|
1 December, 1999McMurdo Station, Ross Island, Antarctica Wednesday Happy December! I cannot believe that Christmas is in only 25 days! I am a bit homesick, especially when I think about Christmas! Still....I cannot imagine leaving this place of such beauty! Today we waged war on the gas chromatograph (GC)! Are you getting tired of hearing me talk about our GC problems? Well, we are quite tired of dealing with them and yet, we continue because we have no choice! It's a mystery to us and a good scientist is always challenged by a mystery! We will solve this mystery! I helped Julie and Maite awhile, making media in which to grow our bacteria, cleaning the tubing from which we suck the water from Lake Bonney, and a few other odds and ends jobs. And I paced in the GC room, waiting to see if my most recent gas injection would be the one that proved we had indeed fixed our problem. It was not to happen! And so the saga of the fading GC continues.... ANSWER TO YESTERDAY'S QUESTION: The SWEAT hypothesis is a theory that a huge landmass, much like Pangea or Gondwanaland, existed many years ago. This landmass, thought to have broken up 750-600 million years ago, is called Rodinia. The acronym SWEAT comes from the theory that the southwest United States (SW) was once attached to East Antarctica (EAT)! When this landmass broke apart, Gondwanaland and Laurentia resulted. For a wonderful animation of the break-up of Rodinia, the creation of Gondwanaland or Pangea, or what the future holds for the continents that we know today, visit www.scotese.com. TODAY'S QUESTION: What is a moraine? Sharon JUST FOR KIDS!!!!! McMurdo Station, Ross Island, Antarctica Wednesday Happy December! I cannot believe that Christmas is in only 25 days! I am a bit homesick, especially when I think about Christmas! Still....I cannot imagine leaving this place of such beauty! Today we waged war on the gas chromatograph (GC)! Are you getting tired of hearing me talk about our GC problems? Well, we are quite tired of dealing with them and yet, we continue because we have no choice! It's a mystery to us and a good scientist is always challenged by a mystery! We will solve this mystery! I helped Julie and Maite awhile, making media (a kind of soup) in which to grow our bacteria, cleaning the tubing from which we suck the water from Lake Bonney, and a few other odds and ends jobs. And I paced in the GC room, waiting to see if my most recent gas injection would be the one that proved we had indeed fixed our problem. It was not to happen! And so the saga of the fading GC continues.... ANSWER TO YESTERDAY'S QUESTION: The SWEAT hypothesis is a theory that a huge landmass much like Pangea or Gondwanaland, existed many years ago. This landmass, thought to have broken up 750-600 million years ago, is called Rodinia. "SWEAT" comes from the idea that the southwest United States (SW) was once attached to East Antarctica (EAT)! This spells "SWEAT"! For a wonderful animation of the break-up of Rodinia, the creation of Gondwanaland or Pangea, or what the future holds for the continents that we know today, visit www.scotese.com. TODAY'S QUESTION: What is a moraine? Sharon
Contact the TEA in the field at . If you cannot connect through your browser, copy the TEA's e-mail address in the "To:" line of your favorite e-mail package. |
