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17 November, 1999West Lake Bonney, Taylor Valley, Antarctica Wednesday I noticed that on yesterday's journal I had written "Monday" when it was really Tuesday! I get so confused when there is no distinction between day and night! An absolutely amazing day! Today was a day of 'firsts'. In the morning, I had my first ride on a helicopter! Julie and I were petrified until we lifted off the ground. It was like riding a roller coaster without the quick turns! Our pilot, John, was very nice and didn't do anything to scare us. The National Science Foundation helicopters are operated by PHI, a company based in the Gulf of Mexico. They are accustomed to operating around oilrigs. Julie tells me that now she wants to become a licensed helicopter pilot! So much for getting over the fear! I don't think I'm ready to do that yet, but I am more comfortable now and it was a lot of fun! We rode in the helo for 54 miles to Lake Bonney in the Dry Valleys, Taylor Valley, specifically. This was my first glimpse of glaciers up close and my first site of the Dry Valleys. What a spectacular place! Lake Bonney sits in a valley with Taylor Glacier at the west end and numerous other glaciers sliding down the hillsides! It was a view that I will not soon forget! Lake Bonney is only one of several lakes in this parcticular valley. It is a large, permanently ice-covered lake and is separated into two parts called lobes. Think of a figure 8. Lake Bonney is similar in that there is a west lobe and an east lobe that are separated by a shallow, narrow sill. Today, we landed on the ice near Taylor Glacier on the west lobe of the lake. Now for some of the science! Another group had already drilled holes through the 4 meters of ice for us and had erected a weather hut. Inside the hut, we assembled our gear, including the trace-metal clean box, our sampling bottles and bags, the measured tubing so we would now at what depth we were taking samples, the generator to run the pumps to pump the water, and of course, the food! At six different depths (from 3 meters to 25 meters) we filled a bottle to test for chlorophyll (should only be present in the layers receiving light), nutrients (such as nitrates and nitrites), bacterial samples (for types and numbers of bacteria present), our sampling bags for our denitrification experiments, and a sample that measured the temperature and salinity of the lake. I even tasted it! I made a horrible face because it was so salty and fizzed in my mouth! The water was about 3 degrees Celsius on average and the salinity ranged from slightly saline to off-the-chart saline! The deeper we sampled, the more saline the sample became. My final 'first' came when Julie fed me a cracker with sardines on it! I told you she always gets me to eat weird food! It was very salty and I actually liked it! At 5 p.m. a Kiwi helicopter picked us up. Their helicopter was different from the one in which we arrived. The Kiwi helicopter was an Iroquois, a Viet Nam War vintage helo. The New Zealand Air Force operates these helos and they are more apt to scare you when you ride! The pilot, Jason, liked to ride very close to the hillside and swoop down as you crossed a peak! It was fun, but scary! Our work had only begun for the day! After supper, we had to process the samples. The sampling bags were weighed, a trace-metal clean room was built, and acetylene was added to each of the sampling bags. I'll explain this part of the experiment in a later journal. Maite worked until 1 a.m. filtering chlorophyll samples! Tomorrow we will begin testing the samples for the presence of nitrous oxide, an indicator that denitrification is occurring. Answer to yesterday's question: The air is so dry in the Dry Valleys that any snow in the atmosphere immediately evaporates (sublimates). That is, it goes from a solid to a gas without ever passing through a liquid phase. Today's question: Who first described the Dry Valleys? HINT: It was a famous polar explorer! Polar Profile: Quien es Maite Maldonado? La chica que llama a Sharon, "Charo". Dr. Maria Teresa Maldonado Pareja is a a Ph.D scientist working with Dr. Mark Wells and Dr. Bess Ward. Maria is better known as "Maite", which means, beloved or dear one. Maite is from Grenada, Spain and came to the U.S. to attend Verde Valley School in Arizona for her final year of high school. She stayed in the U.S. for her undergraduate degree in biology/marine biology, graduating from Smith College in Massachusetts in 1991. Maite took it a break from school, living for awhile in New York City and traveling through Central and South America. In 1992, Maite moved to Montreal, Canada to study at McGill University under the guidance of Dr. Neil M. Price. Her dissertation, "Iron Acquisition By Marine Phytoplankton" earned her a Ph.D. Today, Maite works for both Dr. Wells and Dr. Ward in Maine and Princeton, respectively. Maite is an avid mountain biker and enjoys cross-country sking. She listens to opera in the laboratory and is our expert when it comes to good food! Maite is quite a gourmet! Maite and Julie, yesterday's polar profile, are best friends. Sharon JUST FOR KIDS!!!!! I noticed that on yesterday's journal I had written "Monday" when it was really Tuesday! I get so confused when there is no difference between day and night! An absolutely amazing day! Today was a day of 'firsts'. In the morning, I had my first ride on a helicopter! Julie and I were very scared until we lifted off the ground. It was like riding a roller coaster without the quick turns! Our pilot, John, was very nice and didn't do anything to scare us. Julie has decided that now she wants to become a licensed helicopter pilot! We flew in the helicopter to Lake Bonney, which is in the Taylor Valley, one of the Dry Valleys. This was the first time I got to see a glacier up close and the first time I ever saw the Dry Valleys. We landed right on the frozen surface of the lake! The lake is covered with 4 meters of ice! Get a meter stick and measure 4 meters in you school hallway to see how thick the ice is! Fortunately, a hole had already been drilled for us! We took water samples at different depths in the water. We measured the temperature and how salty the water was. I even tasted it! I made a horrible face because it was so salty and fizzed in my mouth! The temperature was about 3 degrees Celsius. Answer to yesterday's question: The air is so dry in the Dry Valleys that any snow in the atmosphere immediately evaporates. That is, it goes from a solid to a gas without ever becoming a liquid. Think about melting an ice cube and heating it until it boils. The solid ice melts to become liquid water. The liquid water gets so hot that it becomes steam. In the Dry Valleys, the solid ice (or snow) does not become liquid. Because of the dry air, the solid goes straight to a gas. Today's question: Who first saw the Dry Valleys and told the world about them? HINT: It was a famous polar explorer! Polar Profile: Quien es Maite Maldonado? La chica que llama a Sharon, "Charo". Dr. Maria Teresa Maldonado Pareja is better known as "Maite", which means, beloved or dear one. Maite is from Grenada, Spain and came to the U.S. for her final year of high school. She stayed in the U.S. for college. She studied biology at Smith College in Massachusettes. In 1992, Maite moved to Montreal, Canada to study at McGill University where she earned her Ph.D. Today, Maite works for both Dr. Wells and Dr. Ward. Maite likes mountain biking and enjoys cross-country skiing. She listens to opera in the laboratory and is our expert when it comes to good food! Maite is quite a gourmet! Maite and Julie, yesterday's polar profile, are best friends. Sharon
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