A Train of Trainings
Our team is complete! We have all arrived to McMurdo Station (including Bridget, our PolarTREC teacher) and we’re settling in to our new lives and busy schedules. In addition to team meetings and gear organization, our first week has consisted of trainings, trainings, and more trainings. These trainings are mandatory for everyone who arrives to McMurdo, even those seasoned folks who have been coming out for many year. Complacency can be just as dangerous as inexperience. These trainings are specially designed to prepare us to work safely in this extreme and remote environment.
Upon arrival from the airstrip before picking up our bags, we attended a McMurdo orientation to learn such critical things as where and when to eat meals, what to do if you get locked out of your room, how to monitor the ever-changing weather conditions, and where to find the many community services like the store, the gym, the bar, the craft room, and the post office. We also discovered “Skua,” an Antarctic scavenger bird and cousin to the gull, but also the namesake for the amazing McMurdo free thrift store system. Among the quirky assortment of worn-out fleece neck gaiters, Xmas ornaments, old paperbacks, board games, and coffee mugs, I found a lovely travel towel and an excellent pair of snow boots with plenty of life left in them.
Our first major training was Antarctic Field Safety, where we covered such important topics as finding true north from the bottom of the world, how to interpret the colored flags marking routes to follow and avoid, how to set up our emergency tents and stove to keep us safe in the field, and the best techniques to set anchors in the ice. We had GPS training to practice marking our positions and following and retracing routes in conditions with poor visibility. The Pisten Bully and snowmobile trainings focused not only on driving skills but also on troubleshooting potential mechanical issues. We learned appropriate radio communications and also had an orientation of the Crary lab facility.
But by far, the most exciting training was the all-day hands-on Sea Ice Safety course. As a native coastal Californian, I had never really considered the complex processes that drive the seasonal formation and deterioration of a freezing ocean. It was truly fascinating to learn about the many different types of sea ice…frazil, pancake, nilas, columnar, and platelet, just to name a few. Understanding the dynamics of sea ice cracks is critical for our work with seals near their breathing holes. So many different environmental and geographical features contribute to the formation of cracks, from the daily single tides that form predictable tidal cracks at the land-sea interface to the storm events that break apart the sea ice where it may reform as jagged puzzle pieces of rafted ice. Straight edge cracks can form along pressure points and mend themselves, much like a broken bone can heal with good alignment and restricted movement. However, when these cracks continue to shift with swell and currents, they may refreeze unevenly, as with a bone that has not been set properly. We explored the cracks around McMurdo Sound and learned to identify their telltale surface patterns like continuous linear features, pressure ridges, changes in color or texture, and the most obvious indicators…the seals themselves. Snow can serve to insulate the ice from the air temperature, but also weighs down the ice and can hide dangerous cracks. We dug through the snow to examine the ice cracks more closely. We learned how to profile the cracks by accurately measuring their width and drilling down through the ice to measure the depth to the water; this allowed us to determine whether it was safe to cross over them with vehicles of various sizes. We are currently at the maximum extent of sea ice (mid-late October), which diminishes to minimum coverage by early March. In the coming days, we look forward to testing our new knowledge as we navigate across the sea ice each day to work with the amazing Weddell seals pups in their magical sparkling world!
Written by: Heather Harris (HH)
