Friday 27 January 2006
Visitors
Once again lots has happened since I last updated this site, so I'll try and fill you in on some of the highlights.
Recently we have received a small visitor to the base, in the form of a single Adelie Penguin. He must have walked at least 14km from the coast to get here and after wandering around between the various buildings for a while checking everywhere out he seems to have finally settled for a home at the bottom of the Piggott platform steps. In my first summer here there were two penguins on base during the summer, who seemingly came to the base to molt. They wandered up to the Clean Air Sector and made a nice mess all over the clean snow. Last year there was only one visitor, prompting suggestions that the one we have this time round might be the same one.
Your name's not down you're not coming in: A molting Adelie penguin guards the entrance to the Piggott platform.
As well as a penguin visitor we've got some human visitors here at the moment, in the form of the Halley VI design team. As I've discussed before the current station is due to be replaced in the next few years so representatives of the architects, engineering and construction companies have come down to have a look at the current facilities. One of there main jobs while they are here is to perform towing and load tests to make sure that the modular sections of the new building can be successfully towed across the ice using BAS's D5 bulldozers.
Two D5 dozers versus 60 tonnes of metal. Photo by Miriam.
Last week we all went out to watch the big test, could two bulldozers pull a 60 tonne load, mounted on a specially designed ski base? The answer was a resounding "yes", in fact once the skis were broken free from the ice the sledge could be comfortably towed by a single bulldozer across a prepared surface. This was a vital part of the design so the designers were delighted that it went exactly according to plan. It's now looking likely that the buildings will be constructed at the current Halley site then towed around 10km to the location of the new base.
On Saturday Frances and I managed to get off base to stay at the caboose at Windy (probably the last chance I'll get to enjoy the delights of antarctic camping). There weren't any penguins to see any more but we still went for a walk on Sunday to the abseil point to enjoy views of the ice cliffs and icebergs floating around in the sea.
A small weathered section of chaotic sea ice floating away. The cliff on the right is actually just a small part of a huge tabular iceberg that has just broken off the ice shelf.
As it happened we arrived just after a calving event had taken place as we saw a large tabular berg from the caboose and another huge chunk rotate as it floated away. It was very reminiscent of the other iceberg I saw break off last summer.
When we went to investigate the next day it was clear that a large section of the shelf had gone and there was an immense tabular ice berg slowly drifting past the bay. All this activity had clearly weakened parts of the shelf as while we were sitting enjoying some food (at a safe distance!) we heard a series of cracking noises followed by a loud rumble and the sound of an avalanche of ice and snow hitting water. It was really hard to pin-point the location, but then a few seconds later a huge wave appeared from behind one of the nearby headlands followed by a stream of broken up ice.
The aftermath of more of the ice shelf breaking off. The whole face of the shelf in this picture was exposed by the large section that broke off. The ring of lumpy ice in the water was caused by the smaller avalanche that we heard.
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