http://iceshelf.wordpress.com Expedition to a crumbling Antarctic ice shelf Wed, 08 May 2013 17:35:34 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://1.gravatar.com/blavatar/983d9dfd8d443c0fe127f6330b39d678?s=96&d=http%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.png http://iceshelf.wordpress.com http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/the-last-best-place/ http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/the-last-best-place/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 19:46:21 +0000 amylanerandall http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/?p=1371 ]]> http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/the-last-best-place/feed/ 0 amylanerandall The sea off the Antarctic Peninsula. Daylight is now down to seven hours in this [art of the world. (Credit: Ted Scambos, NSIDC) Antarctic Peninsula (AP) sunset landscapes as the Araon sails back to the western side of the AP. (Credit: Ted Scambos, NSIDC) A minke whale breaches near the Araon. (Credit: Ted Scambos, NSIDC) Erinn Petit, Ronald Ross, Suk Young Yun, and Won Sang Lee wait for a helicopter load at Spring Point. (Credit: Ted Scambos, NSIDC) You Dong Cho directs the helicopter to a landing area near our Spring Point instrument installations. (Credit: Ted Scambos, NSIDC) Amy Leventer of Colgate College and Ronald Ross install an Extreme Ice Survey camera at Spring Point overlooking the Cayley Glacier calving front to the east, with the Araon in the foreground. (Credit: Ted Scambos, NSIDC) Ted, Amy, and Ronald make final camera adjustments as bergy bits float by in Brialmont Cove in Hughes Bay. (Credit: Erin Pettit, University of Alaska Fairbanks) http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/east-side-story/ http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/east-side-story/#comments Sun, 28 Apr 2013 12:01:29 +0000 amylanerandall http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/?p=1350 ]]> http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/east-side-story/feed/ 0 amylanerandall A tabular iceberg passed near Snow Hill Island as the Araon headed south toward the Larsen B region. (Credit: Ted Scambos, NSIDC) A flock of emperor penguins, assembled on an ice floe near Snow Hill Island. (Credit: Ted Scambos, NSIDC) - The flock toboggans away from the sound of the passing ship. (Credit: Ted Scambos, NSIDC) Rifts near the calving front of Scar Inlet Ice Shelf could eventually form tabular icebergs. Closely spaced crevasses on Scar Inlet Ice Shelf could fill with melt water during the next warm summer, leading to a possible disintegration event as happened to the main Larsen B in 2002. Ted Scambos records some notes on Leppard Glacier. The field instrument next to Ted is a backpack-mounted, gas-powered steam drill. (photo courtesy of Jennifer Bohlander) Rob Bauer (in black) and Erin Pettit (in orange) ready equipment prior to to a radar traverse of Leppard Glacier. An approaching fog bank was the precursor to an intense snow squall that forced a retreat from Leppard Glacier by the remaining field team of 7 scientists. The Araon, enshrouded in freezing mist and battling 40 knot winds at the Larsen B fast ice edge, awaits the final helicopter returning with a field party from Leppard Glacier. (photo courtesy of Erin Pettit) http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/a-weather-curtailed-radar-survey-of-leppard-glacier/ http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/a-weather-curtailed-radar-survey-of-leppard-glacier/#comments Sun, 21 Apr 2013 19:53:33 +0000 amylanerandall http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/?p=1343 ]]> http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/a-weather-curtailed-radar-survey-of-leppard-glacier/feed/ 0 amylanerandall Erin Pettit and Jenn Bohlander prepare for their radar traverse on Leppard Glacier, with a background view down glacier onto the Scar Inlet Ice Shelf. Jenn Bohlander on Leppard Glacier, with a background view up glacier. Rob Bauer on Leppard Glacier, with Mount Alibi in the background. R/V Araon, parked against the fast ice in the Larsen B embayment, awaits the return of the Leppard Glacier radar survey team. http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/first-flight-to-crane-glacier/ http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/first-flight-to-crane-glacier/#comments Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:36:54 +0000 amylanerandall http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/?p=1311 ]]> http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/first-flight-to-crane-glacier/feed/ 0 amylanerandall Mountains surround Beascochea Bay. The helicopters ready for take-off. Cold winds blowing snow into the Crane Glacier drainage basin. Above are "standing wave" lenticular clouds, similar to those seen in Colorado's Front Range. A large refrozen lake of meltwater in the middle of Crane Glacier. The calving front of Crane Glacier - 6 km wide. Note the glacier trim line of past glacier levels on the far side. Youdong Cho, mountaineer and Won Sang Lee, geophysicist, look over the outcrop of rock selected for a planned later deployment of the seismic instrumentation and the Balog camera. Helo pilot Carlos has found the Araon. Iceberg in Beascochea Bay. The Araon in Beascochea Bay. http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/the-araon-the-ship-of-dreams/ http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/the-araon-the-ship-of-dreams/#comments Tue, 16 Apr 2013 19:17:00 +0000 amylanerandall http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/?p=1302 ]]> http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/the-araon-the-ship-of-dreams/feed/ 0 amylanerandall The Araon at the quay in Punta Arenas The bridge of the Araon A cabin on the Araon Jenn, Ronald, and Ted work on the Balog Camera Ronald, Rob, and Ted work on the Balog Camera Ted and Erin Pettit, glaciologist at University of Alaska, Fairbanks, with a backdrop of the peaks and glaciers ringing Beascochea Bay. http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/1290/ http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/1290/#comments Sat, 13 Apr 2013 19:52:00 +0000 amylanerandall http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/?p=1290 ]]> http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/1290/feed/ 0 amylanerandall Jennifer Bohlander and Rob Bauer await the arrival of the Korean icebreaker R/V Araon at the Punta Arenas pier. The NSF-USAP icebreaker R/V Lawrence M Gould is directly behind Jenn and Rob. The super-structure of the Gould's sister ship R/V Nathaniel T Palmer can be seen to the left of the Gould. Jennifer Bohlander stands in front of the monument of Ferdinand Magellan in the main square of Punta Arenas. Ted Scambos, Rob Bauer, and Jennifer Bohlander at their hotel Diego de Almagro in Punta Arenas. Ronald Ross and Jennifer Bohlander locate and inspect cargo items in the DAMCO warehouse that they had shipped to Punta Arenas over the past couple of months. Ronald Ross, Jennifer Bohlander, and DAMCO warehouse employee Francesco. http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/1235/ http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/1235/#comments Fri, 05 Apr 2013 20:43:44 +0000 amylanerandall http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/?p=1235 ]]> http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/1235/feed/ 0 amylanerandall Crane Glacier http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/about/ http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/about/#comments Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:00:01 +0000 iceshelf http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/?p=9 ]]> http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/about/feed/ 0 iceshelf http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2012/12/24/1190/ http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2012/12/24/1190/#comments Mon, 24 Dec 2012 18:24:29 +0000 amylanerandall http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/?p=1190 ]]> http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2012/12/24/1190/feed/ 0 amylanerandall The first Sony camera images of the repair team (minus Terry) captured by AMIGOS-6. Left to right: Phil Harle, Jim Scott, Ash Fusiarski, Ian (Cheese) Rudkin, and Al Howland. The right side of these AMIGOS-6 images show a 1000-foot iceberg calving off the ice shelf 2 miles southwest of the AMIGOS-6 tower. The event occurred between the time the second and third images were acquired. The earlier first image and later fourth image are included because they have better illumination. http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/1137/ http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/1137/#comments Wed, 19 Dec 2012 15:17:04 +0000 amylanerandall http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/?p=1137 ]]> http://iceshelf.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/1137/feed/ 0 amylanerandall Larsen B full map Full and zoomed versions of a Landsat-derived map of LARISSA field sites. The zoomed version shows all the AMIGOS(blue asterisks) and cGPS (red circle and black square) sites visited by Terry Haran in Nov-Dec 2012. Cape Disappointment is shown but doesn't have a blue asterisk, and AMIGOS-6 is located on the small black outcrop just below and to the left of the black circle. Colors indicate ocean depths (red = shallow, blue = deep) derived from sonar data. For scale, Flask Glacier is about 4 miles across at the location of the AMIGOS-3 blue asterisk. (courtesy of Eugene Domack and Caroline Lavoie, Hamilton College) Icecapped Bildad Peak at an elevation of 2600 feet rises some 1300 feet above Flask Glacier and is visible in some AMIGOS-3 images. View is toward the northwest. The northwest edge of Scar Inlet ice shelf, the last remnant of the Larsen B ice shelf, is being ripped open due to the increasingly large difference in velocity between slower moving ice northwest of the shear margin and faster moving ice to the southeast emanating from Flask Glacier. Shear zone middle Shear zone south The collapsed AMIGOS-6 tower as seen during one of three passes made over Cape Disappointment just before landing. The team gathers materials and then rope up in anticipation of hiking out about a mile to the AMIGOS-6 site. (courtesy of Jim Scott BAS) Field assistant Cheese Rudkin at the toppled AMIGOS-6 tower on Cape Disappointment. Seals (probably Weddell) resting on the banks of a sea ice lead extending south from Cape Disappointment. (courtesy of Jim Scott BAS) Phil and Ash work on attaching the AMIGOS-6 electronics and high resolution camera enclosure to the now erect and pole-strengthened tower. (courtesy of Jim Scott BAS) Terry talks to Ted Scambos at NSIDC in Boulder to verify that at least some valid data are being received, so the Iridium cable and antenna seem to be working correctly. (courtesy of Jim Scott BAS) The repaired AMIGOS-6 tower stands ready to record and transmit weather and image data. (courtesy of Jim Scott BAS) After taking off from Cape Disappointment, a final view of the now repaired AMIGOS-6 tower. Composite image of Exasperation Inlet from Exasperation Point on the left to Cape Fairweather on the right en route to Crane Glacier, which enters the inlet far to the left and out of the frame. The foreground view is entirely sea ice which is at most a few meters thick. There are a few icebergs in the foreground and many more as we approached the glaciers from which most of the visible icebergs have been calving. Prior to the disintegration event in February 2002, the entire foreground view of this image would have been of the Larsen B ice shelf which was several hundred meters thick. The calving front of Mapple Glacier. Crane Glacier enters Exasperation Inletfar to the right of this image. The calving front of Crane Glacier is at the far left of the image and Exasperation Point at the far right. The flat large tabular iceberg in the foreground has probably drifted into Exasperation Inlet from a glacier far to the south. The 2.5 mile wide Crane Glacier calving front is heavily crevassed. The crevasses appear to extend to great depth causing virtually all icebergs that calve off to be very narrow relative to their total thickness. Such icebergs cannot float upright, and so either they immediately lay down on their side or they crumble into bergy bits. Thus most of the horizontal surfaces of the large flat icebergs in this image were originally the vertical surfaces of crevasses in the the glacier before calving. Composite image of the northern side of the Crane Glacier calving front and the iceberg melange just downstream. The calving front is about 150 feet high and the largest icebergs are over 1000 feet across. The Crane Glacier surface has lowered by several hundred feet since 2002. A small terrace of stranded glacial ice just above where the calving front meets the rock wall stands about 500 feet above the surface of the melange. A side glacier about 2 miles across flows into Crane Glacier about 9 miles upstream of the calving front. A relatively uncrevassed area on the surface of Crane is visible in the lower left corner of the image and may suitable for some future instrument installation via Twin Otter. A panorama taken where we exited Crane Glacier fjord en route to Leppard Glacier. A pressure ridge marks the confluence of the left (southwest) and right (west) branches of Crane Glacier. Another side glacier can be seen entering the fjord from the right (northwest). Bildad Peak and Flask Glacier, this time looking southeast. AMIGOS-3, though not visible here, is located near the right edge of the image. Panorama of Flask Glacier from Spermwhale Ridge on the left to Pip Cliffs on the right. Due west view looking up Flask Glacier which is almost 3 miles wide atthis point. Images of the Leppard Glacier continuous GPS system before and aftera touch-and-go landing Images of the Leppard Glacier continuous GPS system before and afterbeing raised about 3 feet. Image of the Leppard Glacier continuous GPS system's GPS antenna located2.12 meters (about 7 feet) above the snow surface. Ash Fusiarski repairing the damaged weather station cable after the solar panels had been raised.