These are the reports received from Richard Brandt while in Antarctica.  I am posting them latest first and the earlier follow in reverse order by date.

Received February 25,2005

>Hi All,

Sorry for my very delayed response, I'm finally catching up with my
correspondence now that I am back.

>  We have been watching the B-15A iceberg. These links are from msnbc.com.
> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6712369/ ,
> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6835422/ ,
> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6848751/. Could you please tell us what you
> know about it. Are the scientists talking about it frequently? In short,
> what's the scoop?

B15 is exciting from both a scientific and logistical point of view, and it
is indeed a big topic of conversation.  It had moved to within 5km of the
Drygalski Ice Tongue by mid January. Attached is a movie made at McMurdo
using satellite images which shows it's track up until Dec 10th,  and a
recent copy of the 'Antarctic Sun' , the weekly McMurdo newpaper, which
describes the current situation.  Fortunately for logistics, with the aid
of a Russian Ice Breaker (the largest in the world), a channel was cut to
the south of the icebergs for ~150km which the resupply ship used
successfully.  However, it looks like the very thick sea ice near McMurdo
will continue to persist into the near future.

One of the intriguing things about the iceberg is that it is
'talking'.  There are seismometers on Mt. Erebus which track the volcano's
activity.  The seismologists were picking up low frequency vibrations that
they had never seen before.  With some detective work it was found that the
source was B-15 which now has seismometers planted on it. No one knows what
is causing the vibrations, it's probably some sort of internal motions that
are causing these 'icequakes'.

When flying back from the Italian Station, Terra Nova Bay,  I asked our
pilot Bob if we could see the Drygalski and B15.  He accommodated my
request in spectacular fashion, we flew a couple hundred feet above the
sea, and over the Drygalski Ice Tongue with B15 looming in the distance.  I
took lots of photos and when I get them back and sorted, I'll show them to
you in the spring.

>Also, the students in Mrs. Covell's class are wondering if you felt any of
>the effects of the tsunami?

While we didnt actually feel any effects directly, Alberto Delladio, a
seismologist setting up a new seismometer network in Antarctica was at
Dome-C at the time. He showed us graphs of both the earthquake and Tsunami
vibrations picked up by seismometers at Dome-C.  It was such a big
earthquake that it made the earth 'ring' like a bell, every couple of hours
we picked up the signal as it reflected back and forth through the earth.

I'll let you know when I can come visit - hopefully soon!

Cheers,

Rich
 

Received January 22,2005

Hi All,

Thought you might be interested in links to web pages updated regularly
by  two of the scientists at Dome-C who will be spending the first ever
winter at Dome-C:

Guillaume  Dargaud's website on Antarctica - a wonderful compendium of
Antarctic photos, history, and his seasons at
Dome-C:  http://www.gdargaud.net/Antarctica/index.html

(If you like Guillaume's style of web authoring, go to his home site which
covers his climbing, computer, photography and other humorous exploits
at:  http://www.gdargaud.net/index.html )

And Karim Agabi's website (French language only, but great pix too)
at:  http://pleiades.unice.fr/~agabi/

Finally, my Dome-C research was written up in the USAP official antarctic
newspaper, 'The Antarctic Sun'. See the attached file, the article on my
work begins on Page 1, and another nice article on the Dome-C ice core is
on page 7, including a photo I took of the 950,000 year old ice displayed
by the EPICA team.

Cheers,

Rich

Editors Note: TO download your copy of the Antarctic Sun, Click here.
 

Received January 21, 2005

Hi All,

Sorry for being out of touch for so long.  I am now back home after
wonderful travels north.  From 4 thru 11 January the Dome-C email system
was not working due to a problem with a server in Bologna, Italy!  It
wasn't fixed until the day after I left, so please resend any emails you
sent me at Dome-C, to my home address above.

I did get one last question from Hallie Bond of Long Lake:

>What time zone are you in?  WE were surprised to receive a reply this
>morning early to our late email of last night.
We are 11 hours ahead of EST, so I answered while you were asleep, and it
was morning on the next day here!

>  How many hours of daylight do you have now?  OR perhaps I should ask if
> you have any darkness? thanks! hb
Once I arrived in Antarctica I didn't see the sun set at all. So I guess
that means I've only been gone for part of one day.


After leaving Dome C in the Twin Otter on 11 January , we stopped at Talus
Dome and I visited with three friends who were drilling a new ice core to
study climate near the coast.  I got a half hour to see their set-up. They
have drilled to 100m and are just starting to set the casing to close-off,
the depth where the air in the snow turns into bubbles that are sealed in
ice which form due to the weight of the snow above. These bubbles can
preserve samples of the earth's atmosphere for hundreds of thousands of years!

We then flew on to the coastal Italian station Terra Nova Bay
(TNB).  Gabreille and I met up with our Dome C friends: Giovanni,
Alisandro, Dorthe, Saverio, Laurent, and Rita, and we had a 'penguin party'
which involved champagne, ping-pong, and much revelre. I also met up with
another friend, Vito Vitalie, who is developing a plan for a 'Clean Air
Facility' at Dome-C much like the one we worked at near South Pole
Station.  Vito took Gabreille and I on a long walk to the Clean Air site at
Terra Nova. We were treated to spectacular scenery along the coast,
rock-hopping among skua chicks.

Late in the day we helicoptered to Lake Enigma to meet Bob for the flight
to Pegasus.  Bob was in a 'funny' mood.  He flew the whole way no higher
than 200ft agl and it kind of freightened several of the Italians. He was
going along over the water then skimming tabular icebergs at about 50ft
agl.  The best part was the Dryglaski ice-tongue, a 40 km long floating
shelf of ice - even I got a rush as he 'hopped up' to it's surface. From
there we could see the B-15 iceberg which was only about 5km away.  It was
a exceptionally scenic flight, the best views I have ever had of that piece
of Antarctic coastline.

At the Pegasus runway near McMurdo the little Russian biplane that has been
stuck at South Pole for several years just arrived after being repaired,
and there was a big press conference going on as we got out of Bob's Twin
Otter.  I last saw this plane in 2001 at South Pole when it broke down. The
Russians had an Aleutian (4 engine cargo plane), and they immediately
started taking the biplane apart and loading it in their bigger
aircraft.  Apparently a deal was struck with USAP to support the rescue of
the Russian biplane. In exchange USAP is getting Russian ice breaker time
as the US icebreaker is broke down in McMurdo after coming around the
backside of the B-15 iceberg as the B-15/Dryglaski gap is too small to
navigate now.

When the C-141 from Christchurch landed at 8:30 pm a pool cure was handed
to me -the one I requested for the table at Dome-C.  I met up with a number
of friends and acquaintances coming and going, Andrew Fountain from the
University of Oregon,  Julie Palis, NSF director of the glaciology programs
in Antarctica, Larry Hotholm of USGS who we worked with at South Pole, Mike
who was just arriving a week late, and Steve Hudson who is replacing me at
Dome-C! The Italians wanted Steve to stay in McMurdo as they were flying
TNB-MCM-DC, but we talked them into letting Steve (with the pool cue) go to
TNB so he could keep Gabrielle company... My guess is that weather window
closed and Steve got a couple of days at TNB with it's wonderful scenery
and Italian food and company before departing for Dome-C.

And to top off such a whirlwind of events, I called Sandy while in TNB, so
I stayed at the Devon Bed and Breakfast in Christchurch again for three
nights. Once in Christchurch I'm met up with Laurent, Dorte, Giovanni and
Sandro at the Dux Delux for dinner before we headed our separate ways.

Back home I've taken the last four days to be with my family, ski, and
adapt to the 11 hour time change.  Now back in my office at Paul Smiths
College I'm catching up with emails, sending out my film to be developed,
and planning several more Waddles pages for our web site.  I look forward
to visiting you all with a new slide show later this winter!

Cheers,

Rich
 

Received December 30, 2004:

HI All,

Happy New Year!

Below are my responses to questions from the Bloomingdale students:

Here are some questions to get us up and running for after Christmas break!Mr. Putnam, Bloomingdale School, Bloomingdale, NY, USA

We hope all is well and thank you as always for doing such a cool thing for us!Things are great here  thanks!

Mrs. Covell's 4th grade

What is the most common or uncommon penguin you see?
There are only two species of penguin that live year around in Antarctica, Adelie and Emperor.  The Adelies are much more common, for example the one
that is whispering to Waddles on her web page.

How long did it take to get to Antarctica from Bloomingdale?
Too long this season.  I left home on 1 December and missed a couple of flights due to storms on the East Coast of the US, so I wound up flying to
Australia then arrived in New Zealand on 3 December.  Then my baggage, equipment and tools were misplaced in Los Angeles, so I waited in
Christcurch until 7 December until they arrived.  Unfortunately the sea-ice runway melted in McMurdo, Antarctica, so I couldn't fly on the 9th as
planned.  They rebuilt the runway on the Ross Ice Shelf, and I got to McMurdo on the 11th of December, then to Dome-C on the 15th, two weeks
after I started.

What inspired you to go to Antarctica?
I am particularly interested in the climate of the polar regions, and the science of snow. As a kid I liked camping and skiing in the snow, and even
sleeping in snow forts for fun.  When the chance came to study climate in Antarctica I was excited to be involved in something I really enjoy.

How cold is it there in the summer?
Our surface temperatures have ranged between -25C to -45C this season.


Mrs. Preall's 5th grade

K.C. B: Is there a swimming pool there?
Unfortunately we don't have one, it would be too expensive to heat so that it wouldn't freeze.  For some silly reason there is a sign in the galley
(where we eat) that says 'Swimming Pool Area' though I don't know why...

Evan K: Are there any oil wells?
There is certainly oil here, but the Antarctic Treaty, which is respected by all nations, makes Antarctica an 'International Ecologic Commons' and
forbids any mineral, oil or gas exploration or removal.  The same goes for the fish and wildlife south of 60 degrees latitude except for biological
research.

Griffeon C: Have you ever gotten to see the Northern Lights?
Yes, except in the southern hemisphere they are called the Southern Lights or 'Aurora Australis'.  However this season, since I've arrived in
Antarctica, the sun has never set, so it's daylight all the time and I cant see them.

Sam S: How long have you had this job?
I've been doing Antarctic climate science since 1987, so that looks like 17 years, with 11 trips to Antarctica!

Helpis R: Do you have great ice cream?
Usually, but this season everyone is so busy preparing the new station for the first winterover group at Dome-C that the machine has been
neglected.  Perhaps the chef will get it going for our New Years Eve party?

Gabby L: I was wondering if the ice ever melts on the ocean?
That's a very interesting question!  Most of the ocean around Antarctica freezes in the winter, covering an area similar to that of the United
States! But in the spring and summer, 90% of this ice melts, only to reform the following winter.  I'm very interested in sea ice as it reflects alot
of sunlight and help to keep the earth from getting too hot. In fact, my next trip to Antarctica will probably be to study the reflection of
sunlight from sea ice.

Summer S: What is the total population of Antarctica?
Nobody lives in Antarctica (except the penguins and birds of course), but the science stations probably have about 2000 people in the summer, and 500
in the winter.

Brenna S: What do you do for fun?
I just learned a new Danish game with dice from Dorte who is a Danish ice scientist. We also pay cards, ski, play foosball, give slide shows of our
travels, and cook snacks for each other. Last weekend the chef made crepes (similar to thin pancakes) served with Adirondack maple syrup that I
brought.  Many people from France and Italy had never tried maple syrup, and everyone seemed to like it alot!

Nena C: Is it nice to see penguins again?
Unfortunately I am so far inland that there are no penguins except for Waddles here.  Perhaps I'll see some when I go back to the coast in early
January.

Marialaina: In Antarctica do you have malls and different stores?
We have no stores at Dome-C, but the radio operator does sell T-shirts.  At McMurdo station there is a small store where you can rent videos and get
treats and Tshirts too, but it only open a couple days a week. The good side of this is that I dont pay for food or a place to stay, and I cant go
shopping, so I save most all of the money I make while working here.

Summer S: Does it ever rain?
It is never warmer than about -25C where I am, so it never rains on the plateau, and I think that rain has never been observed on the coast either.

Marialaina: Is Antarctica similar to the Adirondacks in ways?
In some ways it is. Winter weather in the Adirondacks is similar to summer weather in Antarctica, and like the Andirondacks, the people in Antarctica
are very friendly.  But otherwise it is quite different here, as there are no plants at all, and no animals except near the coast.



B'dale Questions

Are there any special plans for Christmas that are different from past years?
We usually dance after our Christmas dinner, and this year a friend from France, Guillaume, brought thousands of songs on his computer, so we will
have fun trying to dance to all sorts of music.

Do you plan to conduct any first-time experiments with your tower?
Yes- A friend from Italy, Giovanni, has an experiment on the tower to see the microwaves emitted from the snow, and Tatiana, who is from Uzbekistan,
has 12 very sensitive temperature sensors to measure atmospheric turbulence at different heights on the tower which she will install on 2 January.

Is the tower in good shape?
Very good shape!  It's so cold here that nothing rusts or corrodes, and the guy wires are still nice and tight from last year.

What has been the biggest surprise?
I am very interested in climate changes of the past, and there is new evidence of a 'super ice age' called 'snowball earth' which took place 600
million years ago, when the only life on earth were microscopic creatures in the ocean. A wonderful book called 'Snowball Earth' was published last
year by the author Gabrielle Walker that describes the geologic evidence for this worldwide glaciation.  Well, the big surprise is that Gabrielle is
here at Dome-C working on another book about Antarctica!  It's been a real treat to meet her, learn more about Ice Ages, and introduce her to Waddles.
In fact, she and Waddles went snowmobiling just yesterday!

How many people are at Dome-C that you haven't met in past years?  Any new countries?
There are perhaps 15 new people this season, including new friends from Denmark and Uzbeckistan that I mentioned earlier.

Has Waddles learned about any new machines?
You bet!  She now can drive our new snowmobile, a Polaris, and has driven a huge transport 'tundra buggy' called a Delta.  I'll show you the pictures
when I return!

Has there been any changes in technology at Dome-C?
The new station here has almost opened, and they will have a new, underground water supply, waste treatment that recycles water, and for the
first time ever here, a group will spend the winter in the new station. I have alot of new friends, several who are on the winterover team, so we can
email them later in the spring and see how they are doing.

What is the most important thing happening for you this week?

I am measuring the transmission of sunlight in snow using a new probe that I designed.  It worked very well, and I hope to make more measurements with it and compare them to a computer model my friend Tom is working on.

  Hello from Mrs. LeBlanc's class!

Jordan Ladoceour:  Why did you decide to be a traveler?  Why do you take the penguin everywhere?
I love making new friends, seeing new and very different places, and learning about how people live around the world.  I hope travel with my
family next year to Chile and learn about life in South America, and work on the glaciers there.  Mrs. Fahl's class asked me to bring Waddles to
Antarctica in 1999. Waddles and I became great friends, and I enjoy taking her with me on adventures. Plus, the people I meet like to hear about all
the places Waddles has been and to look at her web pages.

Tyler Rondeau:  Why did you decide to travel to Antarctica?  Why do you put the penguin on signs and things everywhere?
Earlier I answered a question about what inspired me to go to Antarctica, and I like to bring Waddles along for the Bloomingdale students and their
friends to see the adventures of their school penguin.

Ashley Mauler:  When are you coming home?  Will you be home for Christmas?
I'm in Antarctica for Christmas and New Years, and I hope to be home by 15 January.

Emily Mercado:  Did the penguin get to see real penguins?  Have you found
anything interesting in Antarctica?
We haven't seen any real penguins this season so far; perhaps when we get back to the coast we will see some.  I've found some very interesting
surface snow crystals that I have photographed and hope to learn more about.

Anna Jimenez:  Is it colder there than it is here?
Almost always, it ranges from -25C to -45C here, even though the sun is always up and it is never night until later in the year when it gets really
cold.

Tiarra Spencer:  Do you get to come home for all the holidays?  Do you take
Waddles everywhere you go?
No, I'm with my friends here for the holidays. And yes, I always take Waddles with me, including on a long snowmobile trip yesterday where I
collected snow samples to measure the dust in the snow far from the station. (It's the cleanest snow in the world!)

Idriz Cecunjanin:  Do you only go to Antarctica for your work, or do you travel to other places?
I've also done snow, ice, and climate research on the glaciers in the United States, New Zealand, and perhaps next year, in Chile.

Thank you for coming to our school, would you please come back in 2005?
Sure!  I've taken lots of great photos to show you when I return.

Happy New Year!

Cheers,

Rich
30 December 2004
 

The following three dispatches all arrived on December 14:

Hi All,

Well it looks like we will be flying up to Dome-C in a couple of hours.  I've been enjoying my extra time here in McMurdo catching up with
quite a few old friends and making some new ones, hiking around, making new web pages for Waddles and reading.  I've just finished 'Ender's Run' which
my son Neil recommended and which I really enjoyed.
Please check the web page for my updated photos at:
http://www.atmos.washington.edu/~brandt/Bloomingdale_pages/04_Bloomingdale.htm
I will not be able to update this web page from Dome-C, but Andy Sajor is kindly posting the photos and emails I send  to a link on his site at:
http://www.perucsd.org/hsearthscience/
I also just heard from Hallie Bond who is working with students from the Long Lake School in the Adirondack Park of New York State. She asks:

>One question that came up when we saw the picture of McMurdo Station:  how >many people live there at a time?  It looks almost as big as Long
>Lake!  Not suburbs, though, I suppose....

I believe almost 1000 people are at McMurdo.  It is like a little town with ATM machines, a place to watch movies,  a radio station, and even a hair
salon.  You can contrast it to Dome-C where the population is 43, when I send you email from there in a day or so.

Cheers,
Rich
 

12/14/04

Hi All! WHat follows in this dispatch is some correspondence I've been having with Benjamin Humphrey who is a 9th grader from New Zealand, son of the owner of
the B+B I always stay at, and who is keen on aircraft. I am discussing the images you see here:

Hi Bejamin, (Where you see a > that is Bejamin speaking)
>That picture is interesting, is the trail made due to the condensation in
>the air?

Yes, if the air is very close to saturation, a drop in pressure will form a cloud then it takes a bit of time for the ice crystals to sublimate
away.  So the low pressure at the blade tips formed these spiral ice clouds.  It's quite rare that these occurs, so Charlie's photo is pretty
special. Plus it shows the bottom of our 'top-secret' skis nicely.
A similar drop in pressure occurs from the shock wave caused by accelerating thru Mach 1 (speed of sound - I expect you know that).
Attached is a photo of a fighter jet causing the formation of a cloud by this mechanism.
>How long are you down there for? Hope you are having fun, and have a Merry Christmas!
I'm heading to Dome-C this evening and should be back by mid-January. Unfortunately I cant access this email address after today.  I'll try and
let you know my new one.  Thanks for the Christmas wishes, enjoy your Christmas as well, and say hi to Sandy for me.
I put some Christmas photos from last season on Waddle's web page http://www.atmos.washington.edu/~brandt/Bloomingdale_pages/04-Christmas03.htm
so you can see that we have a pretty fun time although we are away from our families.
Also, what are you working on at the moment?  I described my work in Antarctica to students in the US here:  http://www.perucsd.org/hsearthscience/
>Hope that you get some more good pictures of Waddles doing insane things! Here's an idea: You could get in touch with one of our good friends:
>Douglas Coons, maybe email him at divindug@yahoo.com tell him that I told you about him. Anyway He dives under the ice, and maybe you could
>construct some type of waterproof seal, put Waddles in it and take underwater photos! Doug could hold on to him, you could try to fit him in
>a waterproof camera case, or doug might have something waterproof in his equipment! Anyway I think that he is coming back down in January, so you
>could meet up. Just an idea, imagine what the kids would think at Bloomingdale! He would have been underwater, above water, and in the air!!
>Doug is a really nice guy, he is a part-time Air Force Medic, and spent 20-something years in the Navy as a underwater bomb-defuser! It must be
>scary enough to defuse a bomb on land, let alone underwater!!! Ok, if you could get any other cool pictures, then send them to us, we're always
>interested. Hope you have a Merry Christmas down there, and yeah see you soon hopefully, enjoy the book!!
This is a VERY cool idea!  I'll send Doug an email and see if we overlap in McMurdo later in the season!
Cheers,

Rich

That correspondence led me (Mr. Sajor) to email Rich with a question about this photo I took in the Trans-Antarctic mountains last year:

>Rich,

>After reading the email, I have the following question: 

 >I have a photograph of Mt. Fallah in the TransAntarctic Mountains. 

> The winds were around 70 knots and the lee side of the Mt. had a cloud

>off it (lee side only) there was no snow accumulation at that altitude ~ 14,000',

> so I assumed it was a drop in pressure that was causing the cloud to form on
>the lee side.  What are your thoughts? I have attached a small image of
>the photo.
>Cheers,
>
>Andy
 

Hi Andy,
Good to hear from you!  You pix looks like an orographic (or lee) cloud in windy conditions that is usually caused by the adiabatic cooling of the air
as it is lifted, and sometimes enhanced by the vorticity of the air in the lee which can cause a 'mixing' cloud.  In both cases the cloud appears in
the lee of the mountain.  Mixing clouds are what you see when your breath is visible in the winter. Neither your warm, moist breath, nor the cold dry
air outside are saturated, but when they are mixed the resulting air is saturated. (This is because of the curvature of the Clausius-Clapryon
equation plotting saturation vapor pressure vs temperature).

If the wind is light, instead you get lenticular clouds forming right over the summit which are laminar and can look like a stack of pancakes.  I
think these natural clouds differ from the aircraft clouds which are caused by pressure shock waves.

(This comment got me thinking of another picture I took on the Beardmore Glacier):

(Back to Rich's letter)
Thanks again for making the web page!  By the way, I've been reading the 2003-2004 NSF press clippings book and your dinosaur find last season was
by far the record holder for the most news reports worldwide on an Antarctic topic!

Cheers,
Rich

The following is a reply to teacher's Email to Richard  (12/11/04):

Hi Kim,

Thanks for the email - I'll be glad to send you email and pictures and time permits.

>Why did you choose to go to Antarctica?

I have been working on Antarctic climate research for 17 years now.  I really enjoy studying climate, especially in Antarctica where little is
known about what controls the polar climate, how is has changed in the past and how it might change in the future.  Plus, I like winter camping,
working and playing in the in the snow and travelling, so Antarctica is a good place for me.

>  How did you decide to become a geophysicist (if that is your official  title...)?

My graduate work was in geophysics, and now I would call myself a research meteorologist and glaciologist.  I studied physics in college but I didnt
really enjoy working in a laboratory. I was thrilled to find out that geophysicists use their training in physics to study the earth, and much of
the work is done outside on things like earthquakes, volcanoes, the oceans, glaciers, and the atmosphere. I found that really neat and exciting.

>When will you be going?

I left home on 1 Dec, and I arrived in Antarctica on 10 December.  I'm now at McMurdo station waiting for a flight to Dome-C which is in the
deep-field, high on the plateau.

>How long is the actual trip, and how long will you be there?

It took extra-long to get to New Zealand this year, as I missed several fights due to a storm on the east coast of the US. It was 36 hours between
leaving home and arriving at my hotel in Christchurch, the Devon, where I always stay.  I was detoured to Australia, and the Los Angeles to Sydney
flight was about 13 hours. Then my bags were lost for a bit, and the sea ice runway at McMurdo melted so a new runway had to be built on the Ross
Ice Shelf. Because of this I didnt leave Christchurch until yesterday on 10 Dec.  After an 8 hour flight in a C-130 we finally arrived in McMurdo.  In
an hour I have a flight plan briefing where I will find out when I leave for Dome-C


>  What will you be researching?

I am measuring the reflection properties of sunlight from snow both to understand how solar energy is absorbed in the snowpack, and to work out
how the snow surface properties can be monitored by satellite.  I'm also measuring air temperatures and snow surface temperatures to see how heat
moves between the air and the snow.

>   What do you want to learn?

If we know the details of energy flow between the air, the snow and the ground; by movement of heat or absorption of sunlight, we can improve
computer models that predict the weather and the climate.

>  What are some unusual birds and plants that live in Antarctica?

Well, there are no plants at all, except for lichens, and the only birds at McMurdo are the skuas, which are like polar seagulls that catch
fish.  Nearby there are penguins, seals, and whales, but I dont expect to
see many on this trip.

>   Are there any trees?

No.


>  (When you are there) tell us what it looks like.

It is clear and warm on the coast today and you can see mountains that are over 100 miles away. When I get some free time I'll send you some pictures.


>Where will you be staying?

I'm now staying in a building with my colleague Tom Grenfell who is coming to Dome-C with me.  Tom is a veteran of the Arctic on almost 30
expeditions, and a half dozen trips to the Antarctic as well.


>How's the weather?

It's beautiful today with no clouds, and it's been unseasonably  warm this season, with highs in the 30s (F), and melting near the coast in general.


>Are there bad storms, or hurricanes?

There can be severe storms, and the windiest place on earth is Commonwealth Bay on the Antarctic coast, where the AVERAGE windspeed is about 50
mph.  So far our weather has been fine though.


>Can you find fossils there, or animals frozen in ice?

Yes, other people have.  My good friend Andy Sajor, who teaches earth science to high school students in Peru New York, and who's classes I
visit, knows much more about this than I do.  He took part in the prestigious 'Teachers Experiencing Antarctica'  program last season and
assisted in the find of the new dinosaur fossil in the Transantarctic Mountains that made the news. You can read his journal and check out his
photos at:

http://tea.rice.edu/tea_sajorfrontpage.html

As for frozen animals, I have seen mummified seals and penguins who have died inland, and lots of baby penguin skeletons which had been attacked by
skuas. I suppose some of these get buried in snow and incorporated in the ice.

I've got to go now to a flight planning meeting - I'll send more soon -

Cheers,

Rich from McMurdo Station
 

Dispatch Received December 8, 2004

Hi All!