Final Post!

Alright folks, it's about time I close out this blog considering I'm back from Antarctica and all. Thanks to everybody for following my blog and my whereabouts during my trip - I hope you enjoyed reading it. Take care, have a happy and healthy holiday season, and be sure to kick off 2011 with a BANG!

Best,

Mark

Back in Providence!

Alrighty, enough lying about my whereabouts... I actually left the field on Dec. 2, left McMurdo on Dec. 9, and got back to Providence on Dec. 11, all in an effort to surprise my parents (mostly my dad) on my dad's birthday (Dec. 14). I officially made my mother cry for half of a day, as well as made my father shout "YOU SNEAKY BASTARD!" in a crowded restaurant. Mission: accomplished.

I'm now grinding away at working on an abstract for a conference that is due on Jan. 4. As soon as that gets done, I can begin to relax and regroup from Antarctica and perhaps even take a few days off before returning to work and teaching in late January.

I should be back in NJ for the holidays starting next Wednesday or Thursday (depending on how much progress I make on this abstract), then I'm heading down to Texas to visit Tina and her family from Dec. 27 until Dec. 29. Then, we fly back to Providence and head up to Montreal for New Years with some cool mix of people from NJ/PVD. Then, I'm probably back in PVD for a good chunk of time to regroup and work on some stuff, then I'm gonna take a little vacation before the real work starts again in late January!

Alrighty, back to work so that I can get out of Providence ASAP! Talk to you all later!


Mark

SHOWERS, DARKNESS, AND T-SHIRTS

The title to this post are the three things that I missed the most from the field. Other things include toilets, real food, tables & chairs, and the internet. Oh, and all of you. You can lump yourselves into that list where ever you choose. Preferably towards the bottom.

It's been quite a field season. Work-wise, we got all of our primary tasks completed and almost every other objective completed as well. We finished about a week ahead of schedule thanks to all of the hard work that the rest of the team put in. We collected just under 2,000 lbs of rocks and about triple the number of pictures (at least). Tons of spectra too. Again, a complete success science-wise.

It's been a season of big news, too. It looks like the direction of my education and the mentors that will be guiding me down that path are changing (inquire for further details, if you care), as well as some other big family and friend news that I had caught wind of in the field. It'll sure be exciting to come back to the US and see how things have changed around me.

Let's see, some highlights of the season... I learned a little French from Sylvain (let me re-emphasize the word little). No major injuries, despite getting the wind knocked out of me by having a car battery hit me in the back and pin me to the ground and the loss of feeling in my fingertips. I think I gained weight again, but chances are all of this weight is from McMurdo and the gorge-fest that insues at every meal. Other than that, I can't think of anything that really stands out. I'll definitely come up with some better stories and post them as they briefly cross my mind and then are replaced by smaller, less fun, and less important memories.

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well! Please reply to this post and let me know what kinda cool/unusual stuff has happened in the world for the past two months. All I've heard about is Leslie Neilson dying. Poor guy.

Later!


Mark

Mark phoned in from the field early this morning - here it is:



- Brian

Checking In

Hey folks,

For anyone who doesn't know me, i'm Brian, Mark's brother. I've been given the task of updating over the course of his trip, so i thought i should get started with the updates.

Sadly, i don't have too much to report! In the course of cooking dinner last night, i missed Mark's phone call for the second time in a week - however, our folks heard from him on Monday night, and said all is well, despite super-high winds.

He should be sending me photos soon, and once i receive them, i'll post them here.

'Til next time,
Brian

Weather delay #2...

So we got the call to head to the helo pad - we got all of our gear weighed, got our helmets on, and were about to head out to the helo, when the fog rolled in again and our flight was put on a weather hold yet again. So, we're now hanging out, checking our email again, and updating our blogs. Hopefully we'll get out sometime in the near future (my hopes is before noon local time - it's 10:35am now), and start this season already!


Mark

Weather delay...

Our flight has been delayed due to fog. We're hoping to get out in a few hours, but that all depends on how long the fog sticks around. My guess is that our flight will get out in the early afternoon, but I really hope that all of our gear can make it out today as well. If not, we may be spending a pretty chilly night in the dry valleys before the rest of our camp gear can be brought out to us. Pray for clear skies! Talk to you all in a few months!


Mark

Goodbye for Now!

Just got the helo schedule for tomorrow - we leave McMurdo at 8:45am for our first camp location in Lower Wright Valley. We should be in Lower Wright for a little over a week before moving on to Victoria Valley, which is one of our primary research sites for the season. There are some spectacular sand dunes in this region, and we hope to be able to sample some of them to better characterize the material that they are composed of.

After Victoria Valley, we head to a transition camp in a valley called Bull Pass. This is where our other two team members will join us, in addition to our big group splitting camp into two smaller camps. We are only going to be in this location for a little over a week, but while we're there, we have a trip planned that will take three of us (I'm one of those three) out of the valleys and onto the polar plateau. We are going to a small nunatak (an island amongst a sea of ice) that is about 2 km by 2 km large, where we will collect samples. This is cool because it will be my first time up on the plateau - I'm sure the views will be spectacular (pictures to come!)!

Then, well finally all move to Taylor Valley, which is the "busiest" of the dry valleys. While we'll still be camping, there are several established and permanent camp sites in this region, so we should hear our fair share of radio chatter and see quite a few helos fly in and out of the valley on a regular basis. We'll be here for two weeks at the most, before we head back to McMurdo to clean our gear and get back to the US!

Anyway, I'll miss you all, and I'll be sure to post as soon as I get back. In the meantime, let's see if Brian remembers to update you all with my status!

Best,

Mark

PICTURES!

Just adding some pictures for your entertainment!

The USAP logo at the airport in Christchurch.

Just after de-boarding the aircraft. Mt. Erebus, the world's southernmost active volcano, is the large mountain in the center of the frame. You can also see the patterns etched into the ice to help the aircraft grip the runway and tarmac better.

We've been having some bad weather at McMurdo the past few days. Nothing too crazy, but cloudy skies, low visibility, and moderate winds have kept helicopters from flying.

This is Sylvain, our stereotypical French team member. He took a liking to the touch tank in the science building's aquarium. He liked to touch everything. Sylvain is a lot of fun and will make the field season a really fun experience.

I can't have Antarctica pictures without including at least one helicopter picture! This was one of the first helicopters to take off after the weather started to clear, but you can see all of the snow being kicked up by its rotors.

I'll try to add some more pictures later! Bye for now!


Mark

DELAYED

Our flight out to our first campsite was delayed 24 hours because of weather, despite the fact that currently the sun is out and the visibility is > 20 miles, and we're more than 36 hours away from our originally planned departure. It turns out that we were bumped because the weather has been bad, not because it is bad or it will be bad. A bunch of different research groups were delayed over the past few days, so they get to fly out before we do, and as it is currently scheduled, that would put our camp move into Tuesday morning as opposed to sometime on Monday. I'd normally be mad, and I really do want to get out of McMurdo, but an extra day to sleep in and relax just sounds so good at the moment!

More updates to come soon - that's just the latest.


Mark

SNOW!

If you had any idea how stressed I get about food shopping for a single week, you wouldn't believe how stressed I get when food shopping for an entire field party for an entire field season. 15 lbs of ground beef, 30 sticks of string cheese, 60 Slim Jims, and 228 chocolate bars, to give you an idea of the quantities that we're dealing with. And we fully expect to be resupplied with more food and supplies about 2/3 of the way through the season. Grabbing our food today was the first time since coming back to Antarctica that I felt like we were actually going to be isolated for nearly 2 months, seeing all of that food lined up in front of our gear, ready to be packed away only to be opened when we get out into the field.

Amidst the meetings and field preparations, I've had very little time to update the blog or to keep in touch with people. I truly apologize. Today, we had an environmental briefing to discuss our impact at the various camp sites, a meeting with the communications center here at McMurdo to go over our radio communications with the base, the details about our daily check-in, etc., and our "food pull", where we meander through the narrow aisles of a seemingly post-apocalyptic food rationing station and take as much food as we think we will need for the field season. In total, we took 597 lbs of frozen and non-frozen foods, which should last us a good portion of the next two months. To be perfectly honest, even though I'm the one who decided on how much food to get, I have no idea how long it's going to last. The only thing that I can do is keep close track on all of our supplies, see what is going fast, and order more resupply as soon as we get close to running out... I'll just keep track of things and stay on top of our stock to make sure nobody starves to death!

We've had great weather here in McMurdo for the past few days - clear skies and calm winds, although the temperatures have been a bit cold (near zero degrees Fahrenheit or so). Today we got our first bit of bad weather - some low visibility, light snow (which accumulated to a little more than a dusting or so), and some fairly gusty winds coming out of the north. Fortunately, the temperatures have warmed a little bit (they're now around 10-15 degrees Fahrenheit), so it's not all that bad. I just hope things clear up before we leave for the field on Monday. I don't want to stay in McMurdo too much longer.

I forgot how bone dry the air is here! My lips have never been so chapped before in my life (and yes, I am applying Chap Stick regularly)! It's so cold, in fact, that when I roll around in my bed at night, the static electricity that builds up in the dry air is enough to create quite a spectacular light show. It looks like a distant thunderstorm - lots of little flashes but no sounds. It's pretty cool, despite the fact that my throat is constantly dry, I constantly cough, and my hands are chapped like it's nobody's business!

So tomorrow we have a pretty light day. We need to continue to pack and organize all of our gear, and we also have a tour of our lab facilities to make sure that, in the case of a fire, we know which direction to run and scream. We also need to confirm that all of our hazardous cargo (propane tanks, fire extinguishers, gasoline, etc.) has been cleared to fly in the helicopter with us. Then, on Saturday, we need to move all of our gear down to the helicopter pad, where they will confirm the weight of everything and develop plans on how to fit all of the gear and us in as few helicopter trips as possible. The people down here at HeloOps are fantastic at planning and can make even the wildest requests a reality. We also need to pick up our satellite phones, HF radios, and VHF radios as well and make sure that they are all working properly too. Then, we have all of Sunday off (as does the majority of McMurdo), and then we leave on Monday morning, assuming the weather is good! Then, it will be just over an hour-long helicopter ride into Wright Valley to our first camp site. The five of us will be dropped off first along with some of our essential gear, and then the helicopter has to turn around and pick up the remainder of our gear and then bring that back out to us as well. The camp put-in will take the better part of the day, and we can expect to do no additional work then - we'll have plenty of time to work in the coming weeks!

It's just about time to go grab a quick drink, read a little, and then head off to bed. McMurdo runs on a very early schedule (breakfast ends at 7:30am), so we have to get up early and go to bed pretty early as well. (To give you a hint, it's not even 8pm here yet). Anyway, take care, and I'll update soon!


Mark

The Ice...

There's a high-pitched hum coming from directly over my head that I just can't seem to escape, despite how loud Andrew Birtd's whistles and violin are playing in my ears. It's coming from one of the massive pipes that emanates from the rear of the aircraft and travels along the ceiling until just before the front bulkhead, where it branches into two smaller pipes and disappears into what I can only imagine is another set of confusing tubes that are obscured from view. I think the closest I can come to pinning down its source is that something is rattling against something, and that it's loud and high-pitched. That's as good as it gets.

Sgt. Ruth Beyette is sitting against the interior cabin wall to my right across a narrow cargo aisle (I know her name only because it's stitched onto her uniform). She's been reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for the past 3 hours. Some of the other crew members on our C-17 are talking about how well the Steelers have been doing this season, while others are watching movies on their laptops and iPods, and one is asleep in a sleeping bag on the floor at the rear of the aircraft. If I've learned anything on the flight down to the ice, it's that 1.) there are A LOT of crew members on each C-17, and 2.) there's not much for them to do once the aircraft is in flight.

We were told that our flight would depart at 9:00am and would last approximately 5 hours. We took off at 8:58am, and we landed at 2:00:24pm. I'll forgive them for the slight miscalculation in departure and flight times. You could tell that it wasn't your standard commercial flight because of the rate of descent coming into McMurdo. Let's just say that I wouldn't have been surprised if I had keeled over in pain when nitrogen started bubbling out of my blood.

We were welcomed to sub-zero air temperatures and -40 degree wind chills when we stepped off the plane. Remember that I volunteered to come back.

Now I need to take a few online tests to teach me how not to download or install viruses on the network, and how to recycle plastic bottles separately from glass bottles. Wish me luck.


Mark

Gathering our Gear

So today we're finally being productive. We need to head to the US Antarctic Center at the Christchurch Airport to gather our extreme cold-weather gear (or ECWs, as they're known around here). It's a pretty long and hectic process of gathering all of our gear, trying it all on, making sure that everything fits properly (and, if it doesn't, to get new ones), and making sure we have enough of everything (socks, gloves, thermals, etc.) to last us as long as we're in the field for. We also need to pack all of our newly acquired gear and all of the gear that we brought down ourselves into three orange duffle bags that they provide to us, which turned out to be quite a fun exercise last year (I just barely fit everything). So, this all happens in a few hours, and it should last a few hours as well. It's our first productive task since arriving in New Zealand three days ago.

Yesterday afternoon there was a magnitude 3.9 aftershock that occurred when I was in the shower. I thought I just got a bad case of vertigo, but apparently it was the Earth's surface that lost its balance and not me. It wasn't nearly as cool as the 4.6-er that we saw two nights ago, but I felt it nonetheless.

Time to head out to grab some coffee. Will update soon.


Mark

Shake, Rattle, and Roll...

Well, maybe not the last one. Last night when I was getting up to brush my teeth before bed, I opened the door and heard what sounded like a suitcase being dropped down a flight of stairs. I kept walking until I felt a bit of a rattling in the floor, which made me think even more that someone had just dropped a heavy object. I stopped to see where the sound was coming from exactly, and then I felt a horizontal jolt - maybe just an inch or two - that made my knees briefly buckle underneath me. The rattling floor and shaking wall-mounted items lasted another 5-10 seconds or so, and then there was nothing.

The only earthquake I ever experienced was in San Francisco in 2006. I was there for a meeting, and it was my first time in California. I was going to bed, just about to fall asleep, when I heard a little bit of shaking along the walls and saw the hanging lamp sway ever so slightly. When I woke up, I put on the news, and there was a magnitude 3.0 earthquake felt throughout the area the night before, so I realized that, on my first night in California, I was lucky enough to experience an earthquake.

This one was better. GeoNet confirmed that it was an aftershock of the big one that hit here last month, and its magnitude was listed as a 4.6, probably about 700 times as powerful as the one that I felt in San Francisco. The big quake that I keep referring to occurred on September 4th and was a magnitude 7.1, which is somewhere in the range of 1,300 times as powerful as the one I felt last night. Hence the damage throughout the city.

Have one more day completely to ourselves before tomorrow's outfitting of cold weather gear. Then the following day (Monday for us, Sunday for you) is our flight to Antarctica, barring no weather problems. Will update at least once more from Christchurch!


Mark

The Wanderer

Just wandered around downtown Christchurch for a few hours; I need another book to occupy my time (more details below). The time I spent in Christchurch last year was a bit different than what I experienced today. Last year, I spent a few days in Christchurch in early January during the peak of the tourist season down here. The central square was jammed with street performers and food stands, and the fact that the city appeared to be geared towards tourism seemed all too appropriate. Today, in mid-October, the tourists are nowhere to be found, and the fact that every 4th or 5th store is a gift shop or a non-New Zealand-themed bar is a bit more depressing. That along with the ongoing construction and extensive damage remaining from the major earthquake that hit this area a few months ago made my experience wandering Christchurch this morning/afternoon a bit more depressing than my experiences last year.

Going back to my book sitch, I bought two books in Boston Logan Intl. Airport to occupy my time down in Antarctica - War, by Sebastian Junger, and World War Z, by Max Brooks. I had previously read the Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks and found it wildly entertaining, so World War Z was one of those reads that I figured would be fun to take my mind off of the cold and to think about how the world that our small group in Antarctica left behind may be currently under attack by the walking dead. There's no way to know, except to call on our satellite phones... but aside from that, there's no way to know. I started reading War on the plane to Los Angeles, and I didn't stop reading it until I finished it. It was fantastic and I highly recommend it to anybody that is curious as to whether or not the war in Afghanistan is truly a war or not (spoiler alert: it is). Junger hit a home run with this book, and I'm looking forward to his documentary that comes out soon (named Restrepo) which assembles all of the video footage that he shot in Afghanistan to fact-check quotes for his book into a cohesive documentary on the war. So, having finished one of my two books for Antarctica, I had to buy another to hopefully last a bit longer. I went with Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything because I've heard good things about it, because it's about science, and because it's long.

Time to organize my stuff some more, maybe watch a bit of hilarious N-Zed television, and relax until 6pm (4 hour from now), when we are going to grab dinner as a group. Tomorrow is another day completely off, and then Sunday we collect our cold weather gear at the Antarctic Center, and then we leave for McMurdo on Monday. I'm definitely ready to get down to Antarctica and start working - even this one day off is starting to mess with my head and make me feel unproductive. I'm too amped up at all times to have "days to myself" and avoid doing work. I need a time-consuming hobby. Suggestions?


Mark

In Christchurch after 34 hours of travel.

I woke up at 4:30am local time after about 7 or 8 hours of sleep. I fell asleep really early as a result of the combination of jetlag and just plain ordinary exhaustion. I slept maybe 15 or 20 minutes in total the previous 44 hours, so it was probably mostly exhaustion.

We arrived in Christchurch without any problems or lost luggage, although the equipment that we labelled as being fragile took forever to get off the aircraft. We then got a shuttle from the airport to our hotel, loaded all of our gear into a small luggage trailer that is towed behind the van, and got into the shuttle with two older women on vacation. I sparked up a conversation with them after about 5 minutes of silence (because I get uncomfortable in situations like that), and learned that they were on vacation from North Carolina after spending time in Australia at a "meeting". They talked about several other "meetings" they had recently attended, and I started to get the hint that they were likely associated with a church or religious group and were waiting for me to ask them what line of work they were in. I never did, not because I wasn't interested or intrigued, but because I'd rather talk about the beauty of New Zealand and the humor in driving on the wrong side of the road after being awake for 38 hours than to engage in deep spiritual or metaphysical discussions. I think they were a bit disappointed when they got out of the shuttle at their hotel. I was relieved.

We had dinner at a restraunt that I had eaten at twice last year. I remembered their delicious kangaroo steak that they served raw on a hot stone that you would cook yourself, and so I was excited to have it again. Unfortunately, it was not on the menu, and I had to do a bit of explaining to the rest of the gang as a result. The dinners were delicious, nonetheless - I had a raw slab of beef about the size of a large avacado that I grilled myself, and I managed to drop about 5 pieces on my pants, despite having a napkin on my lap. I guess I'm just practicing for the field.

After waking up at 4:30 this morning, I wandered downstairs with my laptop and my book to hang out in the common area on the first floor of the hotel. We're staying at a bed and breakfast that was originally a large, old mansion. As a result, there are very few electric outlets, even fewer heaters (it's fairly cold in Christchurch at night), and communal bathrooms. Anyway (I digress), there were already about 6 or 7 people in the common area with all of their luggage, obviously waiting for a shuttle to pick them up. Having been in their shoes a year before, I realized that they were about to head to the airport to head down to Antarctica. They were a group of flight technicians who will be working to support the planes between the time they land in Antarctica with gear, supplies, and people, and the time they take off again.

So here I am, about to get some breakfast and already a bit tired. Will write again soon!


Mark

Bon Voyage!

I'll be off to Boston Logan Intl. Airport in just a few hours, so this will certainly be my last update from the Northern Hemisphere! Take care everyone, thanks for the blessings and well wishes, and I will talk to you all soon!


Mark

Perfect!

A head cold. Perfect! I started sneezing a bit after driving home from visiting my cousin after he completed his LSATs at the University of Rhode Island (congratulations again!), and I haven't been able to stop since. Hopefully this is just some sort of allergy-induced 24-hour bug or something, but it would not be pleasant if I had to travel half way across the world with a pounding headache and a stuffed-up nose...

Other than that, things are going well here. The final stages of preparation are all going nicely. Tomorrow will be the final test of our equipment (our GPS units, laptops for the field, cameras, etc.), and then it will be packed in our bags and prepared for travel! Four of us will be departing from Providence on Tuesday around noon for Boston Logan Intl. Airport, where we will fly to Los Angeles, meet with our fifth team member there, and then board an overnight flight to New Zealand. Once in New Zealand (which will be Thursday morning, when all is said and done), we have one more short commuter flight from Auckland to Christchurch, and then we have two days to organize our personal gear and buy any last-minute supplies before getting outfitted with our cold weather gear. Then hopefully, if the weather decides to cooperate on both ends of the Southern Ocean, we will board our military aircraft and fly down to Antarctica on Monday, Oct. 18th.

The time difference is a bit crazy between the United States and New Zealand (which is also the time zone used in Antarctica). If I remember correctly we will be 19 hours ahead of the East Coast of the United States. I told my family to take the current time, subtract 7 hours, and add a day, which is how I always remembered the time difference. So let's pretend that my flight down to Antarctica takes off at 9:00am on Monday, October 18th... the flight would be departing at 4:00pm on Sunday, October 17th for people back on East Coast time. Now, on November 7th, Daylight Savings Time will end, and so we will revert back to having an 18 hour difference instead of a 19 hour difference. (By the way, if anyone knows that I'm wrong in these quick back of the hand conversions, please call me out. It's quite early, I didn't get much sleep, and math is not my strong point.).

OK, I'm going to try to get another hour of sleep or so before my parents arrive to visit for the day! Will update soon, but I can't be certain where in the world I will be for my next post. See ya!


Mark

One step closer...

Hi all,

Now that my graduate student exams are over (and I am officially on my way to getting my PhD!), I can really kick into high gear and start preparing for the upcoming field season. We leave in less than a week, which is crazy to think about.

Yesterday I received an email from the organizational people at Raytheon Polar Services Company (who run the logistics and day-to-day activities of the United States Antarctic Program) confirming my flights to New Zealand, my accommodations for the few days that I will be in New Zealand, and my scheduled flight down to McMurdo Station. One step closer to the seclusion of the Antarctic Dry Valleys!

I figured I would write a little about the other people in my group. Our "head honcho" is Dr. Mike Wyatt, an assistant professor here at Brown University who's grant from the National Science Foundation is paying for our trip down to Antarctica. Mike led our group down there last year, but will not be joining us this coming season.

Jay Dickson is a researcher here at Brown and a veteran of several field seasons in the Dry Valleys. Last year, his experience helped make the season go a lot smoother, and so it is good to have him coming back down with us this year.

David Hollibaugh Baker came in with me as a graduate student starting in 2008. This will be his first time down in Antarctica where he will be doing detailed topographic mapping of the surfaces throughout the dry valleys.

J.R. Skok is another graduate student in our department who is making his first trip to Antarctica with us. He will be looking at some recent volcanic activity in the dry valleys.

Sylvain Piqueux is a post-doctoral researcher at Arizona State University who will be using a thermal infrared camera to see how rocks and soils heat up and cool down throughout the course of the Antarctic day and night. This is his first time to Antarctica as well.

Dr. Jim Head is a veteran of several Antarctic field seasons as well and will be joining us a little later in the field season. His work focuses on terrestrial analogs to Mars.

Dr. Jack Mustard is also joining us a bit later in the season along with Jim. Jack is a spectroscopist who looks at how we can study land surfaces from orbit. He will also be heavily involved in looking at some of the recent volcanics throughout the region with J.R. Skok.

So for the first three weeks or so, it will just be me, Jay, David, J.R., and Sylvain in our camp. Once Jim and Jack arrive, our camp will quickly become much larger, but we will also have several projects going on at the same time, so it shouldn't be too hectic.

Here's a map of the places that we camped last year (yellow dots) and the places that we are planning on camping this year (blue dots). The first place that we plan on camping this year is the blue dot in Wright Valley. Then we plan on moving to the Victoria Valley site, then to the one just south of Victoria Valley (in a place called Bull Pass), and then finally ending our season in Taylor Valley. Each of these locations has a lot of really interesting geology that we plan on studying, so it should be a very interesting trip.

Altighty, time to get back to work on some additional field plans, so I will end here. I will update at least one more time before we head out to New Zealand next Tuesday. Adios!


Mark

First post!

Greetings everyone! I'm writing you all this evening from the far away land of... Providence, Rhode Island? Okay, so while I may not be down in Antarctica yet, I figured I would introduce myself, our plans for Antarctica, and some background about how I've been blessed with multiple opportunities to live and work in one of the world's most remote locations.

I thought I would start off by first introducing myself and a little about how I got here. I grew up in Cresskill, New Jersey, just a few miles outside of New York City. After graduating from Cresskill High School in 2004, I attended Penn State University (For the Glory of Old State!) where I studied Physical Geography and minored in Climatology. While at Penn State, I also had some great internship opportunities. In 2006, I was an intern at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and in 2007, I interned at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Both of these internships were focused on studying Mars using satellites that take pictures of the planet's surface. It was these internships that led me to work at Johnson Space Center during the summer of 2008 and to then start graduate school studying Planetary Geology at Brown University here in Rhode Island. I'm currently in my third year of graduate school, and my work has focused primarily on studying what we can learn about Mars by looking at different features and processes that are found here on Earth - a topic called "comparative planetology".

So before arriving at Brown, my research advisor received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study the ice-free regions of Antarctica to look at how the surface changes over time. Just like how a bicycle will rust if it is left outside in the rain for too long, rocks and soils all over the world will change depending on where they are and how long they've been there. The rocks that we are looking at in Antarctica have been sitting outside for MILLIONS of years, and so the goal of this grant is to look at what happens when you take a clean, fresh rock and leave it outside for a few million years. The major factors that must be considered are what the rock was originally made of, how long it has been sitting outside for, and what has the weather and climate been like? If you leave a bicycle outside in a rain forest, it will probably rust much quicker than if you leave the bike in the Sahara Desert. So, the point of this grant is to not only understand what the rocks in Antarctica are made of, but also to study what we can learn about the climate of Antarctica by simply looking at how the rocks have changed!

Similarly, the rocks on Mars have been changing as well, except many parts of the martian surface are thought to be BILLIONS of years old! My personal project will be determining if the surface of Mars behaves in a similar way to the surface of Antarctica and, if it does, what can we learn about the martian rocks and martian climate? This work is just getting started, and we hope that this coming field season in Antarctica will help to collect all of the samples we could ever need to finish both of these major projects!

So anyway, that's a little background to catch you up on the background of this project. I will update again in a day or so, and then we are off to New Zealand in less than two weeks!


Mark