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ANTarctica
Fourmilab South Pole Expedition
January, 2013 |
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The Beach
2013-01-07 17:59 UTC |
Click images for reduced size. |
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Because the beach is on the edge of Union Glacier, reaching it requires
crossing a region of known and actively forming crevasses. We
dismounted the vehicle about a kilometre from the beach to make the
rest of the traverse on foot.
Before starting toward the beach we were all roped together and briefed
on the commands to others. “Halt” if you see something that
looks like a crevasse, “Go” if you decide it's all right
to proceed, and “Arghhhh!” if you find yourself
in free fall. The crossed red flags to the left mark a known crevasse;
we'll see more of it later. Most crevasses have a snow bridge of
sufficient depth and rigidity that walking across it is not a
problem. But, on the other hand, some don't….
Large dark rocks absorb heat from the Sun and create melt ponds around
them. This happens with rocks on every scale from small pebbles to
large boulders like this one.
In the melt ponds, ice melts and re-freezes into bizarre shapes which
look like they're the work of an abstract artist.
Crossed red flags: crevasse!
It's really deep—you don't want to go there!
This document is in the public domain.