Hail, Hail

We just had a brief hail flurry! I heard a weird noise outside my cabin window and looked outside to investigate. I thought it might be snow at first because V. and C. saw a snow flurry when they dropped an argo probe a few nights ago. I went outside to take pictures (the captain thought I was crazy), and I really like how this one turned out. The flash caught the hail right in front of my camera. The reflective crosses on the lifeboat don't usually appear like that, they were just caught by the flash, too.

(originally posted on Livejournal)

Rock and Roll

I got to help V. (the biologist) reload the XBT autolauncher the other day. The conditions were pretty good - the waves weren't too big and the boat wasn't rocking much - so I was safe. Even so I had to wear the ridiculous looking orange suit. When the conditions aren't very good it can actually be pretty dangerous. If you're knocked off the ship then you have about three minutes before you go unconscious, which probably isn't long enough for the ship to turn around. But there are safety precautions to make sure nobody goes overboard. If the waves are really bad the captain closes down the deck, like she had to yesterday.

We've arrived at our area of study, the Vacquier fracture zone. Brief geology lesson: spreading centers (such as the Mid-Ocean Ridge in the Atlantic or the East Pacific Rise in the Pacific) are offset by perpendicular transform faults in order to compensate for the spherical geometry of the Earth and make all the plates happy. The transform fault is the active part and the fracture zone refers to the entire structure - both currently and historically active.



We've started zig-zagging to get data for a wider area. The ship motion has been relatively small up to this point in our cruise since we've been traveling with the wind (the winds go clockwise around Antarctica) and therefore with the waves. But now that we're zig-zagging, we're going against the waves, and the ship's been rocking a lot more. We had one 19.94 degree roll last night, and we've had a lot of rolls over 10 degrees.

(originally posted on Livejournal)

This is where science happens

Science! Continued

V. and C. reload the XBT launcher. In funny orange jackets.

(originally posted on Livejournal)

Science!

Some people have been asking what I do on the Palmer. (My parents forward me any comments left on the journal, in case you were wondering.) We collect magnetic, gravity, and multibeam data as we sail. Unfortunately, we're not doing seismics, which would have been a blast (literally...). We also do XBT launches. The XBT (Expendable Bathy Thermograph) looks sort of like a missile with a copper wire extending back to the ship. It collects temperature data as a function of depth.

The multibeam works like sonar. A "ping" is sent out from the ship, and instruments on the bottom of the ship record when it returns. Based on the temperature data from the XBT, the distance to the bottom of the ocean is calculated. The instruments record data from an array of angles, so for each ping we get a line of data. You can hear the ping from most parts of the ship, and the first time I noticed it I thought there was a bird sitting outside the window. You can hear it from the bedrooms... once every few seconds... all night long... Grr.

There are 6 watchstanders, and we each have 4 hour shifts, so that one of us is on duty at any time during the day. C.H. is midnight - 4 AM, R.G. is 4 AM - 8 AM, me 8 AM - noon, M.C. is noon - 4 PM, R.A. is 4 PM - 8 PM, and I.M. is 8 PM - midnight. So it ends up that R.A., I.M. and I hang out together during the day, and C.H. and R.G. hang out together at night just because of how the shifts worked out.

We have to make sure all the instruments are working correctly and recording data. Every 15 minutes we record everything in an Excel spreadsheet and in a written watch log. We also have to watch the multibeam and adjust the angles constantly. When the weather is good and we're getting good data, we set the multibeam at a larger angle, so that we collect the most data we can given the conditions. Just right now the data is lousy, and I keep having to decrease the angle.

When we're not on shift, we edit multibeam files. This mostly involves deleting bad data points. If the temperature data doesn't match the actual ocean temperature, we get smilee and frowny pings (it looks like the topography curves up or down at the edges, when that's not what's actually going on). When the ocean is rough, air mixes with the water, which completely messes up the multibeam, so even though the instruments account for the pitch and roll of the ship, the data's still bad.

That's about it. I'm going to watch V. and S. do a XBT launch this afternoon, so hopefully I can post some shots of them getting drenched on the back deck. (V. does her own XBT launches to collect data for the National Weather Service and for Scripps, and S. is the representative from Raytheon.)

(originally posted on Livejournal)

The Wave

Last night was pretty rough weather, and no one I spoke to had a good night's sleep. There's just something about being thrown against the headboard and then the footboard of your bed that makes sleeping difficult. But, again, the experienced people say it's nothing. The ship's maximum roll last night was about 19 degrees. When I came down to the lab this morning, it looked like a destruction zone with chairs on their sides, papers and odds and ends all over the floor. There's no point in putting them back because everything will just fall over again (it's still really bad this morning). I was looking out the window in the lab and saw a wave that looked just like the famous Japanese print, The Wave. The navy blue was the perfect shade, with foam on the crest.

For reference:


Yesterday was Easter. I celebrated by... doing my shift as usual. I did get a visit by the Easter Bunny (myself) and got a slightly melted chocolate bunny. I thought of my mom as I ate the ears (the Foxtrot mom always steals the ears off of her kids' bunnies). We did have steak and shrimp for dinner, which I guess is pretty good for being in the South Pacific.

(originally posted on Livejournal)

The Bridge

Photos from when we were in port at Lyttelton, which is why there's no one, say, steering the ship.

Some captains won't let you on the bridge when the ship is moving, but the Palmer's captain is nice and lets us up there about anytime. We can also go out onto the upper dock if the weather's alright. Which is great because, you know, getting fresh air a few times a month is recommended, I hear.

Negative Time South Pacific?

Sometime last night we went over the International Date Line, so I get to repeat Saturday over again. It's a shame it didn't happen a day later because then I could have had two Easters. :)

I have the 8:00 AM - noon watchstander shift, which works well because lately I've been an early bird (I blame my 8:30 classes this past term). The other watchstanders are M.C., R.A., C.H., and R.G.

M.C. is the one in charge. He's going to be using the data from this trip and from a few others he's already been on for his thesis.

R.A. has been on the Palmer before, on one of the Antarctica trips. In fact, that's how she met M.C., and now they're married. (aww)

C.H. grew up in California, but goes to school in Hawaii. Back a few years ago, he was working in a scuba shop in California, when my professor came in to buy masks for her daughters. He saw that she was wearing a geology sweatshirt, they got to chatting, and the next day he was signed up for a Palmer cruise. He's filling in for someone else who couldn't make it on this cruise.

R.G. is from my rival school. She's been traveling around the world in the year since she graduated - doing archeology in Greece, field camp in New Zealand, etc, which is pretty awesome.

So... now you've met my fellow watchstanders.

(originally posted on Livejournal)

Goodbye, Land

We left Lyttleton yesterday morning and are 348 nautical miles from New Zealand now (someone with google calculator will have to convert that into miles for me) (edit - 400 miles).

You haven't heard from me in awhile because I've been seasick. :P I've never gotten motion sick in the car, on rollar coasters, anywhere. As a little girl, I even used to read while spinning around as fast as I could in a rolly chair. But I forgot one important thing - my stomach reacts horribly to greasy food. So, of course, I had yummy, greasy breakfast sandwiches for breakfast and yummy, greasy rolls for lunch just after we left port. By about 1 PM, in the middle of our IT orientation, I was feeling pretty lousy. But taking medication, throwing up (yes, in that order), and then sleeping for 13 hours seem to have done the trick.

The motion of the ship is actually very calming, and I find myself almost falling asleep all the time. This afternoon a few of us watched a movie (Whale Rider, a New Zealand movie) in the lounge. The lounge has these awesome recliners, so lying on them with the boat rocking felt like relaxing on a float in a swimming pool.

(originally posted on Livejournal)

On the ship!

I'm on the ship now, and we leave in 3 hours. No more internet for a month! Meep!

Lyttleton is very beautiful. In the afternoon the fog rolled in, creating this cool effect as it sloshed over the mountains and down into the city. On the plane ride into Christchurch we almost couldn't land because of the fog.



This is the port's "time ball," which is dropped at a certain time each day so that all the ships can make sure their clocks are correct:


Here's the Palmer:


(originally posted on Livejournal)

Akaroa

Yesterday C.H., R.G. and I road tripped to Akaroa, which is this cute Frenchish town about an hour and a half drive from Christchurch.



We stopped by Lyttleton, the port we're departing from, on the way back. And we got to see the Palmer. :)

I'm short on time, we're leaving for the Palmer in just a few minutes. Don't know if I'll have internet access again besides the limited onboard email. So these may be the last pictures. I'm excited though!

(originally posted on Livejournal)

Welcome to New Zealand

6:40 PM (New Zealand time)



C.H. and I arrived at the YMCA earlier today. The room is small, but I'm completely happy with it. I get a balconey and the view isn't bad. I'm leaving the balconey door open when I'm in the room because it's absolutely gorgeous weather. This bothers me, though, as it's the end of summer (also everybody stands upside down because we're on the other side of the world) and probably the hottest it gets here.



The YMCA is near the center of town, so we left our rooms and walked around a bit. The cathedral was odd because it was half tourist trap, half place where people actually worship. The "Cultural District" is a bunch of buildings that used to be part of Canterbury College but now house expensive art stores. Think a combination of Hogwarts and Caltech and then shrunk by 75%.







We ate at a Japanese/Thai place, and I had ramen. Very yummy. After walking around I went back to the room to crash for a few hours. Now it's 11 pm Pacific Time, and I definitely feel like I need to be asleep still. But the sleep part was nice. I missed that.

(originally posted on Livejournal)

The Flight

10:30 PM (Pacific Time, no idea what time zone I'm actually in), flying over the Pacific in an "aeroplane" as the flight attendants with the funny accents like to call it

I met up with C.H., who's also going on the cruise, in LAX. It's nice to be traveling with someone else.

Overseas flying is, apparently, very posh, which makes sense, as someone is paying hundreds of dollars for my ticket. They keep forcing free snacks and hot chocolate (with marshmallows) and socks and sparkling chardonnay upon us. :) The dinner, despite looking like a sad school cafeteria accident, was actually very good. (I think there was even goat cheese in the salad.) There's also a great selection of movies. I just finished watching Juno, which I highly recommend. It was artsy-ily made, which usually comes off as pretension, but was completely okay in this movie. Also, I have to buy the soundtrack when I get back to America. Remind me about that. Now, to work! (despite the tempting call of Gone With the Wind, Enchanted, Beowolf, random foreign subtitled films, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, and The Great Four Inventions of Ancient China documentary)

2:31 AM (Pacific Time), just crossed the equator

So... turns out it's almost impossible to sleep for more than 2 hours in an upright position. Fun! Maybe some law studying will put me to sleep. Or Beowulf, which actually is just as bad as everyone said it was.

7:11 AM (Pacific Time)

The future is now! (just crossed the dateline.)

7:50 AM, Tuesday (New Zealand Time)

We've switched planes, and now I'm on my way to Christchurch after a brief stop in Aukland. My rasberry danish had corn in it. I am confused.


sunrise on the aeroplane

9:31 AM, Tuesday (New Zealand Time), 1:31 PM, Monday (Pacific Time)

We've arrived! I've had something like four hours of sleep for the last two nights. Now we're bumming internet off the Antarctic Center. :)


penguin at the Antarctic Center

(originally posted on Livejournal)

I am a d0rk

My boyfriend and I rushed out of the hovse at 3 pm, bf really worried about making it in time since he thought we needed to be there three hours early. So, in the car, I called my parents to say goodbye, and asked if they thought two and a half hours before the flight was an okay time to get there. To which they replied, "Isn't your flight at 8 pm?"

See, I had a special method of calculating what time I should leave. My flight was at 8 pm, so I should leave at 6 pm, two hours earlier, but then I realized it was international so I should leave three hours ahead of time, at 3 pm.

In conclusion, bf and I are now chilling at his house.

(originally posted on Livejournal)

Frantic!

Gah! I leave for the airport in an hour and a half. I'm mostly packed, now I'm just downloading anything I might possibly need from the internet. I ran into Andy, who went on the cruise a few years ago, and he said I'll have an insane amount of free time. So... if anyone has any ideas of how to spend it, please let me know.

I still have to turn in a lab and two finals, so hopefully I'll get a lot done on the plane ride. It would suck to spend my time in New Zealand finishing up classwork, and then have infinite free time on the cruise once I can't sightsee.

I know I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to everyone, so... if you're reading this... Goodbye!

(originally posted on Livejournal)

Excited!

I'm leaving in four days... and I have so much left to do - a seismology set, a lab, some redoes, packing, etc. (I'm putting off my two finals because I can do those on the plane and then email them in when I get to New Zealand.) But I keep getting sidetracked looking at New Zealand tourist sites. Turns out Christchurch is a beautiful, English-y city with mountains and the ocean nearby. I have no idea what I'm going to go in Christchurch yet, but, ah.. we'll find out when I get there!

Turns out you can track the Palmer online. It looks like it's coming in from Antarctica right now.

(originally posted on Livejournal)

Information Security Awareness

I have to take an Information Security course before the cruise. Example question from the final exam:

Information Security does not protect against which of the following?
a. Identity Theft.
b. Global warming.
c. Natural Disasters.
d. Accidental / intentional loss or change of data.
e. All of the above.

(Is it an information security breach to post a question from the Information Security Awareness exam?)

Also, is it okay to run an Ebay business from Antarctica? I just know I'm going to get that question wrong...

(originally posted on Livejournal)

Welcome

During March and April I will be on board the icebreaker, Nathaniel B. Palmer, doing geophysics research. I will have limited access to the outside world (just small emails via satellite phone), so I created this journal to keep in touch with my family and friends. My parents will be posting the emails I send to them on this website, beginning next week.

Schedule:
March 16 - leave LA, California
March 18 - arrive in Christchurch, New Zealand, after a brief stop in Auckland (I will apparently be traveling at relativistic speeds, since 2 days will pass during my 15 hour flight.)
March 18-20 - sightsee!
March 20 - board the Palmer
March 21 - depart Port Lyttelton
April 14 - arrive in Punta Arenas, Chile
April 15 - leave the Palmer and fly home
April 16 - work like crazy catching up on schoolwork, worry about how my taxes were due yesterday

(originally posted on Livejournal)