back to beardmore - the antarctic sun · back to beardmore: see camp on page 7 photo by andy sajor...

By Kristan HutchisonSun staff

Like the mythical town ofBrigadoon, a village of tentsappears on a glacial arm 50 milesfrom Beardmore Glacier about

once a decade, then disappears.It, too, is a place lost in time. For most

people, a visit to Beardmore Camp is a tripback in history, whether to the originalcamp structure from 19 years ago, nowburied under snow, or to the sites ofancient forests and bones, now buriedunder rock.

Ever since Robert Scott collected fos-sils on his way back down the BeardmoreGlacier in February 1912, geologists andpaleontologists have had an interest in therocky outcrops lining the broad river ofice.

This year’s Beardmore Camp was thethird at the location on the Lennox-KingGlacier and the researchers left, saying there

December 28, 2003

Published during the austral summer at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, for the United States Antarctic Program

www.polar.org/antsun

Dinosaur huntersPage 9

Plant gatherers0

“The penguins are happier thanclams.”

Fishing for fossilsPage 11

TrackersPage 12

Quote of the Week

- Adelie penguin researcher summingup the attitude of a colony

Photo by Kristan Hutchison / The Antarctic Sun

INSIDE

Back to Beardmore:

See Camp on page 7

Photo by Andy Sajor / Special to The Antarctic Sun

A helicopter lands behind the kitchen and communications tents at Beardmore Camp in mid-December.

Researchers cut dinosaur bones out of the exposed stone on Mt. Kirkpatrick in December.Some of the bones are expected to be from a previously unknown type.

Researchers explore the past from temporary camp

2 • The Antarctic Sun December 28, 2003

Matt Davidson

Coast Guard icebreakers(based on Polar Star)

Crew: 15 officers, about 125 enlisted,and 15 more with helicopter crews

Crew age: About half the ship is 18-25

Deployments: Six months

Length: 121 meters

Weight: 12,000 metric tons

Fuel total: 4.9 million liters

Speed open water: 22 kph

Range: 560 km/day and up to 42,000km without refueling or breaking ice

Fuel consumed per day breaking ice:190,000 liters or more

Movement: Operates with three, 5-meter diameter, four-blade, controllable-pitch propellers, each weighing 42 metrictons.

Source: U.S. Coast Guard

Cold, hard facts

Ross Island Chronicles By Chico

The Antarctic Sun is funded by the NationalScience Foundation as part of the UnitedStates Antarctic Program (OPP-000373). Its pri-

mary audience is U.S. AntarcticProgram participants, their fami-lies, and their friends. NSFreviews and approves materialbefore publication, but opinions

and conclusions expressed in the Sun are notnecessarily those of the Foundation.

Use: Reproduction and distribution areencouraged with acknowledgment of sourceand author.

Senior Editor: Kristan HutchisonEditors: Brien Barnett

Kris KuenningCopy Editor: Melanie Conner,

Geoff Jolley, Wendy Kober, JD Menezes, Mark Williams

Publisher: Valerie Carroll,Communications manager, RPSC

Contributions are welcome. Contact theSun at [email protected]. In McMurdo, visitour office in Building 155 or dial 2407.

Web address: www.polar.org/antsun

Gee Dad, the year sure went fast.

That’s the way it iswith time son. It slowsdown for no one.

You can liearound and let itpass you by oryou can set newchallenges tohelp you improveyourself.

That’s quite inspirational Dad. Sowhat new challenges have you set foryourself for the New Year?

Me. I don’t have time for that. I’mtoo busy.

Like the fish on this line. You neverknow when your time is up so you

have to make the bestof it.

“Before I begin tonight’s lecture, remember to stand at theback of the room near the exits so you don’t make a fool ofyourself leaving early when you get bored!”

December 28, 2003 The Antarctic Sun • 3

Station greenhouses producefresh food, feel-good environments

By Kris KuenningSun staff

There is a place in Antarctica where,even in the dead of winter, you canlie back in a hammock and bask inbright light. You can pluck pansies

for a light snack, smell the fresh herbs or justhang out with a tiny forest of lettuce or asmall jungle of tomato plants.

It’s the McMurdo greenhouse and thoughit’s only 200 square meters, it’s some of themost valuable real estate on station for thepeople who live and work on the barrenshores of Ross Island.

Greenhouse technician Rob Taylor knowsthe greenhouse is more than just a place togrow food, especially in winter.

“Winter is when the greenhouse is mosteffective,” Taylor said. “Not only does itgrow food for the winter population, but thepeople are also more deprived.”

The McMurdo greenhouse generates upto 140 kg of food each month. From lettucefor salads to mint for Cuban cocktails, Taylorsupplies both the central kitchen and individ-ual requests for greenhouse produce.

In winter, when the station is cut off fromresupply flights, the greenhouse is the onlysource of fresh food for the 200-odd resi-dents. Harvesting 250 heads of lettuce every10 days means winterers have salad a coupletimes a week.

In summer, when the number of peoplerises to more than 1,000, the greenhouse sup-plements the regular shipments of fresh foodfrom New Zealand.

To comply with the AntarcticConservation Act, everything is grownhydroponically.

“Soil contains microbes and microbialcolonies,” Taylor said, “so it would be theo-retically possible for the microbes to escapeinto the environment.”

Instead, the plant roots are either directlysuspended in the liquid nutrients or support-ed by a non-soil agricultural mixture.

Signs outside the greenhouse warn smok-ers not to touch the plants. There are two rea-sons for this, Taylor said.

Not only is nicotine toxic to a lot of plants,but processed tobacco can carry the tobaccomosaic virus, which is devastating for plantslike tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.

“Because it’s a linked system, if you touchone plant, it is transferred to the whole rung,”Taylor said.

To combat a virus, all the plants have to bedestroyed and the greenhouse started fromscratch.

In early October, a subtropical insectfound its way to the greenhouse. Taylornoticed specs of moving dust on the sur-face of the water. It turned out to be a

non-native springtail.“There are native Antarctic springtail, but

this turned out to be a non-native, subtropicalvariety,” Taylor said.

Springtail live only on live plants, so it’sarrival is still a mystery. Rob first tried tocombat it with soap, which breaks the surfaceof the water and drowns the insect.

Though springtail is not harmful to theplants, its existence was a potential threat tothe delicate Antarctic environment and even-tually the plants were destroyed, the green-house emptied and frozen out.

The only thing that survived was a lemontree planted from seed several years ago byprevious greenhouse technician Chris Wilt.

The McMurdo greenhouse has no glass.In a continent with only one long summerday and one long winter night in a year, thegreenhouse’s artificial lights create night andday every 24 hours for the plants.

“Plants do most of their respiration atnight, so keeping them in constant sunlightmeans they’re unable to exhale,” Taylor said.

The artificial lights provide different spec-trums of light for 16-17 hours a day butTaylor said it still doesn’t approach the levelof sunlight. And while most plants like ahumidity level of 60-70 percent, Taylor sayshe’s lucky to maintain 20 percent humidity inthe dry Antarctic conditions.

Still, the plants thrive. They are lush,green and good producers.

“You have to force the plants to becomeaccustomed to different growing environ-ments. You don’t want to make it super cushyfor them.”

But the plants make life just a little morecushy for McMurdo residents – in the dining

hall and at the greenhouse itself. Taylorbelieves the greenhouse is a popular hangoutbecause it allows people to re-connect withplants.

“Humans have evolved with plants, but inthis area of Antarctica, you have humanswithout plants and I believe that when youtake people out of their evolutionary back-ground, it does something to the psyche …Even if they haven’t realized they’ve missedit. That’s how I feel, anyway. I like the factthat I grow food for people but it’s more thanthat,” Taylor said.

PalmerThere’s no greenhouse at Palmer

Station. Monthly supply ships from Chilealleviate the pressure to grow fresh veg-etables at the tiny station on the AntarcticPeninsula.

“Space is the biggest issue right nowfor Palmer Station,” said station managerJoe Pettit, “We don’t have quite the moti-vation to create a greenhouse.”

South PoleNibbling on nasturtium leaves at one end

of the tiny South Pole greenhouse, JackGiacalone is enjoying the last season in thegreenhouse under the dome before it isreplaced by a high-tech growth facility inthe new station in February.

Giacalone and his girlfriend Theresa“Tree” Menke are the volunteer caretakersfor the greenhouse. They and 14 others pitchin to produce lettuce, fresh herbs, tomatoes,cucumbers and even avocados in the

Photo by Kris Kuenning / The Antarctic SunGreenhouse technician Rob Taylor relaxes in a hammock at the McMurdo greenhouse.

Green Antarctica

See Greenhouse on page 4

coldest, driest place on earth.Giacalone said the current greenhouse is

very labor intensive. Keeping the plantsalive requires daily checks of nutrient lev-els, acid levels and water temperature.There is also misting, planting and harvest-ing to be done. The 30 square meter green-house under the dome can produce up tofour to five pounds of fresh vegetables aweek.

Giacalone and Menke spend about 15hours a week working in the greenhouse.

“It’s quite a workload but there’s not a lotelse going on,” Giacalone said, “And I’drather be busy.”

The biggest challenge is the dry air. Ahumidifier keeps the greenhouse between47 and 58 percent humidity.

But, in many ways, running a green-house is easier at the South Pole than itwould be back home.

“There are no insects, no aphids, no par-asites … almost,” Giacalone said.

Like McMurdo, the biggest threat to theSouth Pole greenhouse is the tobacco mosa-ic virus.

Working in the greenhouse givesGiacalone the same kind of satisfaction ofgrowing and producing that he gets at thevegetable garden he cultivates at his homein Hawaii.

“The conditions are ultra harsh here. Tohave stuff growing is very unique,” he said.

Space age greenhouseThe empty South Pole landscape is often

compared to outer space. Now an indoorgrowth chamber at the Pole may be a fore-runner to supporting a base on Mars.

The automated growth chamber has beendesigned for the National ScienceFoundation by the University of Arizona.

“It’s like no other growth chamber inthe world,” said Gene Giacomelli, direc-tor of the Controlled Environment

Agriculture program at UA.Though the 1,000-watt lamps pump out

enough light to emulate 40 percent of aTucson summer day, they are cool enoughto touch. The water-cooled bulbs, designedby former South Pole worker Phil Sadler,mean plants can grow closer to the lamps,making more use of the growing space.

“It’s going to be bright,” Giacomelli said.“And that will make the plants grow faster.”

All the water and nutrients are reused inthe system. Carbon dioxide is pumped in forthe plants’ respiration. The environmentinside the growth chamber will be comput-er controlled and monitored, but plant careand harvest will still require a human hand.

The 45 square meter space in the almost-completed wing of the new South Pole sta-tion includes twice as much growing room asthe smaller greenhouse under the old dome.There’s also more room for the people.

The growth chamber will be separatedfrom a lounge area by a glass wall. In the so-called “enviroroom,” people will be able tosee the plants, enjoy the intense light,increased humidity and even smell the more

pungent herb plants. A small “recreational”hydroponic system in the enviroroom willbe accessible to everyone, Giacomelli said.

The equipment is scheduled to arrive atthe South Pole a few weeks before the sta-tion closes for winter in mid-February. Thegrowth chamber should be up and produc-ing for this winter, but the official dedica-tion of the greenhouse won’t be untilNovember 2004, after the station re-opensfor the following summer season.

A Webcam in the growth chamber willallow the university professors and studentsto watch the plants grow. It could also beused as a diagnostic tool if there are prob-lems with plant health.

Giacomelli said this system demon-strates the potential for growing in a closedsystem on a Mars base.

“It would not work on a space stationbecause there is no gravity, but it couldfunction on Mars.”

The design would be lighter, though.Giacomelli said the South Pole growthchamber has been built for “heavy, long-term use.”


Kris Kuenning / The Antarctic SunJack Giacalone tends the greenhouse at the South Pole.

If you could pick aNew Year’s resolutionfor somebody else,what would it be?

“That they wouldtake a shower.”

Brandon Grantham,South Pole networkengineer from LasVegas, first season.

“Two simplewords: chill out,”

Rusty Rodriguez,soil yeast researcher atMcMurdo Station fromSeattle, third season.

“It would be, ‘stopsnoring in the TVlounge.’ ”

Joe Pettit, Palmerstation manager fromBoulder, Colorado, 14seasons.

Greenhouse From page 3

the week in weather

Polar Star near McMurdoBy LCDR April BrownMac Ship Ops/Coast Guard Liaison

Just in time for Christmas, the CoastGuard cutter Polar Star arrived at the iceedge about 31 km northwest of McMurdoat midnight on Dec. 24. Her sister ship, thePolar Sea should arrive about New Year’sEve to help.

You may have heard the fine whine oftwo stealthy HH-65 Dolphin helicoptersbuzzing about. Polar Sea will bring a thirdhelicopter, making a total of three heli-copters in the area and 22 “Coasties”added to the town’s population. There arenearly 300 sailors on the ships. Rumors ofan invasion are greatly ... understated. Getyour shopping finished soon. Seriously,though, Coasties are a great bunch of folksand they look forward to visiting town,shopping, having fun and making friends.

It takes hard work to keep an icebreak-er operating down here every season. Theicebreakers and resupply ships are criticalin keeping McMurdo, Scott Base andSouth Pole Station open year round. Let’sface it, no gas, no groceries, no go. TheNational Guard and other air crews workhard to help the stations, but there stillisn’t a single plane that can bring in ninemillion gallons of fuel and 10 millionpounds of cargo at once. That’s why theships come down each year.

Polar Sea is on her fourth consecutiveOperation Deep Freeze mission becauseof the extremely thick ice conditions of thelast three years. Speaking of ice condi-tions, helo ops folks, PHI helicopters andthe survey team helped measure the iceedge out to 30.3 kilometers. The thicknessranges from 2.5 meters thick in the first-year fast ice out near the edge, to 3-4meters thick closer to McMurdo, includ-ing the turning basin near the ice pier. Allthat ice is beneath nearly a meter of snow,which is bad for icebreaking because thesnow dampens the blow of the bow andcauses friction on the hull, slowing theship way down. It’s sort of like trying tobreak a fluffy pillow with a hammer (to

plagiarize the infamous “Wheeler”). Polar Star started the break-in on five

diesel electric engines and three shafts,and made all of 27 meters. It was impor-tant to gauge how much she could do ondiesels first. She then switched to a diesel-gas turbine (a modified aircraft engine)combination on the center shaft, providinga lot of power and control without rampantgas consumption.

Unfortunately that combo soon provedinadequate and the Star had to switch tothree turbines, one per shaft, as the Seahad to do early last season for brutestrength. Three turbines can momentarilyproduce up to 75,000 horsepower pershaft, and then drop to about 60,000 horse-power. At that rate, the ships will burnabout 190,000 liters of fuel a day.

I am going to have an icebreaker pool,and the lucky winner who can guess clos-est to the time when Polar Star makes herfirst approach to the ice pier will be therecipient of some fine Coast Guard para-phernalia. I will have a sign-up sheet post-ed, or you can e-mail me the date and timeto the minute. E-mail Brown, April in theMcMurdo directory in Outlook.

Laurence M. GouldCompiled from reports by Skip Owen

After four-plus days of waiting for theLaurence M. Gould to break through heavyice to reach them, field camps at Seymour

and Vega islands were picked up on Dec.23-24.

The Gould first tried Dec. 19 but heavymulti-year ice, icebergs, and ice floesblocked the way from all directions. A satel-lite photo sent from Palmer Station showedthe ship would have had to move throughabout 35 km of ice to reach them.

The researchers on Seymour and Vegaislands said they received several centime-ters of snow. The snow cover and windshampered the search for fossils for severaldays.

On the upside, the personnel atArgentina’s Esperanza Station in Hope Bayon the Antarctic Sound noticed the Gouldsteaming back and forth and invited thecrew to visit. Since the ice blockade lookedlike it would be in the way for a while, theGould anchored off Esperanza at approxi-mately 3 p.m. local time. The Argentinianchildren of families at Esperanza Station,ages 3 to 13, toured the Gould, with theirteachers, mothers and the station pediatri-cian. For the children, it was a nice breakafter a long winter. The Gould is the firstvessel to visit this season and the station’sannual resupply vessel still is several weeksaway. They were fascinated with the ship.

“It was a first for me to have a group ofkids tour the vessel in Antarctica. We thor-oughly enjoyed having them aboard,although they put quite a dent in the Pringlesupply,” marine projects coordinator SkipOwen said.

The Argentine station hosted a dozen ofthe crew from the Gould to dinner later, andit was a warm and pleasant visit in the bestAntarctic style.

The Gould left Hope Bay Dec. 20 foranother attempt to reach Seymour and Vegaislands, but was turned back again. Theship went instead to King George Island,where seven members of one science groupwere able to fly out on a chartered aircraft.That gave the Gould several more days totry to reach the researchers on Seymour andVega islands.

The crew celebrated Christmas Daywith a fine meal, carols around the vessel,and a cruise photo on the foredeck with all


around the continentSHIPS

McMurdo StationHigh: 37 F / 3 C Low: 14 F / -10 CWind: 28 mph / 45 kphWindchill: -17 F / -27 C

Palmer StationHigh: 43 F / 6 C Low: 28 F / -2 CWind: 47 mph / 76 kphWindchill: 17 F / -8 C

South Pole StationHigh:-7 F / -22 C Low:-16 F / -27 CWind: 25 mph / 40 kphMax physio-altitude: 3,099 m

See Continent on page 6

Photo courtesy of Skip Owen / Special to the Antarctic SunChildren ages 3 to 13 and residents fromArgentina’s Esperanza Station gather onthe deck of the Gould with Captain MikeTerminel for a photo during a tour of thevessel. The Gould was the first ship of theseason to stop there.

the scientists, support and crew present.On Dec. 26, the Gould made it through

the pack ice. Although the ship still had afair distance to go through the AntarcticSound, Owen reported the sight of openwater was a great relief as was good weath-er. He estimated the Gould would return toPunta Arenas Dec. 29.

Nathaniel B. Palmer

Compiled from ship reportsAfter leaving Lyttelton Dec. 18, the

Nathaniel B. Palmer headed south withgood weather and calm seas for severaldays. Then on Dec. 21 the weather turnedfor the worse, with sustained winds at 65kph and gusts to 110 kph. The crew andothers aboard report a happy Christmas.

Lectures and new life

By Kerry KellsPalmer correspondent

Palmer Station continues to have phe-nomenal weather. Our usual cloudy darkskies have cleared to offer some sun dur-ing our holiday preparations. The rare sun-shine casts shadows on the glacier andmakes the water around us sparkle. Mostdays allow for extensive boating opera-tions. Among all the usual activities, twostand out this past week.

On Wednesday, Langdon Quetin talkedabout the history of krill research atPalmer. He spoke about the vessels, scien-tists and advancements in laboratory facil-ities. The ships used for transportation andresearch began with the motor vesselHero , then the Polar Duke and now theresearch vessel Laurence M. Gould . Hetalked about the smaller research vesselsused to collect krill samples. First were theraft-like vessels and trawlers which gradu-ated to the Zodiac they now use, termed“Rubber Duke” for the advanced krill col-lection capabilities it has. Numerousresearchers began their research in ourarea. For Quetin, research continues.

He gave a short biography of MaryAlice McWhinnie who wintered atMcMurdo in 1974 and moved over to thePalmer side for krill research. Shedesigned a large aquarium with constantlyflowing seawater, which kept the krillalive in the laboratory. Quetin’s first sea-son was 1981 to 1982 along with RobinRoss and Bill and Peggy Hamner.

Some more advances of the late 1970’sand early 1980’s include the transportationof live krill back to home laboratories,which was successful due to temperature

insulation. The year 1985 introduced win-ter research in pack ice thanks to the ice-strengthened Polar Duke. Between theyears of 1995 to 1999, the Port of NagoyaPublic Aquarium in Japan was the first toculture Antarctic krill through a completelife cycle, a milestone achievement inAntarctic krill research.

After a long work day, a boat trip out toTorgersen Island allows an introduction toa second phenomenon in the Peninsulaarea. One can actually witness the hatch-ing of a penguin chick, parents feedingtheir chicks and the sight of these blackand gray fuzzy newcomers. The Adeliecolony is full of the soft “peep peeps” ofthe penguin chicks. Although Fraser’sgroup of seabird researchers, affectionatelytermed “the Birders”, say the colonies aresmall overall, and still in decline, the newchicks look healthy. Certain nests are mon-itored throughout the summer season.They monitor when the chick hatches fromits egg. The standard incubation period is33 days from the second egg. The survivalrate is one and a half chicks per nest. Themain threat at their young age is the preda-tory brown skua. After a trip out to BiscoeIsland, our seabird researchers tell me thatonly a few gentoo penguin chicks hadhatched due to the later breeding season forgentoos. Hatching times for other seabirds,brown skuas and giant petrels, fall a coupleweeks later. The Birders will continue tomonitor the colonies of penguins and otherseabirds and the survival of the chicks.

Palmer Station continues to be full ofactivity, both at station, on our seas and onthe surrounding islands. Not only does thecommunity of Palmer have the opportuni-ty to learn and ask about the science con-ducted in our area, but also to witness sci-ence in action in the hatching of theseabirds. As we prepare for the holidayshere with the final decorations, wrappingpresents and preparing the dinner, PalmerStation researchers and support personnelwish everyone in the USAP a happy andsafe holiday season.

Play recalls expeditionsBy Vincent ScottPole correspondent

This month, members of the South PoleCommunity Theatre presented a readingof Ted Tally’s play, “Terra Nova.” Theplay, first presented at the Yale School ofDrama in 1977, is adapted from the jour-nals and letters found on the frozen bodyof Captain Scott. The play follows Scottand his Terra Nova expedition on theirjourney combined with flashbacks of chatsbetween Scott and his young wifeKathleen, as well as imagined scenesbetween Scott and his Norwegian rivalRoald Amundsen, whose party beatScott’s to the Pole by a month inDecember 1911.

The cast included Kris Perry readingthe role of Scott, Peter Rejcek asAmundsen in Act I, Vincent Scott asAmundsen in Act II, Paddy Douglas read-ing Scott’s wife, Kathleen, Ethan Dicks asBowers, Andrea Dixon as Oates, T. Reganas Wilson, and Dave Bell reading the roleof Evans.

Logistics Supervisor Paddy Douglas,who read the part of Kathleen, said shewas “struck by how we take the station forgranted – and at how easy it is for us toforget that it has been paid for dearly.”

“I was clearly moved by the responsi-bility felt by Scott towards the expeditionand his men.”

Continent6 • The Antarctic Sun December 28, 2003

From page 5

PALMER

Photo Cara Sucher / Special to the Antarctic SunAn Adelie penguin tends to her chick nearPalmer Station.

Photo courtesy of Susan Weber / Special to the Antarctic SunAbove, Scott’s expedition. Bottom, picturedleft to right, top row: Paddy Douglas, SheriMason, Vincent Scott; middle row: T. Regan,Kris Perry, Ethan Dicks; bottom row: DaveBell, Andrea Dixon

SOUTH POLE


are still more fossils to find in the hills.“I’d really like to see us have more

camps like this,” said chief scientist JohnIsbell, from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

It was the sixth time the U.S. AntarcticProgram has set up a large hub camp tosupport deep fieldwork by rock hunters.

“Last time we did this was atShackleton (Glacier),” said camp managerDave Zastrow. Many of the sameresearchers were at that camp in 1995,which at about 150 people was one of thebigger field camps. This year’s Beardmorecamp was a third the size, with about 50people and 40 tents. The size is partiallydriven by the kind of work done. The pale-ontologists needed helicopters and some-times Twin Otter airplanes to carry them torocky sites in the surrounding mountains,up to 12,500 feet high. At times the campseemed more like an airport, with heli-copters, Twin Otters and LC130 planes alllanding and taking off.

“It takes everybody to bring it together- camp staff, helo pilots, scientists,” Isbellsaid.

The camp was supposed to be fully run-ning by Dec. 1, but a storm in McMurdodelayed the helicopters and researchersfrom reaching Beardmore Camp for days.Then five days of wind at the camp itselfgrounded the helicopters, said mechanicAndy Young.

Though weather kept the researchersfrom reaching their field sites as often asthey hoped, when they did they made someinteresting finds, including a new dinosaur,fossilized fish, petrified trees and evidencebuttercups once bloomed there.

“It’s been successful, especially consid-ering the weather,” Isbell said. “If youreach 25 percent of the original planyou’ve had a real successful season.”

Though only two percent of Antarcticais exposed rock and dirt, what is exposedincludes some of the best-preserved fossilsites in the world, with unique evidence ofthe Earth’s earlier inhabitants. The fossilsreveal an ancient history, but it carries amodern message, said Molly Miller fromVanderbilt University.

“The main thing is, people have tounderstand their place in space and time,”Miller said. “What this is showing is theEarth, or what is on it, has changed tremen-dously.”

“If we’re going to understand our placeon earth, we need to understand what’scome before us.”

In all, more than 9,000 kg of rock andfossil were flown out of the camp. Most ofit will be shipped back to the geologistsand paleontologists on the vessel, arrivingat their universities in April. The best spec-imens are tucked into their luggage, testingthe airline weight limits.

To keep the size of the camp smaller,

the research teams cooked their own mealswhen they returned from the field sites,working over camp stoves in expeditiontents. That changed the camp dynamics.

“There’s not a central gathering point orcentral gathering time,” said paleobotanistEdith Taylor from the University of KansasLawrence, who made an effort to meetother researchers anyway.

In the evening some of the researcherscongregated in the communications tent orsometimes the kitchen tent, checking onthe flight schedule and sharing tales of theday.

“We’re biologists. We don’t want to justsee this (fossil) dead in the rock. We wantto know who was chewing this,” Edithsaid.

Sometimes they also swapped rocks.Loren Babcock from Ohio State Universityfound fossilized tree trunks, almost twofeet in diameter, which he gave to the pale-obotanists.

“Normally what comes out of thesecamps is a lot more integrated science,”Babcock said.

The camp has faded into the snowdrift,as a crew of carpenters dissembled thestructures and reassembled them at MoodyNunatak. The tents will stay there untilabout the first week of February, support-ing two other geology and paleontologyresearch projects. Then it will becomeanother layer of history.

Camp From page 1

MESOZOIC

PERMIAN JURASSIC CRETACEOUS

PALEOZOIC

TRIASSIC248 206 144 65

CENOZOIC

TERTIARYmillion years ago

At left, researchers crowd theBeardmore Camp kitchen tentwhile waiting for flights inmid-December.

Below, boxes filled with rocksand fossils wait on the outskirtsof Beardmore Camp to be sentby plane then ship toresearchers’ universities.

Photo by Kristan Hutchison / The Antarctic Sun Photo by Kristan Hutchison / The Antarctic Sun



From the first time explorers trudgedup the Beardmore Glacier, they werecollecting rocks.

the 100-mile glacier in 1908, he and his menfound seams of coal among the sandstoneand a rock with plant impressions.

“We can only take with us small speci-mens of the main rocks, as weight is ofimportance to us,” Shackleton wrote in hisjournal. “From these small specimens thegeologists must determine the general char-acter of the land.”

The coal and fossils proved thatAntarctica was once lushly vegetated.

“That was some of the first evidence thatAntarctica was not always glaciated,” saidpaleobotanist Edith Taylor.

But the most talked about rocks from theBeardmore probably are the 16 kg of geo-logical samples Robert Falcon Scott collect-ed, the only thing left on his sled when therescue party found him dead in the spring of1912.

Polar historians are as interested in thestones as geologists are, because the extraweight on the sled and the day spent col-lecting them were among the factors leadingthe men to stop short of their next depot, 17km away.

“It gives you a great sense of the historicwhen you stand there and the wind is blow-ing and you think they manhauled all the

way to the Pole,” said paleobotanist TomTaylor.

As Shackleton and Scott leaned into thewind and their harnesses on their separateexpeditions, they had plenty of time tonotice the geology of the hills. Moderngeologists have continued to return, stillresearching many of the features the earlyexplorers first noted.

Shackleton wrote “The glacier is evi-dently moving very slowly and not filling asmuch of the valley as it did at some previ-ous date, for the old moraines lie higher upin terraces.”

This year Allan Ashworth was digginginto the old moraines, finding evidence ofhistoric glacial advances and recessions.

Ashworth did most of his work this sea-son at Oliver Bluff, where Scott had alsonoted the old moraines. Ashworth has readScott’s journal for clues of places to look formore deposits.

“Those guys went very slowly and theymight have noticed things,” Ashworth said.

Edith and Tom Taylor thought of Scott asthey collected plant fossils from SkaarRidge, looking down at the site where Scottstopped to collect coal and fossils of woodand leaves on his trip back from the SouthPole. Scott noted the “beautifully tracedleaves in layers, also some excellently pre-served impressions of thick stems, showingcellular structure” on a piece of coal Wilsonpicked up. The Taylors still come toAntarctica because the quality of plant

preservation is among the best in the world.Scott also had a fossil of Glossopteris, a

plant. A few years later the presence ofGlossopteris fossils on all continents wasused as the first proof of continental drift.

“As plant fossils go, it’s pretty famous,”said Edith Taylor.

Molly Miller spent six days at Mt.Bowers where Scott collected theGlossopteris fossils. The famous explorerwas in her thoughts as she collected thesame kind of fossil, still of scientific inter-est.

“We thought of that often. ‘Wow, he washere. He must have been freezing to death,’”Miller said. “In terms of geology, it doesfeel very historic.”

Scott died sometime after March 29,1912 with the rock still on his sledge. Somehistorians have suggested he might not havedied if he hadn’t taken the time to gatherthose rocks on his way back down theBeardmore Glacier, and then tried to haulthe extra weight.

“We like to tell people we won’t go tothat extreme to get fossils,” said EdithTaylor.

Her husband agreed: “I’d dump mine ina heartbeat.”

It’s not a decision they have to make.Now geologists and paleontologists can col-lect tons of rocks without worrying about theweight. They and their samples are flownout by helicopter and LC130 airplane, thenthe rocks are shipped north on a vessel.

Early explorers left rock legacy

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Pyramidal-shaped Scotttents used for the

Beardmore Camp inDecember are the same

style Robert FalconScott carried up the

glacier, and eventuallydied in on his way back.

Nowadays the dome-shaped mountaineering

tents are also used.

As Ernest Shackleton hiked up


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Wielding hammers, crowbarsand dynamite, the dinosaurhunters tracked down a newanimal, but they couldn’t get

all their quarry home.Paleontologist Bill Hammer suspects the

newly uncovered bones on Mt. Kirkpatrickcould be the remains of a primitive sauro-pod, a type of herbivorous dinosaur withlong neck and tail that lived from 248 mil-lion to 65 million years ago. ThoughHammer won’t know until he has time tostudy it back in the lab, it is likely to be anew species.

“Anything we find down here is very dif-ferent from other parts of the world,”Hammer said.

The last time Hammer visited Mt.Kirkpatrick, 13 years ago, he dug up theremains of the first, and only, carnivorousdinosaur found in Antarctica. The 22-footcryolophosaurus turned out to be the oldestof its kind from anywhere in the world.

“We know very little about the earlyJurassic, particularly on the southern conti-nents,” Hammer said. The only otherJurassic site in the southern hemisphere is inSouth Africa. With about 35 percent of thecryolophosaurus’ skeleton, Hammer wasable to create a model of the entire dinosaur.A month after Sept. 11 he picked up a full-sized reconstruction of the dinosaur skele-

ton from a Canadian maker and tried todrive back across the border.

“It was too crazy a story to make up, butwe still got hassled,” said Hammer, whospent two hours convincing customs offi-cials the dinosaur was legitimate. The skele-ton is now displayed at AugustanaUniversity, where Hammer teaches.

This month Hammer led a team of sixback to Mt. Kirkpatrick, hoping to retrieveany remaining cryolophosaurus bones, andfind something new. He found about 35more bones at the cryolophosaurus site,including vertebrae and a toe. The bonesmay belong to cryolophosaurus or otherdinosaurs from the same site.

About 100 feet above the cry-olophosaurus, mountaineer Peter Braddockspotted another bit of exposed bone. Heshowed it to Hammer, who identified it aseither part of a pelvis or shoulder of a sauro-pod.

Blaster Marty Reed set charges of dyna-mite near the surface of the rock at threefoot intervals. A boom like fireworksexploded down the mountain, but only thesix dinosaur hunters were close enough tohear it.

“The main thing is you have to use lightcharges so you fracture the rock,” saidReed, who fractured the rock to within afoot of the bones.

From there the team worked with pickaxes, rock hammers, crow bars and rocksaws to free the beast locked in rock. Theteam retrieved about 1,500 lbs of rock andbone, but left more buried in the hillside.

“I’m happy with what we found,”Hammer said. “There’s still more goingback in there. We probably have anotherwhole season’s work there.”

Hammer also wanted to visit five othersites where dinosaurs may be hiding, butbad weather kept him from flying there. Hebelieves many of the ridges between thepeaks may hold Jurassic bones.

“There’s actually a lot more out therethan it appears on the map,” Hammer said.

NSF funded research: Bill Hammer, AugustanaCollege.

Dinosaur hunters dig up new beast


Photo by Andy Sajor / Special to The Antarctic Sun

Photos by Andy Sajor / Special to The Antarctic Sun

Paleontologists search for dinosaur bones at a site on Mt. Kirkpatrick.

Marty Reed sets dynamite to crack open therock above hidden dinosaur remains.

Bill Hammer shows one of the newdinosaur bones found on Mt. Kirkpatrick


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Based on bulk, the Taylors’ plant gath-ering trip to Antarctica was a hugesuccess.

home about 4,000 kg of leaves, seeds,stems, roots and tree trunks, all in rock.

“We got a special award for taking homethe largest chunk of the continent,” jokedEdith Taylor.

It’s the third time she and her husbandTom have been to the Beardmore Glacier,so they knew just what they were lookingfor and where to find it. The goal was tocollect perimineralized plants, a rare formof preservation in which the cell wallsremain and silica fills in the spaces. Eventhe embryos within the seeds can be seen.

“It is the rarest preservation for plants,”Edith said.

Antarctica is one of only three places inthe world with such well-preserved plantsfrom the Permian age, and the only site withplant fossils of that caliber from the Triassic.This time they were heading back to SkaarRidge, near the camping site where Scottcollected coal and wood fossils, wherethey’ve collected many important fossilsbefore.

“It’s like a compost heap you’ve turnedto stone,” Edith said.

The Taylors know which sites and rocksare likely to contain the fossils, but it’s stilla bit of a treasure hunt.

“There’s a great serendipity to it. Yougrab a rock, take a chisel, break it open and

see what you find,” said Tom. They look for rocks with clear layers and

some black in them, indicating the presenceof organic material.

“It’s luck,” said Tom.“And persistence,” said Edith.Both have paid off for the couple. The

fossils they collected on this trip will beadded to the collection at the University ofKansas, already the second largest collec-tion of Antarctic plant fossils in the worldwith about 50,000 rocks. Many fossils fromtheir previous visits led to a greater under-standing of ancient foliage.

A fossil the Taylors left on display at theBerg Field Center has seed ferns pressedinto its surface, as detailed as if they’d justbeen cast in plaster. The rock is 220 millionyears old “give or take a month,” said TomTaylor, with his usual humor.

The seed fern is unique because it is partof an extinct group of plants with leaves likeferns and seeds like flowering plants. On aprevious trip the Taylors found seed fernswith short shoots sprouting from them andseeds attached, similar to a gingko tree. Itwas a trait that had never been found in thefossil record before.

“We carried that specimen back in ourlaps,” Tom said.

Tom’s specialty has been fungi. At thePermian site he found branches eight to 10cm in diameter with clearly visible ringsand cells. White holes were left throughoutthe petrified branch in a pattern recogniz-able as white pocket rot. The same fungusstill lives in trees in the U.S., having out-

survived the trees in Antarctica by millionsof years.

The Taylors have also found tree trunkswith the rings still preserved, showing agrowth record. The growth rings were 10times wider than those found on trees inAlaska today, probably due to a warmer cli-mate and the longer growing season.

“These plants were growing at higherlatitude than any plants are growing today,”Edith said.

In the Gordon Valley, the fossil trunks of99 Dicroidium trees stick up from theground, all 0.75 meters to 0.9 meters tall.They still have root structures in the ground.

“It’s like you cut the forest off with achain saw and then turned them all tostone,” Edith said. She suspects the treeswere killed by a flood.

The Taylors still have many questions toanswer about how trees adapted to survivethe long, dark winter. It is possible the treesdropped their leaves, had smaller leaves orhad some other adaptation, Tom said. Hehopes the answer is waiting inside one ofthe stones they shipped home. Most of theirwork will be back in the lab, where they’lloversee students slicing the rock with dia-mond blades and then using acetone film tocollect the preserved plant cells from thefossil surface.

“It’s just one page out of a huge novelthat you get to read when you open that par-ticular rock,” Tom said.

NSF funded research:Edith and Tom Taylor, University of Kansas, Lawrence.

Photos by Kristan Hutchison / The Antarctic Sun

Above, Tom Taylor shows a vertebraria, a fossilized rootstructure from the Glossopteris plant, to fellow paleobotanistPablo Puerta. The white of the star pattern was left by thespaces between the swamp plants roots. The upper Permianfossil was found on Skaar Ridge in the central TransantarcticMountains. At left, paleobotanist Edith Taylor wraps fossilsin rags and packs them in boxes for shipping home.

Botanists gather leaves and seeds in stone

The paleobotanists shipped

December 28, 2003 The Antarctic Sun •11


Loren Babcock looks at the bare rock inthe Transantarctic Mountains and seesgreen forests alive with animals.

“I see ponds, forests, somewhere downthere eruptive fissures and some reptilesswimming around,” said Babcock, a paleon-tologist from Ohio State University. “I see,in my mind’s eye, something similar to thereconstructions you see in books.”

Babcock reconstructs the past from frag-ile fragments – an insect wing pressed instone, the print of fish scales, the marks leftby soft shells the size of sunflower seeds.

“We’re looking mostly for exceptionallypreserved fossils,” said Babcock, who wasworking with fellow paleontologist SteveLeslie and graduate student Alycia Rode.“Think about what it takes to preserve aninsect wing. You know how delicate theyare.”

Most paleontologists look for bones,teeth and shells. Those are the hard parts ofthe body most likely to last long enough forphosphates or other minerals to replace thecell structure. But only 15 percent of thecreatures in an ecosystem have hard skele-tons, inside or out. The other 85 percent sel-dom leave a trace.

“Our fossil record is strongly biasedtoward those creatures that had mineralizedskeletons,” said Babcock.

He is trying to counter the bias by seek-ing out the rare specimens of softer bodyparts, particularly arthropods, the family ofspineless animals that includes spiders,crustaceans and insects.

Antarctica is one of the very few placesin the world where such insubstantial speci-mens have been fossilized from the Jurassicage, 160 million years ago. The other sitesare in lower latitudes, Brazil, Italy, Chinaand the Green River Formation crossingColorado, Utah and Wyoming. As the onlyhigh-latitude site, Antarctica allowsBabcock to look at differences in thelakebed biology of different latitudes duringthe Jurassic period.

During a week on Carapace Nunatak,Babcock’s group filled 14 boxes with slabsof rock wrapped in white rags, about 315 kgin all. With years of experience behind him,Babcock easily found fossils in the layer oftan rock striping the red-brown basalt cliffsof the Kirkpatrick Formation in theTransantarctic Mountains.

“One or two cracks with the rock ham-

mer and it shows there’s fossil,” Babcocksaid. “It is incredible. These are some of themost fossiliferous rocks I’ve ever seen.”

He suspects similar deposits exist alongthe entire 1,280 km of the mountain range.

Many of the fossil rocks are flat slabs offine-grained sedimentary stone, which theresearchers will split open carefully in thelab and then look at under the microscope.They’ll also do chemical analysis. Therocks are like history books. Babcock cansee insects, crustaceans and plants on thecover, but is waiting to read the rest of thestory on the pages inside.

“Once these things are split back in thelab we expect to dramatically increase thenumber of organisms we know to be there,”Babcock said. Even on the surface, many ofthe rocks show remarkably clear pictures ofthe past. An inch-long wing, shaped like adragonfly’s, is etched onto the surface of asand-colored stone. The threadlike web ofveins shows clearly. From other sites aroundthe Beardmore Glacier Babcock’s groupcaught six anchovy-sized freshwater fish,complete with eye sockets.

“It’s unusual to find complete fish likethat with the scales on and everything,” hesaid. “They look like someone just pulledthem out of the water.”

Babcock would like to figure out whythese sites are so well preserved, and thenumber of fossils he found may help. Heknows he is looking at old alpine lakebeds.Something kept scavengers and burrowersfrom disturbing the sediment while the crea-tures buried in it fossilized. It may havebeen a sudden change in the lake salinity,the introduction of toxins, volcanic ash orsulfur dioxide, or an event that cut off the

lake beds from all oxygen, Babcock said.“That, combined with sudden burial, is

usually what causes exceptionally preserva-tion,” he said. He’ll be able to determinewhat it was back at the lab, studying therock structure under an electron microscopeand using chemical and mineral analysis ofthe rock.

Representing creatures seldom pre-served, the fossils could also give paleontol-ogists a better idea of how things evolved.

“We found stuff that had not beenrecorded (before) and what’s really unusualhere is we got a more complete set of crea-tures from sedimentary river beds thanbefore,” Babcock said. “They help to fill insome of the details of an ancient ecologicalcommunity.”

“These kinds of deposits also give usincredible anatomical information aboutthese sort of creatures, information thatwould normally be absolutely inaccessibleto us,” Babcock said.

The fossils also tell researchers about theclimate at the time. The remains of egg-lay-ing creatures show the temperature was atleast 10 C for a few weeks, since that’s thetemperature they require to incubate. Thepresence of fish shows it was warm enoughfor the water to be liquid for extended peri-ods and flying insects also indicate awarmer “greenhouse” world, Babcock said.

“Once we’re done with this study, thiswill almost certainly be the best knownMesozoic lake deposit in terms of fossiliza-tion history,” Babcock said.

NSF funded research mentioned in this story: Loren Babcock, Ohio State University,

www.geology.ohio-state.edu/~lbabcock/

Alycia Rode stands next to a view of rock likely to have fossils on Carapace Nunatak.

Photo by Loren Babcock / Special to The Antarctic Sun

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Fishing for fossils



Like trackers, John Isbell and MollyMiller read the clues left in streambedsand animal burrows to tell a larger storyabout life 250 million years ago.

When they first come to a geologicalsite, it looks like a jumble of rock.Examining it closely, layer by layer, therock begins to make sense, like the piecesof a puzzle put in order. The picture theyare putting together of the Permian andTriassic ages answers questions about theenvironment, climate and animal life.

“We, in a sense, try to paint a picture ofthe physical environment and the dynam-ics,” said Isbell, from the University ofWisconsin-Milwaukee. “It’s really like amystery or a puzzle and we’ll walk up andjust be frustrated, scratching our heads,wondering what’s going on. Then it willstart to fall into place, like finishing anovel.”

Isbell and Miller came with a long listof questions to answer about the Permianand Triassic ages. Isbell has the start of ananswer for one of the questions, on whatcaused the mass extinction of animalsbetween the two ages, an event referred to

as the Permian Triassic Boundary. Basedon changes in the land surface, Isbellbelieves tectonic forces were involved.He’s found streambeds that changed thedirection of their flow, indicating a dra-matic change in the ground slope.

“The patterns are more reminiscent oftectonic changes,” Isbell said. “You seeone change in one area, another in anotherarea.”

The glacier during the Permian alsoappears to have been smaller than previ-ously thought and advancing into a lake,Isbell said.

One of the ways Miller can tell whichway the streams flowed and where thelake was located is by following animalburrows left in the banks. Many of the bur-rows are just a half inch wide, left byinsects or arthropods.

A mammal-like reptile, about as bigaround as a soup bowl, also tunneledthrough the softened ground. The tunnelsfilled with other material, leaving tubestwo to three meters long winding throughthe rock.

“The behavior is recorded in rock. Byreading it we can learn things about life instreams,” Miller said.

She’d also like to find one of the crea-tures still in its burrow. The burrowinganimal was closer to mammals and fromthe same branch that eventually evolvedinto mammals, Miller said.

“The fundamental question we’d like toanswer is: Did early mammals evolve hereat this high latitude?” Miller said.

She’s found animal trails fossilized onstone. Miller looks at lines scratched onstone, like Chinese calligraphy, and readsthem.

“It’s all so dramatic. You’re not lookingat a dead bone. You’re looking at an ani-mal walking across 230 million yearsago,” Miller said.

Though the story Isbell and Miller arereading is an ancient one, they say it stillapplies to the modern world.

“What this is showing is the Earth, orwhat is on it, has changed tremendously,”Miller said.

NSF funded research mentioned in thisstory:

Molly Miller, Vanderbilt University,[email protected]

John Isbell, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, www.uwm.edu/People/jisbell/


Layers of rock showthe periods of timenear the BeardmoreGlacier.

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Permian past pictured


Buttercups once bloomedbelow where the BeardmoreGlacier flows, along with

shrubs and other tundra plants.Millions of years ago the glacier-filled valley was a fjord, with aglacier advancing and retreating onthe southern end, said paleontolo-gist Allan Ashworth. Digging in thedebris left by that more ancientglacier, Ashworth and fellow pale-ontologists, Jane Francis, DavidCantrill and Steve Roof found theunlikely remains of a tundra envi-ronment.

“You hear that Antarctica iswhite and snowy and nothing liv-ing,” said Francis. “Then you hit arock and open it up and there areleaves.”

Ashworth believes the glacieradvanced and retreated four to fivetimes in the area where they weredigging on Oliver Bluffs. With eachretreat plants colonized the freshglacial deposits, only to be buried asthe glacier pushed forward again.

“It’s just this tiny little windowbetween glaciers when the riversflowed and carried these things thatthe glacier ground up,” Francis said.“It’s quite amazing that anybodyever found them, because they’re sorare.”

The ancient glacial depositswere exposed in the sides of theOliver Bluffs as the modernBeardmore Glacier carved its ownway through the valley.

“They include landscapes thatexisted with life on them,”Ashworth said. “Basically in places wecould peel back a layer and reveal anancient tundra.”

The group uncovered the wood andleaves of a relative of the Nothofagus, com-monly known as the southern beech tree inSouth America, Tasmania and New Zealandwhere it still grows.

“The form we find here is not a tree. It’sat best something that crawled out along theground,” Ashworth said.

Dave Cantrill discovered a cushion plant,which grew in the shape of a mound aboutthe size of a basketball top. The cushionplant grew outward in annual layers. Eachtime it was buried by sediment the plant

would push up through the dirt and re-estab-lish, leaving concentric layers representingthe sediment and growth patterns.

“It sort of tells us of the dynamics of thesystem and how these plants struggled tosurvive,” Cantrill said.

They’ve also found about six types ofmoss and seven flowering plants, includingbuttercups, complete with seeds, leaves andpollen. The vegetation is mostly low, creep-ing plants, similar to what is found in theAlaska tundra.

“You can actually see how the plantswere growing along the ground andbetween boulders and were tenacious,”Cantrill said.

The five-person team camped on Oliver

Bluffs for three weeks. Attheir campsite the wind whis-tled and roared over the glaci-er. Nights were so coldAshworth’s sleeping pad andblanket froze to his cot andone morning he woke with hislips stuck to the tent. Theirwork site, 100 yards awayfrom the tents, was protectedfrom the winds.

“It’s one of those thingswhere the camp was kind ofmiserable, so there was incen-tive to go to work,” Ashworthsaid.

Much of their work wasdone 60 feet up the side ofcliffs, sometimes on laddersor in harnesses rigged by thegroup’s mountaineer, ForrestMcCarthy. Some of the rockhad to be broken open withdynamite by blaster MartyReed before the researcherscould pry it out. When theyfound a layer of fossils, itcould take several days toexcavate.

“You spend a lot of timesearching and not findinganything, and then when youfind a gold vein you followit,” Francis said.

They’re shipping homeabout 60 boxes of rock, total-ing nearly two tons, and manyof the discoveries will comeas they examine those moreclosely.

“Most of the things wework on are pretty small, sodiscoveries on them are

almost always going to be made in the lab,”Ashworth said.

The rocks Ashworth brought back fromthe same site in 1995 contained beetles,insects, mollusks and a fly that had neverbeen found in Antarctica before.

“They contain organisms we previouslydidn’t know were there and they help ourunderstanding of Antarctica’s climatic his-tory and also the evolutionary relations,”Ashworth said.

NSF funded research mentioned in thisstory: Allan Ashworth, North Dakota StateUniversity.

www.ndsu.nodak.edu/instruct/ashworth/


Discovering Antarctica’s leafy past

Photos courtesy Steve Roof Above, paleontologistSteve Roof digs forplant fossils onOliver Bluffs abovethe BeardmoreGlacier.

Right, leaf fossils col-lected by AllanAshworth's group.

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Prof i leBy Kristan HutchisonSun staff

Andrew Sajor is better equipped thanmost eighth-grade science teachersto dig up dinosaurs in the

Transantarctic Mountains with a jackham-mer and pickax.

Having first spent 23 years fixing powerlines in storms, he knows how to use toolsin bad weather.

“Working out in the field, a lot of thetools we use are the same I used in thepower industry,” said Sajor, a teacher fromPlattsburgh, NY, who came to Antarctica inDecember as part of Teachers ExperiencingAntarctica. The National ScienceFoundation funded program gives scienceteachers a chance to experience field sci-ence and incorporate their experience intotheir curriculum.

Five other teachers came to Antarctica aswell. Seventh- and eighth-grade teacherAmy Stoyles is working with LaurieConnell studying yeast growing in the DryValleys. Eighth-grade teacher ColleenBrogenski went up Mount Erebus with vol-cano researcher Phil Kyle.

Sajor worked with paleontologist BillHammer’s team, camping on the BeardmoreGlacier and retrieving dinosaur bones fromMount Kirkpatrick at 3,800 meters.

In his online journal at www.tea.rice.eduSajor wrote: “I count myself extremely for-tunate to have landed with Dr Hammer, fora number of reasons. First, when you men-tion to someone you are going to theBeardmore Glacier, their eyes glaze overand they become very envious. To a person,they all comment that that place is the realAntarctica. Second, working on the removalof a rare and exotic fossil, life doesn’t getany better. Third, to be attached to a team ofworld-class scientists.”

The paleontologists also felt lucky tohave Sajor along. He turned out to be a use-ful member of the team, jumping in to doeverything from fix computer problems tomove heavy rocks.

“He’s definitely very outgoing, veryfriendly. He’s got just an incredible wealthof expertise,” said Nate Smith, a graduatestudent working on the team. “He pitched inas much or more as everybody on the team.”

Sajor took a very circuitous route toteaching, and Antarctica. He grew up inWestchester County, NY. While a collegestudent in Plattsburgh he was hired as a line-man for the City of Plattsburgh MunicipalLighting Department. He stayed, eventuallybecoming chief lineman.

“I was happy for a long time,” said Sajor,who enjoyed working outside and the

excitement of going out in a storm to fixsparking lines.

“You built something every day, so youwalked away and you said ‘I did that,’”Sajor said. “You had a visible, tangiblesense of accomplishment, which is prettynice to have.”

After many years, Sajor was spendingmost of his time training the other linemen,and he realized that was the part of the jobhe liked best. A friend working atPlattsburgh State University College con-vinced him to go back to school for a teach-ing degree.

He finished the degree without expectingto get a job as a teacher, since jobs werehard to come by. Then a local school calledand offered him one, at a fraction his line-man salary. Despite the pay cut, his wife,Kathy, and daughters, Brooke and Zoe,encouraged him to take it.

“They said, if it’s going to make youhappy, do it, and I did. I’ve never beensorry,” Sajor said.

Now Sajor teaches ninth grade andaccelerated eighth grade science, as well astwelfth year physics and an astronomy lab atPlattsburgh State University College.

“I kind of spread myself all over becauseit’s just fun. I love doing this,” Sajor said.

As a teacher, Sajor rarely cracks open atextbook. Instead, he has students learn bydoing. For physical science demonstrationshe uses lineman’s tools and examples fromhis own experience. He’s built a wind tunnelfor students to test airplane wings they’vedesigned. Sometimes he leads the studentsoutside to analyze stream beds and sedimentstructure.

“They can start to see the forces of uni-forminteranism,” said Sajor, referring to thegeological theory that changes occur slowlyover time and clues to what has happenedcan be found by looking at what forces arecurrently at work on the landscape. “Thepresent is the key to the past.”

Sajor also pursues research projects dur-ing the summer, giving him lots of hands-onscience experience to bring back to theclassroom. In the past summers he hasworked with the Institute for GlobalEnvironmental Strategies and gone to seaaboard the research vessel Oceanus to studythe paleocurrents of the Gulf Stream. Heenjoys working with scientists, who tend tobe professors.

“They’re all educators as well asresearchers,” Sajor said. “That’s whatshould happen at the high school level aswell.”

High school science teacher Andy Sajor gets hands-on experience with a paleontology team atBeardmore Camp.

Photo courtesy Andy Sajor

Teacher learns by doing

back to beardmore - the antarctic sun · back to beardmore: see camp on page 7 photo by andy sajor...

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