NationalAeronautics and Space Administration, and par-ticipants considered ways it might be upgraded.The workshop report, The Future of the NextGeneration Satellite Fleet and the McMurdoGround Station, can be read athttp://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/MGS/index.html.

International Partnerships in Ice CoreSciencesMarch 13-16, Algonkian Regional ParkSterling, VirginiaAbout 60 people attended the workshop to dis-cuss ways to combine international resources andexperience to facilitate ice coring science andreduce costs. For details visit: http://nicl-smo.unh.edu/IPICS/IPICS.html

American Physical Society March 22-26, Montreal, CanadaMore than 6,100 physics papers were presented atthe annual March meeting, including a paleocli-matological instrument developed as a spinoff ofthe Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Arrayat the South Pole. For details visit:http://www.aip.org/

Sub-Antarctic Fisheries ManagementAdvisory CommitteeCanberra, Australia, March 25http://www.afma.gov.au/fisheries/antarctic/mac/default.php

International Polar Year meetingMarch 31-April 3, Paris, France

International Assoc. of Antarctic TouristOperators annual meetingApril 27-30, Christchurch, NZPresident Denise Landau described the meetingas “very constructive.” Almost all 70-membersattended. They added a provision to the IAATObylaws saying all members will have no morethan a minor transitory impact on Antarctica andare considering formalizing an accreditationscheme for tour operators. Nadene Kennedy fromthe National Science Foundation gave anoverview of the 2003-2004 Antarctic tourism andallocation of visits for the coming season. Formore: www.iaato.org

15th Global Warming InternationalConference & Expo on Clean EnergyTechnology and Low GHG TransportTechnologiesApril 20-22, San FranciscoFor details visit: www.globalwarming.net

Arctic Science Summit WeekApril 21-28, Reyjkavik, Iceland

European Geophysical UnionApril 26-30, Nice, France

American and Canadian geophysical unionsjoint assembly meetingMay 17-21, Montreal, CanadaU.S. Antarctic Program researchers presentedpapers on several topics, including records of thelate Holocene climate taken from ice core in theDry Valleys and a seismological model of theEast Antarctic crust and upper mantle producedby the Transantarctic Mountain SeismicExperiment (TAMSEIS). For details on TAMSEIS, visithttp://epsc.wustl.edu/seismology/jfisher/. For more on the meeting visit:http://www.agu.org/meetings/sm04/index.shtml

Fifth International Congress of Arctic SocialSciences (ICASS V) May 19-23, University of Alaska, Fairbanks

14th International Offshore and PolarEngineering ConferenceMay 22-28, Toulon, FranceThe conference covered recent research on inter-disciplinary engineering, structures and systems,mechanics and materials, energy and environmentin the fields of the coastal to deep ocean and theArctic to Antarctic. For details visit www.isope.org

Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting XXVIIMay 23 - June 4, Cape Town, South AfricaRepresentatives from all 45 signatory countriesattended this annual conference for AntarcticTreaty Parties. The meeting agenda included dis-cussions of scientific cooperation, tourism man-agement, biological prospecting and theInternational Polar Year coming in 2007-2008.The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research(SCAR) and the Commission for theConservation

June 21, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 13

See Events on page 14

While most researchersleave Antarctica for thewinter, their work continuesup north, with lots of workanalyzing data, presentingfindings at conferencesand making plans forfuture years.

Attending all the Antarctic-related meetings could be afull-time job. Some of thesemeetings, and a few agendaitems, are highlighted below.

After the researchcome the meetings

Tentative schedule forthree Winfly flights toarrive at McMurdo

Station, bringing newsummer crew to prepare

the station and ice runways for main body.

Aug. 20-26

Dawn at the South Pole.

Sept. 23Sunrise at McMurdo

Station. The first lightwill illuminate the

horizon in the weeksbefore.

Aug. 21 “The mountains acrossthe bay (that we forgotwere there) come backinto view in gloriouscolors... A watercolorrainbow of nacreousclouds fills the skies andit’s like a painting.”

-LH

14 • The Antarctic Sun June 21, 2004

of Antarctic Marine Living Resources(CCAMLR) attend the meeting as observers. TheInternational Association of Antarctica TourOperators (IAATO), United Nations EnvironmentProgramme (UNEP), International MaritimeOrganisation (IMO) and others attend as experts.All treaty decisions are made by consensus. Fordetails visit: www.ats.org.ar/27atcm/e/index.htm

Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) Conference: Understanding andPredicting Our Climate SystemJune 21-25, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.Under the auspices of the World ClimateResearch Programme (WCRP), the internationalCLIVAR focuses on describing and understand-ing variability and change of the physical climatesystem on time scales from months to centuriesand beyond. The keynote speaker is Rita Colwell,director of the National Science Foundation.For details visit: www.clivar2004.org

International Symposium: “A Century ofDiscovery: Antarctic Exploration and theSouthern Ocean”June 28-30, Southampton, UKCosponsored by (SCAR), this symposium marksthe 100th anniversary of the arrival of RobertScott’s vessel, Discovery, home to the UK fromhis voyage of scientific and geographic explo-ration in Antarctica. The speakers include authorBill Fox, a grantee to McMurdo in summer 2001,who will make a presentation on “TerraAntarctica: A history of cognition and landscape.”For details visit: www.soc.soton.ac.uk/Discovery

Scientific Committee on Antarctic Researchand COMNAPJuly 25-31, Bremen, GermanyConcurrently running working groups, exhibi-tions, scientific symposium and open science con-ference, including “Conference on Antarctica andthe Southern Ocean in the Global System,” Fordetails visit: http://www.scar28.org

International Geological CongressAugust 20-28, Florence, ItalyMore than 8,000 abstracts and 200 scientific ses-sions are planned for this international confer-ence, which draws more than 3,500 earth scien-tists from 141 countries. For details visitwww.32igc.org

Ecology of the Anarctic Sea Ice Zone FinalSymposiumSeptember 27 - October 1, Korcula, CroatiaThe scientific session will cover all of the keyareas of EASIZ science.

Scientific Committee on Antarctic ResearchXXVIIIOctober 3-9, Bremerhaven, Germany.For details visithttp://www.scar28.org

SCAR Bird Biology Working Group September, Ushuaia, Argentina

The ends of the Earth will be the center of the scientificworld in 2007-2008, if hoped for plans to create the nextInternational Polar Year come to pass.

Planned for the anniversaries of the first and secondInternational Polar Years, and the International GeophysicalYear, scientists around the world are hoping the new IPY willlead to similar increases in exploration and discovery.

The first International Polar Year in 1882-1883 launchedtwo expeditions to the Antarctic, one setting up a research sta-tion on South Georgia Island. Fifty years later as part of thesecond IPY, Admiral Byrd spent a winter alone in the firstinland research station in Antarctica.

The current era of Antarctic research began with theInternational Geophysical Year in 1957-58, when stations wereestablished at McMurdo, the South Pole and other locations.Traverses over the Antarctic icecap yielded the first informedestimates of the total size of Antarctica’s ice mass. The IGYalso led to confirmation of continental drift, launching of theworld’s first satellites and ratification of the Antarctic Treaty in1961.

A year ago the International Council for Science establishedan IPY Planning Group, with endorsement from the World

Meteorological Organization. Interest in the event has beenbroad. When the IPY planning group asked for suggestionsthey received more than 200 responses. Fifteen countries havealready established national IPY committees.

The areas of proposed study include assessing large-scaleenvironmental change in the polar regions, exploring the polarsea floor and subglacial landscape, and using satellite andremote observation techniques to extend the reach of science.

As part of the IPY, the International Partnerships in IceCore Sciences proposed an international project of coringcoastal sites along the large ice sheets of Antarctica andGreenland and drilling deep ice cores to obtain the longestpossible climate record.

Other scientific organizations are planning an ElectronicGeophysical Year (EGY) to coincide with the IPY as a meansof providing an international focus for e-science and virtualobservatory development across all the geosciences. The EGYis supported by the International Union of Geodesy andGeophysics, the Scientific Committee on Solar-TerrestrialPhysics, the International Union of Geological Sciences, andthe Society of Exploration Geophysicists.

For more details go to: http://dels.nas.edu/us-ipy/index.html

IPY puts the bottom of the world at the top of the list

Events From page 13

First main body flightscheduled to McMurdo

Station. The actualflight date will depend

on weather.

Oct. 5

First flight scheduledto South Pole station.

Nov. 1

The Gould arrives atPalmer Station to

deliver the summercrew and take away the

winter crew.

Sept. 23Photos by Sonja Wolter,Glenn Kinoshita and BillServais. Quotes fromGlenn Kinoshita andLynn Hamann.

sources

Winter temperatures at theSouth Pole freeze spit midair,but several of the astrophysicalprojects can’t take the heat.

“It’s way too hot for us,” saidscientist Nicholas Tothill, whoworks with instruments that pre-fer temperatures 200C colderthan the average –80 outside.“We go to the South Pole andthen we cool stuff down.”

To further chill highly sensi-tive astrophysical equipment,the scientists use the same sub-stance that keeps party balloonsafloat – helium. Without it theinstruments can’t work, but sci-ence techs have as much diffi-culty holding onto the flightyelement as children do keepingtheir balloons from driftingaway.

“Most of it just boils off instorage,” said Tothill, his bushybeard and thick, leather gloveslending him the look of a good-natured lumberjack.

The gloves are to insulate hishands and the liquid helium ashe transfers it for AST/RO, theAntarctic SubmillimeterTelescope and RemoteObservatory belonging to theSmithsonian Institution. Theheat in his fingertip would beenough to instantly evaporate aliter of liquid helium.

Steam rushes from the tip ofthe metal tube as Tothill tries tofeed it into another one. The liq-uid inside boils as it comes incontact with room-temperatureair, but its steam is cold, frostingover nearby surfaces. Then theflow stops, blocked by a chunkof frozen air.

Liquid helium has the lowestboiling point of any known sub-stance, -269C, so it is able tobring the astrophysics equip-ment within a few degrees ofabsolute zero. Though helium isa challenge to work with, it iscurrently the only practical wayto get the experiments that cold.

“It’s crucial to us,” said theastrophysicist in charge ofAST/RO, Antony Stark from

the Smithsonian Institution.“It’s absolutely essential to ouroperation."

All of the detectors used byAST/RO are superconductors,which need to be kept below 4kelvin, a few degrees aboveabsolute zero. Any heat, includ-ing that given off by the detec-tors themselves, gets in the wayof a clear reading.

“The cooler we make it, theless noise it adds to the signaland the happier we are,” Tothillsaid.

AST/RO needs about 10liters of helium a day. This win-ter a new instrument, SPIFI(South Pole Imaging Fabry-Perot Interferometer), is piggy-backed onto AST/RO. SPIFIuses 25 liters of helium a day,because it is trying to measureminuscule amounts of heat.

Another South Pole tele-scope, Viper, and the associatedreceiver, ACBAR (ArcminuteCosmology Bolometer ArrayReceiver), require refills of heli-um and nitrogen every threedays to maintain a temperatureof -269C. The actual detectorsare cooled even further to mea-sure slight temperature varia-tions in the cosmic microwavebackground radiation left overfrom the creation of the uni-verse, which is itself -270C.

“If helium runs out, I will bedone,” said Justus Brevik, the

Viper winter technician.Over the summer 18,000

liters of helium were deliveredto the South Pole in tanks thatjust barely fit inside an LC130.That supply needs to last untilthe next flight in late October,through the most criticalresearch season.

“Calculations suggest we’llmake it through the winter withsomething like three table-spoons to spare,” Tothill said.

Losing coolMany winters the helium

runs out before the resupplyarrives. All it takes is a hairlinecrack in a seal on the vacuuminsulated containers to allow thehelium to escape.

“This is a very difficult thingwe’re trying to do,” said JesseAlcorta, cryogenic technicianfor Raytheon Polar Services. “A275-day winter is really pushingthe limits of what we can dorealistically.”

The difficulty holding ontohelium isn’t limited to the SouthPole. Though helium is the sec-ond most plentiful element inthe universe, relatively little isfound on Earth because most ofit has floated away. So little isleft that the element was not dis-covered until 1868 when aFrench astronomer watching asolar eclipse noticed a new yel-

June 21, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 15

Like nocturnal animals,astrophysical telescopes seebetter in the dark, cold polarnight.

They prefer the South Polewinter, when the atmosphereis too chilled to hold any watervapor, making for a clearerview of the cosmos. After thesky darkened in April the tele-scopes were able to start work,but the best months will be thecoldest - August andSeptember.

“That’s when we can startdoing the stuff that’s almostimpossible from other places,”said Nicholas Tothill, a winterscientist for AST/RO, theAntarctic SubmillimeterTelescope and RemoteObservatory.Birthplace of stars

AST/RO looks at theplaces in the galaxy wherestars form out of moleculargas. The molecular gasbetween the stars is so thin itwould seem like a vacuum tolab scientists if you couldbring it back to Earth in abottle.

Already this winterAST/RO put the finishingtouches on a two-year surveyof the center of our galaxy.From the survey, SmithsonianInstitution astrophysicistAntony Stark has a betterunderstanding of how thegalactic center works. A ringof gases orbits the galacticcenter, Stark said. The gasesare stable at low density, but asnew material is slowly addedthe gas rings density reachesan unstable point and the gasforms thousands of stars in afew million years.

The entire cycle takesabout 20 million years,depending "on how much thegalaxy has eaten lately," Starksaid. The gases are about fivetimes warmer than theresearchers had expected and

See Dark on page 16See Helium on page 17

Scientist Nicholas Tothill transfers helium to cool AST/RO.

Stories and photos by Kristan Hutchison / Sun staff

Science after SunsetThe dark side

of researchLighter than air,colder than ice

significantly denser, containing enough gasto make 10 million stars the size of the sun,Stark said.

"We're due for a burst," Stark said. "Itwill come in the next few million years, butit’s way in the galactic center, so it doesn'treally affect the Earth"

Stark recently submitted a paper on inter-pretations of his findings to theAstrophysical Journal Letters. The papercan be read at www.tonystark.org.

Getting a clearer viewScientists still don’t completely under-

stand how stars form, or why some situa-tions create more red ones while others formmore blue. One of the challenges has beenseeing the gases. Though hydrogen is themost common molecule, it’s invisible to thedetectors because it doesn’t emit radiation.The detectors can see carbon monoxide,which radiates energy at multiples of 115gigahertz. AST/RO observes the lines at 230ghz, 460 ghz and 805 ghz, but sensing high-er frequencies is difficult. Next they’d liketo be able to look at ionized gases, particu-larly ionized nitrogen. Ionized nitrogen is acoolant for the interstellar medium, whichmust cool and contract to form new stars,said Gordon Stacey, a Cornell Universityastrophysicist.

Ionized nitrogen is at 1,500 gigahertzand for frequencies that high the atmosphereis nearly opaque. To achieve the neededclarity, detectors are usually sent outside theatmosphere on aircraft, rockets or space-craft, but the atmosphere at the South Pole isclear enough to try because of the low tem-peratures and dry air.

“It’s never been done from the ground,”Tothill said.

Until now. This winter two complemen-tary detectors piggybacked onto AST/ROwill look at the 1,500 gigahertz frequency.

In July Tothill and the other winter scientistworking for AST/RO, Jules Harnett, willturn on SPIFI, the South Pole ImagingFabry-Perot Interferometer. When tempera-tures reach their lowest in August andSeptember they’ll try TREND, the TeraherzReceiver with Niobium Nitride Device.

“We’re going to prove that we can do it,”Tothill said. “Just getting the first few lines(of data) is going to be a lot of fun.”

SPIFI will look at the lifecycle of stars,from birth through redistribution of matter.Stacey is most interested in using SPIFI tolook at the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarfgalaxy sitting over the South Pole. TheMagellanic Cloud has been through fewergenerations than our galaxy, so has fewer ofthe heavy elements created in the nuclearreactions of stars. This lower quantity ofheavy metal makes it similar to what mighthave been seen in the early universe.

Tothill expects about two weeks ofweather sufficiently clear to detect at the1,500 gigahertz frequency. At other astro-physical observatories, such as the JamesClerk Maxwell Telescope on a mountaintopin Hawaii, the best Stacey could get was twoto three days.

"The South Pole site is so superb,”Stacey said. “You can get reliably goodweather in the short submillimeter win-dows.”

Despite the short window of time, havingthese detectors on the ground instead of inorbit is cheaper, faster and easier to fix,Tothill said. Developing the detector andgetting it working takes only two to threeyears, instead of the decade usually neededto get a satellite designed and launched. Ifthe detector has problems, the researcherscan fix it, and the equipment is less likely to

break to begin with since it doesn’t need tobe launched from a rocket “which is basi-cally like having a bunch of guys kick it,”Tothill said.

Mapping the universeIn the nearby control room for the Viper

telescope, winter science tech Justus Brevikworks amid a maze of wires and computers.Every few days he climbs to the roof andbrushes snow off the mirror-like surface ofthe bowl-shaped receiver. The 2.1-metertelescope is used by the ArcminuteCosmology Bolometer Array Receiver(ACBAR) to measure subtle variations inradiation released at the creation of the uni-verse – cosmic microwave background.

“There’s no kind of telescope that canlook back further in time or farther awaythan a microwave telescope,” said GregGriffin, a winter science tech from a previ-ous year who helped Brevik get set up.

Previous years’ data produced some ofthe most detailed maps ever seen of theearly universe. The maps look like splatterpaintings or multicolored inkblot tests, butto the trained eye of researchers the splotch-es of red, yellow, green or blue represent theseeds of galaxies.

“You might see some maps that look likesort of a zigzag pattern, blue and red,”Griffin said. “That’s because of the way ourgalaxy is moving through the universe.”

The data gathered this year will corrobo-rate whether the earlier discoveries aboutthe size, shape and content of the universehold true, and whether theories about howthe universe originally inflated hold true.

“Here’s this inflation theory and you’reseeing it come to life on your screen,”Griffin said. “You really do see things onyour screen that are entirely new.”

16 • The Antarctic Sun June 21, 2004

Dark From page 15

Above, Cornell University astrophysicistGordon Stacey explains the inner workingsof SPIFI, a new, more sensitive detectorAt right, Justus Brevik clears snow from

Viper telescope.

NSF funded research in these stories:Antony Stark, Smithsonian Institution, http://cfawww.harvard.edu/~adair/AST_ROGordon Stacey, Cornell University, www.astro.cornell.edu/SPIFI/new/spifi.htmlWilliam Holzapfel, Univ. of California Berkeley,http://cosmology.berkeley.edu/group/swlh/acbar

June 21, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 17

low line in the solar spectrum, leading to itsname derived from the Greek helios for sun.Other scientists of the time doubted hisclaim until helium was found on earth in1895 after treating uranium with mineralacids.

Today helium is produced from naturalgas, mostly from wells in Texas, Oklahoma,Colorado, Wyoming and Kansas.

“We do most of the helium productioncompared to the rest of the world,” saidNorbert Pacheco, helium team leader at theU.S. Bureau of Land Management.

But like natural gas, supplies of heliumare limited. The U.S. has an estimatedpotential of 8.9 billion cubic meters, whilethe rest of the world is thought to have about16.1 billion cubic meters.

“Just like oil, it’s a renewable resource ifyou’ve got 10 million years to wait aroundfor it,” Alcorta said.

About 80 million cubic meters of heliumwere used in the U.S. last year and another40 million cubic meters were exported. TheU.S. also has about 766 million cubic

meters of helium stockpiled. Besides partyballoons, helium is used for medical MRIs,welding, cryogenics, lasers, nuclear reac-tors, liquid fuel rockets and as an artificialatmosphere for divers.

“In the last couple years it’s been report-ed that we’re going to have shortages andthat the demand is going to outpace the sup-ply by 2008 or 2010,” Pacheco said.

The shortages may have been delayed byeconomic slowdowns in the last few years,which reduced demand, Pacheco said. NowAlcorta expects world helium supplies willbecome scarce in 40 to 60 years. Before itruns out he believes new advances inmechanical refrigeration technology willreduce the reliance on helium at the SouthPole, though helium will still be needed tolaunch weather balloons. He’s more con-cerned with whether the helium in tanks atthe South Pole now will last the season.

“In 12 years I think we’ve only managedto go twice with liquid helium at the end (ofwinter),” Alcorta said.

One of the difficulties is measuring how

much helium is left and how fast it is evap-orating. To guard against loss, each tank isequipped with a gauge to indicate the liquidlevel and sits on a scale, so any sudden lossof weight will be noticed. Eight liters of liq-uid helium weigh about 1 kilogram.

They haven’t been able to pinpoint thecauses of failure, but Alcorta believes partof the problem is caused by storing the heli-um tanks outside, exposed to the SouthPole’s extreme weather. That may cause thevacuum-seals to become brittle and leak.It’s also hard on the science techs transfer-ring the helium, which can take from 10minutes to an hour outside in -80C.Construction is planned to begin in 2005 ona new facility to house the stored heliumand the nitrogen plant.

“A new facility will go a long way inhelping us manage some of the problemswe’ve had,” Alcorta said.

So far the helium is holding out this win-ter, and Tothill hopes there’s still some leftin August and September, when South Poleconditions are best for the detector.

Helium From page 16

Submerged volcano discoveredSun staff

While icebergs floated aboveAntarctic Sound, a new vol-cano erupted below.undersea volcano on a mid-April cruise tothe northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.The cruise’s original destination was thearea where the Larsen B ice shelf had beenbefore it disintegrated in March 2002, butwhen the way was blocked by ice, geolo-gist Eugene Domack from HamiltonCollege decided to check out an underwa-ter cone he’d noticed during a cruise in2002.

“It wasn’t the science we were fundedto go down and do, but sometimes whenthe ice conditions are too heavy you haveto come up with a second plan and a thirdplan,” Domack said. “We said ‘We’ve gotthe tools, let’s nail this intriguing feature.’”

The researchers sent down a mud scud-der, a torpedo-like video camera towedjust above the seafloor. The imagesshowed that though the volcanic coneitself is heavily overgrown with marineplants and animals, several areas of rockwere bare of vegetation, indicating theywere newly formed, Domack said.

Their suspicions were confirmed by thewater temperature near the cone, whichwas 0.5C to 1C, compared to an ambientwater temperature of -1.8C.

“We saw telltale signs, absolutelydefinitive, of geothermic heat,” Domack

said. Domack and co-investigator AmyLeventer from Colgate University broughtback samples of the cone in plastic bagsfor Colgate volcanologist Karen Harpp.

“It’s different from the average pacificseamounts that I’ve seen,” said Harpp,who usually works in the GalapagosIslands.

The samples had the typical roundedlook of volcanic cobble, Harpp said. Therock looks like basalt with a glassy coat-ing. Since glass doesn’t last long in the sea,that’s another indication that the volcano iseither relatively young, or still active,Harpp said. The crystals were also smalland fine, lacking the larger crystals thatdevelop when magma sits inside a biggerchamber for a long time before erupting.

“The exciting part about it is this is notold crusty altered rock that’s been si