Sea Ice Training

Because we will be out on the sea ice (frozen ocean water on the outskirts of the continental ice shelf) fairly frequently on day trips, we had to attend a sea ice awareness course. It was awesome! We learned about the geography of the continental shelf and the sea ice around McMurdo base and went out to profile a large crack out on the ice to measure it's growth or depletion, and to determine which vehicles can cross the crack.

Right now, the water is just over a meter and a half deep, at minimum, on most of the sea ice surrounding McMurdo. But due to tidal variations, pressure points from icebergs and glaciers, and other natural variances, ice cracks form. We drove over an hour to an ice crack out near Tent Island and used a power drill to drill down to reach the sea water point and measured the depth, found that the crack's thinnest point was just under 10 inches deep, then checked the maximum effective width of our vehicle and based on all that info we determined that the ice is still thick enough for us to drive over the crack. We took our data and turned it in to the SSC (Science Support Center) to keep track of the crack to determine if it's growing or shrinking over time. Right now, the ice should be growing a bit more, but come two weeks from now the ice will begin to melt and by January, the sea will become visible again. Crazy to think that we can drive vehicles and land places (huge ones at that) on the ice! But it was an awareness course to make sure that we profile all cracks we come across in vehicles to avoid falling into the sea!

While we were out on the sea ice, we did see around 10 seals in various locations. When seals are nearby, that means they've broken through the ice somewhere in close proximity... which also means that a nearby crack may be fairly thin. Though the seals are super cool to look at, it's a warning that the ice nearby may be fragile.

I'll post some ice drilling photos soon enough!