The Cinder Crack

We work at a site that has an amazing crack over the top of it. Normally, it is a little farthur to the west, making it very difficult to reach out site - as the crack was up to 9m across when we first got here. Too big. Now it has largely filled in but remains a place where the seals breathe and teach baby seals to swim.

Pretty much anywhere we work, the crack is in the background. Here you can see the dense anemone bed in the foreground and the crack in the back. It also lights the way so we don't need to use as many lights to see when we are underwater.

The crack is also over a strange ripply shape section of microbial mat. This isn't how we normally see it, but again adds to both our understanding (and questions) about what is leading to the release of methane from the seafloor. Those little white dots are not sediment in the water or phytoplankton, but small pteropods that are incredibly abundant this year.

Running Up That Hill

While we are able to get off station quite often due to our diving, there are a few recreational opportunities around McMurdo such as this one - Observation Hill. At the top you can see most of Ross Island and views out across the ice shelf.

This hike is 1.5 miles long, able to be done in an afternoon. Although, I chose Sunday (our day off from diving during the week). At 750 feet of elevation it's a steep climb, with a local challenge to hike it 39 times in a season to equal hiking Mt. Everest.

At the top you can see to the New Zealand Scott Base, pressure waves where the Ross Ice Shelf presses into Ross Island and all the way out to open water in the sound.

This cross remembers Scott's expedition team who perished on their journey back from the South Pole in 1912.

It's a great place to reflect and get some alone time and I appreciate it for the vantage point. I like to draw en plein air when I travel to really take in the location and have a physical memory of what it looked like to me. This is after two sessions. I should be able to finish in one more!

"Boricua en la Antártida"

No amount of training can give you true expectations of what is like to dive in Antarctica. After two years of gathering the necessary certifications, designing the experiments and learning about our work for the season, you are finally seating down in front of the dive hole. The same thoughts nervously cross through the mind: weights? - yes, fins? - yes, backplate secured? - just now, connect the drysuit hose, make sure the tube-ies are in, triple hood on, mask on, drysuit gloves on, one last check that everything is clipped, and, ready to jump?

And just like that, you slide into the dive hole past 6ft of sea ice into the McMurdo Sound. Everything is quiet and calm. The immense support from both the divers and the team made any ounce of nervousness in that moment just pure excitement. I had the privilege of having the Antarctic diving legend Steve Rupp as a dive buddy waiting for me on the other side. Once I established my neutral buoyancy, which took me two more dives after to nail down but all part of the experience!, I was mesmerized by the view.

Once you look up, you can see all kinds of different shades of blue that can only exist as the light passes through the snow on top of the sea ice and into the ocean. Those beautiful colors set the stage to more than 100m of visibility that brings into contrast the vibrant benthic life waiting to be admired. As you come closer to the bottom, my eyes could not stop seeing the organisms that I’ve spent the last two years studying - happy in their natural habitat! From the vibrant pink Odontaster seastars to the striking red Sterechinus sea urchins and the the iridescent Parbolasia worms, how much life to be found under the Antarctic sea ice!

As I dove beneath the sea ice for the first time and admired the flourishing life in its waters, I could not help but feel grateful and privileged to be there. Because it was not only a first for me, but a first for any one in my community from Puerto Rico. I couldn’t help but feel love for the ocean, for the science we do and for the community I represent. It is my goal as a scientist, and a value I don’t doubt echoes throughout the Cold Dark Benthos team, to connect people with their ocean resources and foster healthy and sustainable relationships with it, from its shores to its most remote regions. May this be the first of many dives where we can connect the world (including you!) with life underneath the Antarctic ice!