McMurdo - my home!
Hello again! It’s been a long first week here at Mactown - it seems like I’ve been here a month! There is a lot of meeting new people and so on, so it gets tiring! For the most part, though, the people are very nice and generally friendly (sometimes a little bit quirky!), which makes it easier to get along.
Here’s a photo of part of McMurdo:
These are a number of the main living and working areas in McMurdo. The four similar buildings in the back are dorms (not my dorm - it’s off the picture on the far right), and the dining hall building where I work is on the right, just in front of the rightmost dorm. Believe it or not, that sort of dirty open area behind those dorms is the Ice Pier, where they do all the vessel offloading. It’s frozen solid now but eventually it will be open water, and that dirty spot, which is ice bound with steel and concrete (not sure how that works!) will be the only ice in the bay.
Some of the other buildings include the Chalet, which is the NSF’s headquarters, and the Crary Lab, which is the main science building.
This is a picture of the historic Hut Point, taken from above the town. There is a building at the lowest point of the jut of land, and that is the hut that Robert Falcon Scott’s Discovery expedition built in 1901-1904. They built the hut out of Jarrah wood from Australia, in an Australian fashion, with wide verandahs and a high ceiling - which is excellent for the hot Australian climate but doesn’t work so well for the Antarctic. The hut is a short, 20-minute hike from town.
Those two little dark things in the background are vehicles driving on the sea ice.
Finally, here’s a picture of our friendly neighborhood volcano, Mt Erebus. That little bit of cloud you see at the top is steam, because Erebus is a pretty active volcano! You can’t see Erebus from town very well, but my department drove up to the side of one of the hills and it was amazing how close it was!
Hi Laura
You might be interested in an expedition I have planned for 2012 to commemorate Scott’s 1910-1912 expedition. Drop me a line on the email provided and I’ll send you some information.
Jason
Wow! Great pictures. It was great to talk to you. Enjoy your time and have fun. Luv, Mom
They DID do some basic volcanology surveying before they settled the town, right? Right?
Well, on the bright side, I guess the slopes of Erebus don’t look all that heavily glaciated (it’s more downslope that you’d worry about, eh?), but god-damn. At that distance, any pyroclastics and y’all will be quite literal toast! I have to assume that with the major research base *right there* that they’ve studied the hell out of Erebus (pardon the pun) and have to be pretty confident about safety, but still, I’d be a little nervous! Awestruck too, but nervous.
That’s a really weird looking edifice for a volcano, though. What’s the story with the flattish top - is it refilling a caldera, a la Helens, or just paving the summit with basalt these days?
I’m afraid Mz Caroline is maoing her fool head off, so I’m gonna have to cut short here. Just keep an eye out for them chickens - Feathers McGraw, he’s got this dangerous glint in his eye, I hear.
— Dave
So cool Laura! Love the pics and my Grandma is enjoying your blog as well
We’re all hooked! Keep it coming and have a great week…
Hey Dave!
Erebus has been continuously erupting for years - it’s a Strombolian volcano that occasionally spits out lava bombs and stuff like that.
Also there’s a rockin’ lava lake at the bottom!
Hi Kristi!
Glad you’re reading the blog and your grandma is too! Keep enjoying it!!
And I love you too, Mommy!