A team explores a possible new trail at CSI

It was cold yesterday, but that didn’t stop a hardy bunch of folks from donning waders and heading into the marsh areas of the CSI campus. 

 

The team was looking at the possibility of creating a trail and boardwalk to access the marsh and sound.  The adventure was a success, although a couple people ended up getting wetter than planned.

 

In the process, the exploration party witnessed some beautiful ice features associated with exposed tree trunks and found some interesting historical remains.  Dr. Nathan Richards is interested in exploring this area more in the future.   Drs. Corbett and Walsh along with ECU students Jessica Strand, David Hawkins and other are initiating some marsh research in the area, so the walking tour provided a nice perspective.

2014 Antarctic Field Season has begun….

Guest Blogger and SSTORM Post Doc, Dr. Kim Null writes:

 

We made it!  Here we are for our second season in Antarctica measuring glacial meltwater discharge to the coastal ocean.  This year we are starting off the season at Palmer Station and finishing it with a 5-day research cruise in March. The team currently on station is composed of four scientists, Kim Null, Rick Peterson, Jared Crenshaw, and Leigha Peterson.  Then the other half of the team will pick us up near the end of the season for sampling from the research vessel. It has been an exciting trip so far. The Drake Passage was not that kind to us this year as we made our way south on the Lawrence M. Gould (LMG). We had 50 knot headwinds slowing us down and creating some rough seas.  We arrived at Palmer Station on January 5 and immediately began setting up the labs. It looks like chaos but it is actually quite organized. There is a lot of gear that must fit into limited space. That was accomplishment number one.  Yesterday (January 7^th) we had our first day of sampling. We hiked to the glacier face and conducted sampling from a glacial stream that discharges into the ocean. Sampling entails collecting large volumes (100L) of water to measure different tracers we use to quantify glacial meltwater to the ocean. Glacial meltwaters (surface and subsurface) have unique chemical signatures compared to seawater that allow us to distinguish them.

 

It has been an interesting start to the austral summer at Palmer Station because the station has been bounded by ice that has halted boating activities for most of the summer season so far. Unfortunately we are surrounded by ice once again right now.  The larger research vessels like the LMG have no problem moving through the large concentrated brash ice, but it poses a problem for the smaller Zodiacs that we use to conduct sampling near station.  Although we cannot start our sampling by boat, we have plenty of other sampling and prepping to keep us busy.  Hopefully the wind will change direction soon and blow the ice back to sea.

 

 

Marsh Field Trip

Had a good day exploring local marsh sites with Aaron McCall (The Nature Conservancy) and Jessi Strand, David Hawkins, Reide Corbett and J.P. Walsh (ECU/CSI).

Merry Mud Making

Had lots fun on Friday collecting lots of sediment samples for Dave Hawkins' thesis.  It was warm most of the day until the sun got low...then we sang some carols to keep us warm.  It was great to get out on the water.

Holiday Grab Sampling

Got to do some fieldwork on Croatan and Pamlico sounds today.  It was a bit chilly but nice on the steel blue and cold, quiet water. And it was another scenic sunset from the UNC CSI.