Emperors, Waste, Ice Breakers and Mirages

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Trip Start Sep 19, 2010 Previous
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  McMurdo Station, Ross Island
Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Well, the penguins have come out in full force. Just one week after seeing the adelie at Hut Point, I saw 3 emperor penguins on the drive to the ice runway. A friend who works in cargo at the runway told me they were molting behind a berm at mile 7 on the Pegasus road, so on the way back from midrats meal I stopped to see if they were still there. They are so much larger and look a lot more sophisticated than the adelies. A friend said he saw about 70 adelies in a group at Hut Point yesterday. The Coast Guard ship the Oden docked at the ice pier yesterday. It is an ice breaker that is breaking a path for the Nathaniel B. Palmer science vessel, as well as the vessel that will bring all of our food and supplies for the coming year. The Oden went out to break up the ice more tonight, and now the Palmer is sitting in the dock outside as we speak. These ships mean there will likely be more penguins around as well as the possibility of some orca whales!

On an entirely different note, I mentioned that I would describe how the waste program works down here in an earlier blog, so here goes. When throwing away a piece of trash, it is not always as easy as finding the nearest trash can. There are several categories that you must choose from. All waste is shipped off the continent to places all over the world.

Food Waste: Anything that might rot eventually. This is transported in a specific way different than other things that won't rot on the way to their destination.

Paper Towels: This is not just paper towels themselves, and used to be called 'burnables’. It could include saran wrap, candy wrappers, napkins, crinkly plastic bags, tissues, etc.

Mixed Paper: Printer paper, thicker paper boxes that aren’t corrugated, etc.

Plastic: Plastics 1-3 which include a lot of condiment bottles fall into this category. They must be washed out before being thrown away.

Other Plastics: The lids to condiment bottles, plastic wrappings, and other things that are made out of plastic that aren’t considered #1-3.

Glass

Broken glass (must be placed in 2 plastic bags and then inside of a sealed box labeled broken glass)

Aluminum Cans

Cardboard

Sanitary Waste (things contaminated with bodily fluids)

Sharps (needles, etc.)

Non-Recyclables (random things such as pieces of metal, rubber, vacuum bags, etc.)

After you separate your trash, it is moved to bins outside of your building which is then moved up to the waste barn and separated by hand into more specific categories. I’m not sure exactly what these are, but I know it is things such as different colors of glass, etc.

Included in the group of waste bins located in the corners of buildings is a bin called ‘skua.’ This is the name of the scavenging bird that lives here. It has become a verb used in daily conversation. If you have something you don’t want anymore, but think someone else could still use it you can put it in skua. There can be some very random things in skua, but also some high quality stuff. Hiking boots, fleece jackets, books, fabric, curling irons, etc. I’ve seen a full body suit made out of fur and a wig filled with snakes. There are smaller bins around town, which are eventually taken to ‘Skua Central’ which is a small building meant specifically for skuaing things. One of the funniest sights I’ve seen down here was my friends Wesley diving head first into a skua bin in front of the galley with an actual skua behind him, just watching. I looked out the window and started laughing, and soon about 20 people that were in the galley as well came over to watch. Wesley, of course,having no idea that he had such a large and varied audience.

On some days when the visibility is good, there is a fata morgana (also known as a mirage) visible at the base of the Royal Society mountains. It is caused by a temperature inversion and causes a strange optical illusion. It was fairly strong the other day when I was at the runway...enjoy the photos.

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Scratching his wing   Comments!	An Emperor and Erebus	Wesley's skua moment   Comments!	Fata Morgana
Fata Morgana taken from ice runway	Waste bins in Bldg 155	The Oden on the left and Palmer on the right	A C-130 landing at the ice runway

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