A wall of rocks... and life

One of the sites that we sometimes get to work at is called Arrival Heights. This is one of the spots that the Antarctic Explorers (Robort Falcon Scott, notably) landed to setup the first, and still present permanent hut on the Continent. Also why our location is known as the Hut Point Peninsula. It is on the north side of town, just outside and is a relatively steep rocky face with lots of areas that have undergone some landslides over time.

It is also an area that can pick up some current, and so we tend to be very aware of the current here before we get in, but it also means there are TONS of filter feeding organisms, like anemones and sponges.

In particular the large anemones here are really everywhere and conspicuous members of the benthic (seafloor community).

It was my first dive with Dexter and Paola under the ice, and it was fun to put the team back together again.

A Warm Welcome to McMurdo

Welcome to McMurdo Station! After a quick ride in the Cress vehicles, which took us from the Phoenix Airfield and past the New Zealand Antarctica Base “Scott Base”, we were brought into the polar town we would be calling home for this season. We are planning to be here until the first week in December.

This humble mining town supports scientific operations around Antarctica. Most stay around the station, but this is also a hub that leads work out in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, the South Pole and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS).

Once we arrived, we made our way to Building 155, the big blue galley building where meals and stores are held, kind of the central building of the station. Inside waiting were fellow Antarcticans with signs welcoming new and returning faces. We met more members of our dive team – Alex Brett and Steve Rupp, legends we had heard Andrew talk about during our preparation. Many introductions and reunions compounded in the space.

We had a brief introduction to the station, received our room assignments, and grabbed some linens to set up our quarters. We all ended up in the same dorm building, 211. That’s 2-1-1, not 2-11. I’ve learned to enunciate each number to avoid confusion here.

Afterwards we grabbed our bags from building 140, which were palletized on the plane, and took them to our dorms, the Crary lab building, or the dive locker depending on their contents. We then went on a guided tour of the station by Andrew as we had no idea where anything was, and many buildings are just referred to as their building numbers. We'll give a full tour later on in the blog.

Now that we've made it to McMurdo, we have a plethora of trainings to do including Field Safety, Sea Ice, GPS, Light Vehicle, Waste Management, Fire Safety, Medical, Science Brief, Lab Chemical, all before we can go out diving in the ice.

It seems poetic that in our first week here was also the last sunset of the season. At 1am, the sun set, illuminating the southern most chapel in the world. For the rest of our fieldwork, we will have 24 hours of daylight. See you next time!

ICE & STEAM - bringing art and science together in Antarctica

Working with Andrew Thurber under the ice has been 15 years in the making for me. While getting my painting MFA in 2008, a recently-discovered white, furry, deep sea crustacean called the yeti crab took hold as my muse. I prefer to paint from direct observation, so I first traveled to France to see the world’s only specimen. After a couple years of working from that holotype, I heard rumors that a new species of yeti crab had been discovered by a PhD student at Scripps, Andrew Thurber.

Above: one of my paintings of Andrew Thurber's Kiwa puravida yeti crab species, along with specimens of this yeti collected on the R/V Atlantis

I soon began pinging Andrew to visit his lab and sketch specimens of the novel species he discovered. Eventually, Andrew explained that his other research focus was worms in Antarctica. He showed me his photographs of scuba diving under the sea ice in McMurdo Sound, and I was immediately hooked.

Entering McMurdo sound in 2014 through a hole at the Turtle Rock dive site

I began a long process of learning to scuba dive so that I explore and paint this incredible world myself. In 2014, I was lucky enough to be selected as the NSF Antarctic Artists & Writers Awardee. At last, I had the life-changing experience of diving and painting under McMurdo Sound’s vast expanse of sea ice. It was even more exquisite than I imagined.

Cinder Cones Seep, 2018, 60x84 inches, Acrylic on canvas. While I had the chance to dive at the first methane seep Andrew discovered in McMurdo Sound, I am looking forward to seeing the newer seeps he is studying and gaining a deeper understanding of their relevance.

However, my work is not only about beauty, but also scientific discovery. While I had the chance to work with many incredible scientists during my 2014-15 Antarctic residency, Andrew did not end up deploying that field season. I am particularly interested in the chemosynthetic communities he studies. So for many subsequent years, we worked on proposals to collaborate together at McMurdo.

Finally together on the ice! The B-249 team: Andrew, Lily, Dexter and Paola

Now, 15 years after beginning our collaboration, we finally have the chance to work together in the field. I am so looking forward to painting the incredible features that Andrew, Paola, and Dexter are investigating.