Camp Rothera
22/04/2013 09:14 by Eric Epping
Our time at Rothera is coming to an end. There is only one week left before the RRS Ernest Shackleton arrives at Rothera to take us all Northwards to the Falkland Islands where we would begin our flights home.
Read more … Rothera: It’s time to wave goodbye…
01/03/2013 07:41 by Eric Epping
Two weekends ago Rothera hosted its annual Folk night. This is an event where anyone on base can perform on ‘stage’ in front of the entire base. This can be anything and this year included stand up comedy, singing, music (guitar solos, full bands, electronic dance), tapdancing and more.....
Read more … weeks 14-16: Rothera enters winter mode....
12/02/2013 21:45 by Eric Epping
Dirck Gerritsz hmmm that does not really ring a bell does it? We all know Amundsen, Shackleton and Scott as the famous polar explorers but Dirck Gerritsz is not the name that we connect with polar research. However we should do so and we should be proud of it. It might be that this Dirck Gerritsz was the first who reached the Antarctic and there is proof of that. In fact in the marble floor in the Royal Palace Amsterdam in Dam Square the western hemisphere is projected and a small piece of coastline of Dirck Gerritsz Land can be seen!
Read more … week 13:The trace metal team: Official opening of the Dirck Gerritsz lab
12/02/2013 17:08 by Eric Epping
We also deployed our nets for a depth profile, 500 – 200 m and 200 m – surface. Now with the electric winch on Searover, we can deploy our nets to 500 m a couple of times to try and increase the number of copepods, it’s a lot easier than by hand.....
Read more … Weeks 12 & 13: Gerritsz Lab official opening……with whales
06/02/2013 12:08 by Eric Epping
Iron is one of the main element we are interested in and it is quite a challenge to sample water without contamination. As iron is the 4th most abundant element in the earth’s crust solubility In seawater is extremely low. Roughly the concentration of iron in seawater is the same as one paperclip dissolved in 50.000 Olympic swimming pools…. Therefore we work in a so called cleanroom container.
Read more … Week 12 & 13: Trace metal team - Getting ready for sampling
24/01/2013 00:55 by Eric Epping
There we were on the 2nd of January at Schiphol airport for our departure to Rothera. Still digesting the champagne and olliebollen. After a journey of more than 30 hours that took us via the magnificent airfields of Frankfurt, Sao Paulo, Santiago the Chili, we finally reached Punta Arenas at 18:00h local time. At the airport of Sao Paulo we met British colleagues who were also on their way to Rothera and travelled via London Heathrow.
Read more … Weeks 9, 10 & 11: The Trace metal team arrived
23/01/2013 23:41 by Eric Epping
Since the start of 2013 there has been a continuous flux of people in and out of the base. Within those arrivals were the remainder of the Dutch research projects. We can tell that the base is now at full capacity due to the time we spend standing in the queue for lunch and dinner!
Read more … Weeks 9, 10 & 11: The Dutch team completed!
04/01/2013 14:42 by Eric Epping
Another two weeks have flown by, Christmas has been and gone and we are on the verge of the new year. We had the chance to fly as co-pilots in a twin otter to a BAS refuelling station in the southern part of the Antarctic Peninsula...
Read more … Weeks 7 & 8: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
19/12/2012 14:13 by Eric Epping
The past couple of weeks have been busy as the weather and wind have been good to us and we have been getting out on the boat for regular water samples. At the same time, the ice has finally broken up over RaTS site 1 (the primary sampling site) which is located over the deepest part of the bay and means that we have been able to deploy our nets down to 500 m.
Read more … Week 5 & 6: It's all coming together
