McMurdo

Climbing off the plane, we all finally realized what we had just done. But it took days for this to sink in. Not unlike the Grand Canyon, the landscape was all but imperceptible. The idea that we had just landed a gigantic airplane on an ocean, albeit a frozen one, was a little bizarre. And then there were the funny machines... A world quite alien. So many had been here before us, but not 100 years ago Shackleton got stuck here trying to traverse the continent for the first time, not 50 years ago was the first permanent base established.



Mt. Erebus, the local active volcano, steams or smokes most of the time. It is a rare type of volcano because it has a constant lake of molten lava present. Only two in the world like this one. this is actually on Ross Island, just off the coast but connected by the Ross ice shelf



A Delta from the 80's used for carrying people here and there. There are other containers attached to the back for carrying fuel, water, etc... I Can't remember this one's name, but it surely has one, just like every piece of equipment or building around here.

McMurdo, our destination for a couple of days, is the biggest base of human habitation on the Continent. It sports one of the only existing manual-set bowling alleys, the worlds southern-most pottery studio, the Hotel California (where I slept), the most amazing views of anything I have seen in my life, and... oh yes, lots of fascinating science.

Climbing atop Observation Hill for a great view in all directions, I met a guy who is driving with a team of scientists across the continent collecting data on stable isotopes of H2o. My iterest has only amplified as I've learned of the sea life in this all but uninhabitable place. In the lab there is a "touch tank" where you can pick up and hold all sorts of familiar but somehow very strange animals. The spindly under-water spider the size of the hand I held it in was particularly thrilling. There are science lectures and periodic tours of labs at both McMurdo and South Pole.

The lecture I attended last evening was on the form of the universe by a fellow who is looking back in time to light and sound waves produced during the "big bang". The basic idea is that the universe is expanding faster than the speed of light, and therefore we can see all the way back in time to the big bang, and then darkness beyond (The light from stars far yonder has not had a chance, nor will it ever reach earth) It all came home with a firey analogy to ping-pong, which I would love to tell you more about, but perhaps over a game of foosball (I have lots of international friends, and partial isolation helping to hone my skills - so watch out 2012 Olympics!), and coffee with instant hot chocolate mixed in (my new favorite break-time beverage, especially with the home-made peanut butter cookies).


Check out some pics of the Ice Caves trip I managed to squeeze into in my two days at McMurdo!

Highlights also included a stop at Scott's hut (an early 20th century antarctic explorer),

and a penguin! (This is a somewhat rare and priveledged sighting as many work here for years without seeing one)

As an aside we managed to get incredibly nice weather while here, to the point at which the sun melded enough snow to make puddles of muddy water on the ground, hence McMurdo's nickname: MuckMurdo. It gets very muddy here in the summertime, apparently a constant challenge to the maintenance crews. In short, I know the weather is unpredictable and sometimes worse here than at pole, but it kind of felt like cheating! On to Pole!