Logical but not familiar
One of the team leaders asked me what’s surprised me the most about Antarctica. I said it’s how unfamiliar this place is. That feels obvious to say but I have a PhD in marine ecology, I did my own research for more than a decade, and my literal job is to know about the world, particularly ocean stuff. Antarctica’s ocean is so different from the oceans I’m familiar with.
For example: “intertidal” literally means “between the tides”. To me, this has always translated to the stuff in the top little bit of water (1 – 30 ft, depending on location) and includes landscapes like beaches or rocky shores with mussels and algae clinging to the rocks. But in Antarctica, “intertidal” can look like open ocean and be 500+ feet deep. We passed an iceberg field a few days ago and someone reminded me that we only see the top 10% of icebergs above the water. When icebergs cluster together like that, it’s likely that the really big ones are grounded- they’re resting on the bottom. Then smaller glaciers drift between them and get stuck, and on and on with smaller bits of ice. When a big tide comes in, the grounded glaciers float up and move around, scraping up the seafloor ecosystem there and grinding together the ice at the surface. It’s an intertidal system that’s hundreds of feet deep. Logical, but not familiar.
🤯 Virginia
An iceberg field- those big ones on the horizon are at least 2 - 5x the size of the ship above the water. We don't go into the fields at all, the pilots say less because we might run into one of them on our way by and more because if they move they could box us in.
We had 2 Easter egg hunts this weekend : ) And then during Easter dinner we had an impressive display of dessert trays, including decorated eggs. Someone grabbed one of those eggs and cracked it open to eat it, and raw egg spilled out onto their plate- it wasn't hard-boiled at all! Then one of the cooks came around the corner giggling to himself.