Above and Below McMurdo

One thing I got to mark off my Antarctic bucket list this year was a climb up Observation Hill (Ob Hill). Ob Hill rises about 750 feet above McMurdo and is the divider between McMurdo and Scott Base. It is also one of the many volcanoes that make up Ross Island. While this may seem small compared to Colorado standards, it's definitely one steep climb because the trail has very few switchbacks and essentially goes straight up.

Ob Hill as viewed from McMurdo

You will notice the flat area almost halfway up on the right side. That is where the old nuclear power plant used to reside. As part of the Antarctic Treaty, nuclear material is not allowed in Antarctica so McMurdo was converted to run off of diesel generators and the nuclear power plant was decommissioned and removed. The Kiwi's have also installed three wind turbines that are shared between them and McMurdo, which also helps power the station now.

Mt Erebus can be seen with a steam plume coming from the summit crater

Cloud shadows can be see on the ice shelf and Scott Base (green buildings) can be seen in the distance

The wind turbines can be seen in the near foreground along with another volcanic cone -- Mt Erebus (left), Mt Terra Nova (much shorter and in the middle), and Mt Terror (right) can be seen in the distance

View of McMurdo from atop Ob Hill

To give you an idea of where everything is, I've included an annotated version that points out some of the more common buildings.

Annotated view of McMurdo

Atop Ob Hill is a cross that was erected there in honor of Robert Falcon Scott and his men who died on the Ross Ice Shelf.

Memorial to Robert Falcon Scott and his men atop Ob Hill

Plaque below the memorial to Scott and his men

While the sites above McMurdo were amazing, I was also excited to view the sites again below McMurdo. Many of you may recall my post from last year regarding the Observation Tube (Ob Tube). The Ob Tube is a small (big enough for one person) observatory under the water that allows people to see the sea life under the sea ice. To get to it, you must climb down a long tube to the observation port at the bottom. This is not something to do if you have problems in confined spaces (as you'll see in the pictures below).

One of the biologists, Dorota Porazinska, prepares to descend down the Ob Tube

Dorota nears the bottom of the tube

It is definitely a tight squeeze to get down there, especially for tall people whose legs may be a bit too long to bend enough to actually step down the ladder. Anyone over six feet tall usually has to use a lot of arm strength to get down and pull themselves back up. Once you make it to the bottom though, the sites are well worth the cramped trip down. The first thing I observed was hundreds of tiny fish hanging out just under the ice.

Lots and lots of small fish

Unlike last year, not much algae was on the bottom of the ice and the ice appeared much thicker. This made for some amazing shades of blue and green. The bottom of the ice is also not smooth, but is composed of ice crystals as water freezes onto it.

More fish and colors under the ice

One thing I was hoping to see while under the ice was a seal. You can hear them talking to each other under the ice and the sounds can be almost ... well ... cosmic. They can start high pitched and steadily drop in tone, sounding like someone playing a electric synthesizer. One group last year installed an underwater camera and microphone and I discovered this year that they actually stream live video from the camera onto the internet. You can view the live stream by clicking here. If you scroll down past the video, they also have an audio clip of the seals from last year you can listen to.

As I was getting ready to exit the Ob Tube, I happened to look down towards where the web camera was sitting ... and saw a seal hovering just above it! As I grabbed my camera to take a picture, the seal began to swim off and I caught a partial silhouette of it before it disappeared into the darkness.

The disappearing seal

Similar to last year, the Ob Tube has been one of the highlights of my time down here. Temperatures have been getting warm here lately (above freezing) and the Ob Tube is expected to close this week so they can remove it from the sea ice before the sea ice begins to melt and break up starting later this month into January.

Before you think I'm having too much fun down here, my next blog post will be focused on Willie and our efforts to dig the DFIR out. You won't want to miss that one!