Celebrating My First Trip to Antarctica, 2/15/2012
I'm forever changed by my trip to Antarctica. The date is easy to remember because it's Sir Ernest Shackleton's birthday. I hardly slept or ate while I was there. Our starting point was Russia's Bellinghausen scientific base. The trip utilizes cooperation between Argentina, Chile and Russia. Every cell in my body remembers the sweet stillness from the lack of thought forms. Not to mention the grandeur of the landscape. I'm honored to be a person to have gone to the bottom of the earth. Thanks and blessings to those who supported my journey through donations. My working book title is We are All Antarctica: Adventures of the First Black Explorer on the Icy Continent. I'm told it will definitely change. I do have another title in mind. It's a challenging project, but I'm making progress. Have an amazing day!
My First View of Ice Cores
Yesterday, after my African American History presentation to the Bureau of Reclamation, I receive an unexpected gift.
The librarian reminds me that the National Ice Core Lab is nearby. I head over and get a tour from Richard Nunn, Assistant Curator and Geologist of the ice cores. What a knowledgeable resource, he is! This lab stores the world's collection of ice cores in a room -36°F. My interest is of course the Byrd expeditions. In the very back, where the temperature, with windchill, was about -60°F ( Calculated from the old formula- On November 1, 2001, a new formula was adopted, which makes it a little warmer :-).
We're there for about 10 minutes. It takes me an hour to warm up! Totally worth it.
The tubes from the 1940s and 50s are made from metal. The new tubes are cardboard.
They keep the first ice cores, from Admiral Byrd's 1947 expedition for posterity sake. Since the most of the air is gone from the samples, the data they collect isn't accurate.
What a thrill to see the cores, with ice anywhere from 10,000 to 70,000 years old.
In the summer, the faculty plays in the thousands of year old 'snow' from the shavings they discard. My mind is racing with climate science questions and possibilities!
The librarian reminds me that the National Ice Core Lab is nearby. I head over and get a tour from Richard Nunn, Assistant Curator and Geologist of the ice cores. What a knowledgeable resource, he is! This lab stores the world's collection of ice cores in a room -36°F. My interest is of course the Byrd expeditions. In the very back, where the temperature, with windchill, was about -60°F ( Calculated from the old formula- On November 1, 2001, a new formula was adopted, which makes it a little warmer :-).
We're there for about 10 minutes. It takes me an hour to warm up! Totally worth it.
The tubes from the 1940s and 50s are made from metal. The new tubes are cardboard.
They keep the first ice cores, from Admiral Byrd's 1947 expedition for posterity sake. Since the most of the air is gone from the samples, the data they collect isn't accurate.
What a thrill to see the cores, with ice anywhere from 10,000 to 70,000 years old.
In the summer, the faculty plays in the thousands of year old 'snow' from the shavings they discard. My mind is racing with climate science questions and possibilities!