Croozin'!

Greetings from the Arctic! Sorry it has taken us so long to post something but it’s been a bit of a whirlwind couple of months going on field trips/cruises etc.

The cold weather and darkness is really starting to set in now and we arrived back from our cruise to find snow on the mountains. It snows most days now but doesn’t lie on the ground as yet.... and there’s even a bit of a snow storm going on now as I’m (Christine) typing (unlucky for Rosie though who’s at the gym and has to walk home in it!)

We arrived back from our Arctic Marine Geology cruise on Friday and had an awesome but tiring week, so when we got back we decided to take advantage of the homemade hot tub outside our barrack. 

Students will be students etc

There’s more to come at a later date from myself and the others about the Arctic Marine Geology cruise.

However, this blog is mainly about another expedition (tough life I know).

Sarah and I are both studying on the Quaternary History of Svalbard course, and started it off with a 4 day tent/cabin camp and 3 day cruise around the north west of Spitsbergen.

Map of excursion sites

 On the first day we arrived at Nordenskioldbreen glacier via Polarcirkel powerboats and got the choice to either stay in a tent or in the luxury of a cabin (I got the short straw on the first night!).  As soon as we arrived we had to chop up icebergs with an axe which had washed up on the beach and carry them inland for our fresh water supply (great fun).

During the next 4 days we got the chance to go study the stratigraphy of coastal cliff sections at Kapp Ekholm, went climbing on a glacier and visit the deserted Russian coal mining settlement of Pyramiden. To get to all of these sites involved wearing very glamorous, bright orange survival suits and travelling by zodiac. I think it’s safe to say Sarah and I never want to step foot in another zodiac again, the waves were huge and each time we hit one we got flung up in the air and landed with a huge thud on top of various things such as spades/rifles (just to name a couple) and the bruises received then are only just going away! Each night also involved getting up at daft o’clock for two hours to do polar bear watch for those sleeping in the tents, - we weren’t a pretty sight the next day at breakfast. Overall though we had an amazing time…….honest!!

Here’s a few of pictures from our time camping to give you a taste of what it was like.

A lovely example of those attractive survival suits we wore & me carrying ice up the beach for fresh water.

Polar bear watch – probably about 3am!! (Looking like a marshmallow!!)

Trying to look cool in our shades….didn’t really work!!

Climbing about on the glacier. Good fun apart from the big crevasses you have to get over!!

Sarah getting ready for a big jump!!

Comrade Spaggy Lockwood in Pyramiden

We held a mini Olympic ceremony of our own at Pyramiden. Someone said it was just like the one in London.

But……it wasn’t hard work all the time, we still found some time to just sit back and relax… on an iceberg!! 

(Funny lookin' seal?! -ed)

On the 5^th day at 2am we got picked up by a ship, the Stalbas. But before we left I pulled the short straw again and had to go out on one last trip in the zodiac…… to empty the toilet waste out in the fjord. Wouldn’t have been so bad if the bags (biodegradable btw) hadn’t started leaking all over the boat, not my finest moment in Svalbard I must say!

We sailed out of Isfjorden and up the west coast of Spitsbergen, and over the next 3 days  we did a lot more geology ‘work’, but I'm sad to say we still had to use the zodiacs to get to the land from the Stalbas. The most exciting place we went to was Ny Alesund which is  the most northern settlement in the world; we stayed there for two nights and it is a really beautiful place.

Here’s a couple of pictures from our cruise.

The Stalbas

Only 2560km to Markie Dan's pub in Oban from here......

The World's Northern-most (and possibly smallest) Post Office

Bergy bits from the calving glacier at Ny Alesund

Ny Alesund Geodetic Observatory

Keep a look out for the next post, - about our Arctic Marine Geology cruise!

Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour!

Life in the far north continues apace. Whereas in Scotland we pessimistically say on the day after the summer solstice, 'That's the nights drawing in now....', here, the nights positively gallop in! Last night saw the first star being visible at midnight, but it doesn't get truly dark yet. 

Snow briefly visited last week. A fierce squall heralded a snow shower that instantly transformed the ochre and russet brown hillsides into dappled white. Needless to say, Rosie instantly ran outside to have a snowball fight against what turned out to be the majority of Barrack 13; the Russians. Russia 1, Rosie 0. 

As quickly as it arrived though, the snow departed as the temperature shot up to a heady 7.5c. Even at this time of year the weather can change incredibly rapidly. The (relative) warmth of Isfjord can quickly generate a thick hill fog that swirls and ripples around the sedimentary towers of rock that overlook Longyearbyen, and then as swiftly as it appears it is gone, to be replaced by sunshine. -And often drizzle, at the same time....

Study wise, Christine and Sarah spent last week away on their very successful quaternary geology field trip. More to follow on this in their report this week. Ailsa, Rosie and Paddy had a really interesting (and fun) week of Arctic hydrology lectures, delivered by an indomitable stalwart of sedimentary hydrology, Jim Bogen. Jim's lectures were always exciting as you never knew quite what was going to happen. And I think secretly, neither did Jim. He led us on an entertaining afternoon of fieldwork around Longyearbyen and up Adventdalen. This was quickly christened 'Jim's Magical Mystery Tour', and our minibus's coatings of dust were speedily modified to advertise this. We suspect our tour guide felt privileged to be leading such a fine 'liveried' fleet.

Mystery Machine Number 2

Through this work though we were able to get a good understanding of not only where the sediment originates, but also the multitude of controls that modify how it behaves. As a lot of this sediment ends up in the marine environment, getting a grip on the linkages that exist between the two is really insightful.

The AT209 Arctic Hydrology 'Crazy gang', in a rare moment of (mostly) all facing the same direction at once.

The last stop on our tour was at the valley junction between Adventdalen and Bolterdalen, next to the huge EISCAT radar dishes. From here, on top of the mountain, you get a fantastic view of the surrounding area. The EISCAT radar though is really quite interesting (I think!). It stands for European Incoherent Scatter, and essentially what this program does is study the ionised part of our atmosphere, -the bit where the Aurora Borealis, or Northern lights, occurs. Astonishingly though, during certain conditions, they can reverse transmit from the EISCAT system and synthetically stimulate the Aurora to appear above, in the heavens. 

EISCAT Radar dishes next to Gruve (mine) 7 in Adventdalen

Whilst this doesn't damage anything, it struck me as a powerful analogy for displaying the ability we humans have in manipulating our environment. It is just a tragedy that we cannot seem to so defiantly and distinctly use this ability to help clean up and sort out the mess and problems we cause. Maybe, hopefully, one day we will.