10 December, 2002

Where did the sun go?

Date: 12/10/02

Latitude: 82° 00' 03.59" S

Longitude: 110° 00' 29.59" W

Time of Observations: 10 PM local time

Temperature: -18°C/ 0°F

Wind speed: 16 knots

Wind Chill: -30°C/ -22°F

Wind direction : Northerly

Meters of ice collected: 91m

By Dan Dixon

Waking up in a bunk that doesn't shake, rattle, and roll is a refreshing change. We all slept like logs after our marathon from Byrd Camp. First thing this morning Jim processed the last 50 km of shallow radar data on his laptop computer so that we could select an appropriate location for our science experiments. As luck would have it, the very spot where we stopped turned out to be fine and our fuel drums from the LC-130 air drop are right here too. After a late breakfast we all got to work on our experiments. Unfortunately, the nasty weather that we drove into last night got worse. Bad weather makes work more difficult and less enjoyable, for most of the day it was impossible to see the sun at all.

Despite the weather, we worked hard and managed to complete all that we had set out to do for the day. Markus and Betsy managed to fully set up the atmospheric sampling tent in record time. Blue completed his high-resolution GPS survey around the camp and then he and Gordon installed the mass balance site. Jim finished processing all the rest of the shallow radar data from the first leg of the trip. Brian did some fine tuning to the deep radar antennas and also helped Carl and Lynn dig out the fuel drum bundles, the drums were heavily snowed-in because they were dropped several weeks ago. Dan, Susan, Mark, and Paul set up the drill site and collected more than 20m of three-inch core and Andrea did another fine job of keeping everyone well-fed. At the end of this productive and cold day, it was a lovely treat to relax in our bunks and watch yet another DVD movie. Let's hope the weather improves for tomorrow.

--

April M. Metz

Web Designer/Coordinator

Department of Earth Science

Rice University

P. O. Box 1892

Mail Stop 126

6100 Main Street

Keith-Wiess Geological Laboratories

Office 318

ametz@rice.edu

713-348-2356