Dealing with Amazement from Way Down Under

Waste is how the contents of the bags and plastic vials may be described by someone who is not totally familiar with them. Much time is needed from the scientists especially with these samples originating from the Larsen Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Much data can come from a simple mud sample, says a college senior. For this college senior, a trip to Antarctica became possible with other people from a college and university as the National Science Foundation provided the necessary funds. Such schools have already taken part in other research cruises in the past.

For the group, a research vessel was used and they departed from Punta Arenas Chile in early February. It was on the east of the Antarctic Peninsula, the Larsen Ice Shelf, where they first stopped and it was an unfamiliar place. It has been said that they were the first explorers to reach that place. Using sonar to measure the depth of the ocean, the boat moved slowly. It was from the deck where the students and researchers gathered water and sediment samples and video footage. Analyzing these samples will require much work.

With global warming in mind, mud will be part of the conducted studies considering everything from how much water it holds to the elements comprising it. This has been a rare opportunity for the students. In general, a student says the trip is a chance to see how it really is. The path to graduate school for this student, a native of Scotland, involves global warming. It is during the next year when one student who agrees to spend the rest of her life on a ship will be studying at the school of Oceanography in one university.

For them, even the most severe weather conditions in the Southern Hemisphere can be managed. In Upstate New York, it is the same way. They found it harder than cold days to have the sun rising and setting at 430 am and 930 pm. When you look out the window, the brightness can make it rather painful. Without much civilization, science still happened every hour and day. Midnight to noon or noon to midnight were the shifts designated to the students. There were bunk beds for the students to sleep on and a group lounge for them to watch movies in.

This does not mean that there were no rules. Anything big should be known by the seniors on the trip. One senior student was roused to check out a newly discovered surface volcano and to visit with an emperor penguin. You don't want to sleep at all, said the Dryden native. You'd want to encounter everything. Going to Vega Island was the best day of her life, as she says. What she said was that being able to go to where only 10 people have been to is unbelievable.

Altogether, the students missed about five weeks of classes. Due to environmental hazards associated with their vessel not to mention their busy schedules schoolwork was not attended to as much as it needed to be. Because their ship was constantly moving it made it harder. Nothing more than two emails a day to send back home was allowed. As a result of close quarters and having fewer distractions the students and faculty were actually brought together. Escape was too far to reach as mentioned by a student. Everything from the desolated area to the extreme environment will really make people close.

For the customs officials the explanatory documents for the unique cargo were prepared as they carried their samples back to the United States in coolers. A student also carried five film rolls and 323 digital pictures. Last year there was a student who joined in and went on again this time and she simply wanted to embrace the surroundings. Not everything could be captured. Sometimes, you just have to appreciate what's around you.

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