Freezolysis, December 6, 2005 Options

[Dena_Rosenberger]

Freezolysis
December 6, 2005

For those interested in things Antarctic, check out the weekly Antarctic newspaper at http://AntarcticSun.usap.gov

Hello from the Ice!
For additional Antarctic pics, check out the Gallery.

Where’s Rosenberger?
Crary Labs, McMurdo Station, Ross Island, Antarctica

Yesterday, Lead Scientist (PI) Christine and Senior Research Associate (RA) Chris hiked to some other lakes close to Pony to check the snow coverage and take some ice cores. One lake called Blue Lake was deep (>2.5 meters), had no snow, and stays frozen all year. The core from Blue Lake was completely clear, indicating that no organisms are present. What a difference from Pony Lake!
Chris holds a beautiful clear core from Blue Lake:


We lugged the Photolysis Rack up to the roof this morning, filled the big test tubes with reconstituted Pony Lake water and loaded them in, and pointed it at the sun. This Rack can be turned in a circle to follow the sun. These big tubes will be used for biology experiments. There are also some small tubes for different tests on another rack made from black-painted cardboard boxes. The small tubes will be for chemistry tests to see the effects of sunlight on the Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM).




Markus carefully cleans the tubes:


Well, we should have called it Freezolysis because within an hour, the water inside of the tubes started to freeze. This means that we cannot continue the test right now. We were hoping that since the racks are painted black, they would absorb enough energy from the sun to keep the tubes from freezing. We will put them into a dark refrigerator and wait for a warmer day. Huh, go figure, it was too cold in Antarctica today! (At least for Photolysis tests).

Jenn and Kaelin were trying to clean a 55-gallon drum to store our filtered Pony Lake water. The problem of rinsing the drum was solved by putting distilled water inside and rolling it down the ramp between floors in the lab building. Roll on!


Did you know?
More than 10,000 meteorites have been found in Antarctica, which acts as a huge meteorite collector and preserver. Meteorites can tell us about the history of our solar system. More of them don’t fall here than anywhere else, but they are easier to find than say, in a rainforest. They have fallen on the ice sheets here as long as they have been around. As the ice sheets change and evaporate in the dry air, the meteorites are revealed. They range from larger-than-football size to the size of a staple and some of those found are on display in Crary Lab.

Current Conditions at McMurdo Station
The view out my lab window (Something’s coming):


Right now:
Mostly cloudy with possibility of snow
Winds out of the southeast at 16 knots with gusts to 22
Pressure: 29.200 inHg
Temperature: 25 oF/ -4 oC with wind chill: -2 F/ -19 C
Sunset: February 20 at 1:38 am

[Guest]

So who took the ride in the barrel?

Who'da thunk it would have frozen the water in the tubes...even with the DOM..guess it didn't change the freezing point that much..

Q- what was the ambient air temp for that day....
Q- could moving air around the tubes have pushed the localized microclimate around the tubes down below freezing..obviously did......

Keep having fun....


A

[lindsay ferguson]

hey ms. rosenberger, i see its back to below freezing down there. how are all the fun experiments going? what do you think is comming weather wise? more cold right? i gotta go, mr. youngblood is telling us all about our next lab. i cant wait! miss ya much!
~lindsay

[Sue Millan]

Hi Dena,
Remember me... Debby's sister. Debby & Jim emailed me the links to this sight. I've spent the past hour(+) glued to the computer reading your entries. What an opportunity for you! And it's clear you are a wonderful role model to your students. I'll be checking in & reading up on your adventures. Your pictures are beautiful.

[Guest]

Hi rosen,
wow that seems cool! At least you guys can have fun when you work so you don't die out there! Wow the picture from you room is really pretty, what really did happen with the weather?
amanda stahl per.3

[~*Megan Blakey*~]

MS CHEESEBURGER!!!! I UNDERSTAND WHAT WE ARE DOING IN CLASS!!! im so getting the hang of it and doing all my work...*dances w/ the penguins* maybe you should go to antarctica more often! HAHA J/K! id miss ya too much!