2 December, 2002

Sea Ice School

Our team goes to sea ice school to learn how to determine whether a crack in the ice is safe to cross with the vehicle in which we are riding. The first part of the class is inside. We learn about how to spot a crack, and what to do when we do find a crack. We then go out to the sea ice. As you can see, the weather is getting bad. We are instructed after a while to end now and come back tomorrow. Can you guess why?

<> Sea Ice Training Sea Ice training is necessary for anyone needing to travel on the sea ice during their research. Our team is planning to sample soils at Cape Royds. The best way to travel the 20 miles is across the sea ice in snow mobiles. We begin our training in the classroom learning to assess the safety of crossing various cracks in the sea ice.

The first attempt at sea ice school was thwarted by a herbie - this is a storm that is a combination of a hurricane and a blizzard. We have high winds and blowing snow that reduces visibility to very short distances.