| Antarctica It's really cold here. | |
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| If someone were to ask me what Antarctica is like, I'd tell them in one word: Cold. It's very, very cold. But there is also a lot more to Antarctica. Under the Antarctica Treaty, it was decided that no one country would own Antarctica. It was decided that it instead would be neutral and used for scientic purposes. The people who live on this continent are either scientists or people who support the science. I am not a scientist, I work in an office preparing rooms for the scientists. Forty-six nations have representation on this continent. There are many "towns" in Antarctica. I live on the American base of McMurdo Station. It's the largest base on what we call "the Ice." | |
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| As I said before, it's really cold here. Although it's the beginning of September, on this half of the hemisphere we're just coming out of Winter and starting Spring. Now the temperature ranges between -20 to -30 degrees Fahrenheit. But the windchill is worse!!! Many of my friends and I say that if there was no wind, we could just walk around in our jeans and t-shirts. But the wind is so incredible that we have to bundle in many layers to keep warm. We recently just had our coldest week with windchill in the -90 degree area!!! It's really weird to go outside and have your eyeballs freeze. It doesn't take too long to have frost or ice coat your eyelashes. You have to keep blinking to keep your top and bottom eyelashes from freezing together. | |
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But that is really extreme and doesn't happen quickly. And we wear a lot of clothes to keep us warm. The most common piece of clothing that we wear is a giant red, down comforter parka. We all call them "Big Red." These jackets keep us so warm and protect us from the wind. You'll see them a lot in these pictures. |
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| But the extreme cold creates some really spectacular wonders. These nacreous clouds are created from extremely cold conditions. They are pretty common and they happen on clear days at sunset. I've heard them described as "Rainbow Clouds," "Oil Slicks in the Sky," and "Flying Rainbow Trout." | |
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| McMurdo Station is the largest base on the Ice. There are many things to do here. There are a lot of hiking trails. The above picture was taken after a hike to the top of Ob Hill. We have a coffeehouse on base (not a Starbucks), two dance clubs, a gym (we have a dodgeball team, baseball, rugby, ping pong and some others), the rock wall, a library and a few other things. We used to have a bowling alley, but it burned down last year. (I'm hoping they'll rebuild it soon!) | |
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| On the other hand, sometimes the residents of Antarctica get bored. The New Zealanders from Scott base dug out an incredible cave under the snow. It has multiple rooms, electricity and even a small heater. They had A LOT of free time on their hands! | |
| But, because it takes so much effort just to put on Big Red to just go to the gym or the coffeehouse, I usually just stay indoors and watch tv. We don't have regular tv like in the United States. We have special tv channels that are broadcast by the Army (technically, we are a military base). We have ten channels total, but two of those channels are only for movies!!! Everyone on station has a tv in their room, but I prefer to go to the lounge and watch tv with my friends. It's more social that way! :) | |
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| There are a many vehicles on base. There are a lot of bulldozers, fire engines, trucks, vans. They are all supposed to be used for work purposes only. The only time they are used for recreation are for field trips. We took a van to go stargazing the other night (it broke down and we got really, really cold out on the Ice). Every Thursday, there is a shuttle van that takes us from McMurdo to Scott Base so we can hang out with the New Zealanders (or as they're also known as: "the Kiwis"). We have to pick up the shuttle at the bus stop.Anyone want to wait here?There are a few roads in town. They're easy to spot because they have black, volcanic gravel spread on it. Outside of town, the roads are lined with red flags on the left side and green flags on the right. There aren't any traffic jams, we have only about 40 vehicles on base, and five of them are still buried in snow. At night, they have to plug the cars into the buildings to keep the batteries and engine blocks from freezing. | |
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Not all of Antarctica is white. In fact, McMurdo Station is near an active volcano and built on volcanic rock. During the summer time, a lot of the ice melts leaving just black rock landscape. There are absolutely no plants in Antarctica. And the 46 nations won't allow anyone to bring any kind of flowers or plants onto the continent. The Antarctic landscape is either black or white (or shades of blue).One day, some scientists invited my colleagues and I to watch them launch a weather balloon. It was really cold. |
| At the moment, it's still Winter at McMurdo Station, and the penguins haven't swum south for the winter yet. We're expecting them in October or November. As part or the Antarctica Treaty, we are not allowed to get close to the penguins. If a penguin takes notice of humans, then the humans are too close and need to back off. The same goes for seals. If the seal notices your presence, you need to back away. But there sure are a lot of seals and penguins around here!! They're so cute to watch and take pictures of! There are other animals on Antarctica that aren't so cute. Skuas or giant seagulls that love to dive bomb humans and steal their food. They're about four feet tall and because of the Antarctica Treaty, humans are not allowed to fight back. We just have to surrender our food. :( | |
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| My favorite thing about living in Antarctica is the food! We have an amazing galley down here (galley - it's a military term) with three full meals a day, plus two break times! We have som amazing chefs that cook us fabulous dishes like greek-spiced chicken, eggplant parmesean, salmon with dill... But my favorites are the hamburger bar, the make your own omlette bar, the spaghetti and meatballs, chili (Every year, the residents of McMurdo & Scott Base have a chili cook-off to see who can make the best chili!!!). We all carry our plates on a tray and go find a table with our friends to sit at. (It's very similar to a school cafeteria, except I think we get a larger selection.) However, we don't get a lot of fresh food. A lot of our supplies have to be frozen because the planes don't fly to the continent often. Everyone on station gets very excited when a plane lands and they bring us "freshies" (fresh fruit, vegetables, eggs ... these are very rare items in Antarctica and are almost more valuable than money!). | |
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The most surprising thing I found in Antarctica is how dry it is here. Most people wouldn't think a continent covered in ice would be dry! But it's like a desert out here!!! We constantly have to drink water to keep hydrated. I rub lotion on my hands ten times a day! I am always smearing chapstick on my lips to keep them from getting cracked. In addition to the dryness, there is also A LOT of static electricity!!! Every time I unlock a door, a blue spark of electricity arcs from the metal lock to the metal key. I am always taming my friends' hair down as it will sometimes stand on its end! This scarf is just hanging on a rack, but look at its tassles reaching for the wall! The nice thing about this dry climate though is that I don't have to put gel in my hair to keep my frizzies down. Instead, I just rub a fabric softener sheet over my head to keep the static electricity down. |
| I hope this gave you some more information about Antarctica. Many people think of this continent as a big, empty, white, ice berg, but there are a lot of things happening on this continent, and it's not always white! If you have any other questions, ask your teacher to send me an email and I'd be happy to either answer your question, or take a picture for you! Stay warm!!! | |
