Antarctica – Day 17

Hi Guys,

Day17 (-8) day off work, and we went on a trip to see penguins and some of the other old explorer’s huts at Cape Evans and Cape Royds. The day was great, not too much sun and no wind at all so it was good on the ice. Got to see a lot of penguins today so have some good pictures. The huts were really surreal, like walking back in time. They have been cleaned and fixed up exactly how they left it, with clothes still in place, boxes of tinned food and the dead seals for dog food, plus the remains of a poor dog left behind.

Fun fact – I found out today from one of the scientists that there’s approx. 25T of dust blown over the Scott/McMurdo sea ice each day – that’s why it looks so dirty in most places.
The dust is main from the continual weathering of the McMurdo sea ice shelf, the seafloor material is slowly drawn up by the ice until it gets to the surface and then weathered off… they say there are even starfish stuck in the ice surface, really strange.

Also, the big mountain range call the Royal Society Range, was formed by a rift in the plates – when they move apart, and one side continues to slowly rise up… this is where the dry valleys are located, some of the oldest grounds in the world.

Back to work tomorrow, not long now and fantastic our vacuum cleaner is here… bet you don’t here a man get excited about the arrival of a vacuum very often, very sad I know.

Cheers
Ric