Hello all,
I want to report to you all about just what it is like living here at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. It's not quite like living back in the good old U. S. of A. I live in a dorm room that is a little smaller than the average dorm room at most colleges. We are allowed to take a 2 minute shower, every other day - standard Navy showers. Actually, you wouldn't want to take more than that, as it could dry your skin too much. Since this is such a dry place, you have to drink lots of water - about and beyond what you would drink normally everyday. All are issued a water bottle - which I polish off an extra quart a day from. As for eating, all of us here eat at the Galley (terms right out of the Navy - who provide support here) and the food isn't too bad, either.
There's a set of lectures and classes that you need to take as soon as you arrive here: Outdoor safety lecture and waste management class. Often they are referred to as walking school and garbage school - informally here. It is important to learn how to handle outdoor safety when going to walk around Ross Island, the island McMurdo Station is located on. Learning how to understand flagged routes, so you don't fall in to a crevasse (a hidden crack in the ice - covered with snow), or get caught in a "Herbie" (the local name given to the storms that do occur here). Meantime, there is no dump here at McMurdo - so all garbage is recycled to as much as 70% of all waste generated. Not bad considering the average recycling back in the States is about 22% on average. Recycling, however, means more than just one or two bins to place items - it means more like 16 or more categories of recyleables!! However, it allows us to keep Antarctica clean. To give you an idea of how important it is to keep the cleanest continent in the world clean - several years ago an Argentinean cargo ship ran aground on the shores of the Antarctic Peninsula - the fuel leakage killed all of the Skua chicks (Skua's are like the sea gull of Antarctica) in the area and killed thousands upon thousands of krill (small shrimp-like fish that are the basis for the food chain/web here). The pollution amount was small, compared to oil spills we had in other parts of the world too.
As I hinted at above - about half of the personnel here are from the US military. Currently the US Navy is in its last season of running operations here. Also, the US Air Guard, and US Air Force are here as well at various times of the year. The Air Guard will be taking over operations from the Navy over the next several years. The rest of the folks who are here are support personnel who work for the Antarctic Support Associates, or are Scientists from various institutions around the US or from the National Science Foundation, who oversee the US Antarctic Program. It is an impressive group of folks to be working with. Down here, you never know who you might run into, as today I was able to give a brief demonstration to several Generals from the US Air Guard.
That's the word from down on the "ice." Talk to you all later!
Matthew