Clik here to view.
Geology of the Transantarctic Mountains
Last week the holidays broke my routine. As I head into the New Year, The Roof at the Bottom of the World has been launched, and I will all too soon be back to the professorial demands of my day job....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Climbing for Science in Antarctica
Over the past several months I’ve talked a lot about Antarctica and what it’s like to be there, but I haven’t really said much about what I’ve actually done there and why. My research career has...
View ArticleGoing Swimming in Antarctica on the Huffington Post
My new piece for the Huffington Post titled "Going Swimming In Antarctica By Accident and On Purpose" has just been posted. It has been adapted from The Roof at the Bottom of the World. Check it out at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Greening of McMurdo Station, Antarctica
During the 1955-56 Antarctic summer season in preparation for the International Geophysical Year (1957-58), the U. S. established McMurdo Air Facility on Ross Island in the vicinity of Hut Point, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Antarctica in the Summer: Sunshine 24/7
A peculiarity of the polar regions is the cycle of seasons with total darkness and total sunlight. During the Antarctic (austral) summer, the sun traces a circle in the sky that dips low toward the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cadillac Jack and the Whiteout
Thanks to its extremely low humidity, the Antarctic atmosphere allows the sun to shine with brilliance and clarity, amplified by its reflectance from surfaces of snow and ice. On cloudless days,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Unknown
What is it about the unknown? Why are we drawn to it? Why the fascination? Is it the rustling of the chimeras at the misty edge of perception? Perhaps it is the apprehension, that strange mixture of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Aesthetics of Field Science
This month marks the first anniversary of my blog. The following is an abridgement of a presentation that I gave at the XXXII SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) and Open Science...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Remote Heart of the Transantarctic Mountains
A glacier flows through the remote heart of the Transantarctic Mountains, a land so alien as to be of the imagination, an icy fastness engraved in a children's storybook. Granite spires puncture...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fall Break
For the first time this semester Arizona State has had a Fall Break. Regina came out from that small island to the east of the Hudson, joining Harriet and me in a loop through northern Arizona. This...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Trash or Treasure?
As humans have explored the Antarctic wilderness further, their impact on it has become more problematic. For instance, in 1974 I traveled to a Lake Vanda in Wright Valley across McMurdo Sound—a very...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Geology of the Transantarctic Mountains
Last week the holidays broke my routine. As I head into the New Year, The Roof at the Bottom of the World has been launched, and I will all too soon be back to the professorial demands of my day job....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Climbing for Science in Antarctica
Over the past several months I’ve talked a lot about Antarctica and what it’s like to be there, but I haven’t really said much about what I’ve actually done there and why. My research career has...
View ArticleGoing Swimming in Antarctica on the Huffington Post
My new piece for the Huffington Post titled "Going Swimming In Antarctica By Accident and On Purpose" has just been posted. It has been adapted from The Roof at the Bottom of the World. Check it out at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Greening of McMurdo Station, Antarctica
During the 1955-56 Antarctic summer season in preparation for the International Geophysical Year (1957-58), the U. S. established McMurdo Air Facility on Ross Island in the vicinity of Hut Point, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Antarctica in the Summer: Sunshine 24/7
A peculiarity of the polar regions is the cycle of seasons with total darkness and total sunlight. During the Antarctic (austral) summer, the sun traces a circle in the sky that dips low toward the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cadillac Jack and the Whiteout
Thanks to its extremely low humidity, the Antarctic atmosphere allows the sun to shine with brilliance and clarity, amplified by its reflectance from surfaces of snow and ice. On cloudless days,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Unknown
What is it about the unknown? Why are we drawn to it? Why the fascination? Is it the rustling of the chimeras at the misty edge of perception? Perhaps it is the apprehension, that strange mixture of...
View Article
