About this Blog

This blog is dedicated to a research expedition to the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica. Through field mapping of geomorphic evidence, sample collection, and cosmogenic nuclide concentration measurements in the Noble Gas Lab at Harvard, we hope to better understand the behavior of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet during Miocene (~23 to 5 million years ago) and Pliocene (~5-1.8 mya) times. The Early Pliocene is the most recent period in which global temperatures were significantly warmer than the present, therefore providing us with a potential analog for a warming climate. This research is generously funded by the NSF Polar Science Program.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Greetings from the Future*

We have finally all arrived in Christchurch, but (as should be expected when any elaborate schedule of air travel is concocted) it has been a rather exasperating trip.

At 2:30 pm EST Nov 20th, Robert and I headed to the airport in Boston with no fewer than 22 hours of flying time ahead of us. After a smooth connection in Los Angeles and a successful 14 hour journey across the Pacific, we landed in Sydney with just moments to spare before boarding our final flight from Sydney to Christchurch... or so we thought.

Our original plane could not be used due to a technical malfunction and a substitute plane would have to be flown from Melbourne for our use- so our flight (scheduled to depart at 9:15 am Sydney time Nov 22nd) would be delayed until 1:00 pm (net delay = 3.75 hr). Our rescue plane, however, was also unfit for further use due to a broken wing flap (which we learned about while our plane retreated from the runway). Several hours later we learned that our flight had been canceled and everyone would try again the next morning at 9:15 am (net delay = 24 hr).

On the bright side, this meant that Australia gave us permission to leave the airport (so that we could get to a hotel) and we were able to see a little bit of the city in whose airport we had just wasted away many hours of our life:View of Sydney from Botany BaySydney Opera House (note person for scale)

In the morning we boarded our plane for Christchurch, again, only to sit in the plane at the gate while a few paperwork issues regarding fueling were sorted through (net delay = 24.75 hr). Eventually we began taxiing to the runway and preparing to take off, when our captain informed us that THIS PLANE TOO had wing flap problems and we would be returning YET AGAIN to the gate to try and evaluate the situation. Happily, the problem was indeed fixable and we finally took off at 11:30 am Sydney time Nov 23rd (net delay = 26.25 hr).

Now all we have to do is fly the much less dependable route from Christchurch to McMurdo.
Woohoo!

*This is, of course, a reference to that one must fly across the international date line to get to New Zealand (currently 18 hours ahead of the US).
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