AntarcticDoctor

Fieldwork... bliss in the middle of nowhere

I’m waaaaaaaaaay behind with writing some good posts about all the fieldwork that we did this summer, and so I’m just going to make some brief posts with pictures and maybe short descriptions to give a passing impression.  I’ve just updated the post on the first trip (to Flarjuven, when we had to pull out due to bad weather) with some new photographs, so start there.

The next field trip was to the nearby nunatak of Lorentzenpiggen, which forms a distictive part of the skyline to the south of SANAE IV.  The geomorphologists (aka ‘Geos’) wanted to survey the area for specific types of features.  They have several research projects on the go, and are also collecting data for colleagues back in South Africa.  Many of the nunataks have not been surveyed in detail by geomorrphs, so there was a element of exploration to the expedition.  Nunantak lucky pack…

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Here it is – the official S47 team photo.  This is a copy of the image that will hang forever at the base alongside the 46 previous SANAE teams,  one or two oddities (such as the Borga field team, etc), and hopefully many new and brilliant teams long into the future.  There we are, with SANAE IV in the background:

Standing L->R:  Gerhard Laubscher (Electronic Engineer),  Saziso Nginda (Electrical Engineer), Llewellyn Kriedemann (HF Radar Engineer).  Sitting L->R:   Neels Fourie (Diesel Mechanic and Deputy Leader), Ross Hofmeyr (Doctor and Leader), Anton van Zyl (Mechanical Engineer), Richard Duncan (Diesel Mechanic), Santjie du Toit (Meteorologist), Morgan O’Kennedy (Cosmic Ray Engineer).

Click on the image for a large view.  For comparison, here is a scan of the team photo of SANAE 2, who overwintered in 1961 (I prefer this one to S1, as S2’s photo has a dog…)

In a few days we go back to the ship and sail for South Africa. I’ll miss this crowd.

Posted in Antarctica, Base, Photo-of-the-Day | 2 Comments »