Scott Base and Miers Valley

Last night, Byron and I were invited over to Scott Base for dinner. Scott Base is the Antarctica New Zealand (aka the Kiwis) base. It's just 2 miles from McMurdo but it's a lot smaller. The maximum capacity is only around 100 people and I think they had about 60 people when we were there. Since it's so small, you have to be invited over by one of the Kiwis. Fortunately, Byron has plenty of friends so we got to go.

They have really good meals over there so it was a good reprieve. I can't remember everything we ate except I remember that they had real ice cream! That was good.

Afterward, we hung out in their bar (I had a Sprite. They have American night once a week where all the Americans can come, but it wasn't last night. I've heard it's a lot rowdier when all the Americans swarm the place) and I went on a tour of the base. Everything is connected together which is very useful in the Antarctic winters. It's definitely not as big and sprawling as Mactown.

Scott Base, Antarctica

I thought that my trip out to Lake Hoare would be my last field trip. However, due to some weather and scheduling conflicts for some of the other people who were supposed to go, I was able to go out this morning to help set up a new set of plots in Miers Valley. This valley is farther south than Taylor Valley, and even farther south than Garwood Valley (the one I took a helicopter ride to a couple of weeks ago). Miers Valley is more remote than Taylor Valley in the sense that there are no field camps or emergency shelter structures anywhere (no field camps with wireless internet and fresh homemade cookies either!). Our radios can't reach McMurdo (Taylor Valley is farther away from Mactown than Miers is, but there are radio repeaters set up throughout Taylor), so we took a satellite phone to communicate.

Miers is a pretty small valley with two glaciers, a stream, and a lake.

Sorry the picture is tilted! We were in a banking helicopter. This picture is taken looking up the valley. You can see Adams Glacier on the left, Miers Glacier on the right, and Holiday Peak sticking up like a nunatak from between them. You can see the lake and stream as well (named Miers Stream and Miers Lake, I think?)

Our job was to set up a total of 9 sites (3 at each elevation) going down the mountainside. We also needed to collect 3 samples at each of the sites. Since it's so cold in the Dry Valleys, the soil forms these interesting shapes called polygons. We needed to find polygons that were big enough to fit our plots so it took a little while to find the right location. While Martijn, Zach, and I did that, Byron set up a meteorological station. The station collects soil temperature and moisture year-round.

The technical name for polygons is thermal contraction crack polygons. They have been found on Mars and in the Arctic as well. They form in Antarctica because the soil freezes then thaws repeatedly. When we walk around in the Dry Valleys, we try to only walk in the cracks so it can make a relatively short journey take a lot longer.

After we were done sampling, we only had a few minutes left before the helicopter came to pick us up again. I took a picture of a ventifact, which is a rock that has been shaped and hollowed out by wind-blown sand. I also got a picture next to the stream running through the valley.

Overall, it was a great final day of field work in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica!

Polygons on the side of Miers Valley

A ventifact a few hundred yards from the stream in Miers Valley

Standing next to the stream with both glaciers in the background