May 19, 2000

Updates from Dave Carlson '01 and Marika Geertz '01



Students on deck en route to station 16. Dave Carlson, Marika Geertz, Courtney Zimmer, Sarah Lichtentstein, and Nat Warner.


So far the trip has been more than I expected. The traveling to Puenta Arenas was long, but the town has great history with Antarctic exploration and it was nice to visit the local museums and parks dedicated to Southern explorers. The ship is amazing with all of its technologies and comforts. We are totally independent, sustaining about 50 people while operating a scientific cruise. As a student, I have gained experience and perspective on the modern scientific process. Gene Domack (Hamilton) and Amy Leventer (Colgate) have been able to adapt their plans based on ice conditions and newly discovered data to complete the goals of this cruise. All of the students are playing a hands on role in obtaining the cores, preparing and analyzing the samples, and then interpreting how we will adapt our plan based on this new information. As an undergraduate, I couldn't ask for a better learning experience. On the personal side of things, this is one of the most beautiful and pristine places I can imagine. We guide our ship using satellite based maps because no cartographer has ever visited here. We are only the third ship to ever explore this part of the Antarctic peninsula. We make new maps of the sea floor every day and use this information to guide our site selection. This program is amazing and I can't wait to see the final results.

Hope all is well on the Hill.
Dave Carlson '01
carlsoda@nbp.polar.org


My name is Marika Geertz, and I am one of the lucky students who was able to come to Antarctica!! I am loving it so much. The work is intense, we work at least 12 hours a day, but most of us end up staying on longer to help out with coring, navigation, or our most favored job, ping editing! At the moment, I am on a short break from the back deck where I have been preparing samples from a grab core which has come up. Our ship's course is right along side the ice shelf right now, discovering lots about the life on the ocean floor's bottom...

Well, take care and I hope to be in touch soon.

Sincerely,
Marika
geertzma@nbp.polar.org

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