Weddell World, Antarctica
Weddell World is our camp on the annual sea ice in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. We are located near the tip of the Erebus Glacier tongue. This glacier flows off Ross Island into McMurdo Sound. We have a flagged road from McMurdo to Weddell World. By Spryte (a tracked vehicle) it takes us about 45 minutes to reach our camp from Mactown, by snowmobiles only about 25 minutes.
Click on images to enlarge.
This overview image shows the location of our camp relative to area landmarks near Ross Island in McMurdo Sound.
Our camp consists of several structures. The main structure is the long Jamesway. To the right is the small black outhouse, and then the main mast for communications and telemetry antennae. To the right of that is a hut used as sleeping quarters, and finally the Mag Hut, a small hut devoid of ferromagnetic materials that we use to calibrate the electronic compasses for our seal tracking system.
The main structure is a modular Jamesway building. The Jamesway has a sectional wooden frame covered by insulated fabric. It is like a quonset hut made out of wood and cloth. The Jamesway contains several sections: sleeping quarters, a washing area, the kitchen, the main lab area, and the seal experimental area placed over a hole through the ice. The ice here, this year, is about 2 to 2.5 meters thick. The Jamesway is heated by 'Preway' oil burning heaters, and we use propane stoves to cook. Two 5 KW diesel generators power our camp around the clock.
The seal experimental area end of the Jamesway, with the seal weighing beam. The Jamesway is heavily drifted from a recent storm.
A view across the drifted Jamesway towards Mt.. Erebus, a 4000 m tall active volcano on Ross Island. Right behind our camp is the Erebus glacier tongue.
The Jamesway is heavily drifted in snow. All the snow deposited in camp creates a problem for us: the snow is heavy and weighs down on the sea ice: we are sinking!
Even our Spryte has become drifted during the recent storm.
To reduce our sinking problem, we request heavy equipment support from McMurdo. The Challenger dozer is very efficient at removing the snow, and pushing it to a fair distance from our camp.
Shoveling snow in Antarctica:
a job more secure than tenure!
Inside the sleeping quarters of the Jamesway.
Outside a storm is raging......
...but inside the "Jamesway Diner" we are comfortable and warm over dinner. Randy is on the phone for our daily check-in with Mac Ops, the communications hub in McMurdo responsible for field party coms and for monitoring field party check-ins.
The main lab section. Don and Mat on the left are working on computers, Bill on the right is working on electronics.
The telemetry and electronics work area.
And now two preview pictures for our work:
Bill is working on the innards of a VDAP, the Video Data Aquisition Platform. Randy Davis pioneered the VDAP concept about 12 years ago. We have come a long way since. More on the VDAP in the next few segments.
Matt is reviewing a videotape recorded by the VDAP, in the video review and editing section of the lab. Yes, what you are looking at on the monitor screen is the snout of a Weddell seal, at about 400 meters of depth, recorded by the VDAP the animal was carrying.
