Our first scientific mission : travelling to the coast for the Belissima Project

30 pictures posted on the 20.12.2011

Stormy weather : it is extremely dangerous to venture one self alone outside.

Stormy weather : it is extremely dangerous to venture one self alone outside.

© International Polar Foundation - Alain Hubert

  • We left the PEA station on Thursday 1 December under a glorious sunshine : we had 220 km to drive. It took us 12 hours to get to the place of our main basecamp.
  • The team before leaving (left to right) : Pierre Haelterman (journalist), Kristoff Soete (chief engineer), Alain Hubert, Katherine Leonard (researcher, Boulder University, Colorado) and Olivier Pierre (journalist).
  • Our convoy is,composed of one of our Prinoths, several skidoos, sledges and containers. We drive at a speed of about 40 km/h, terrain permitted.
  • To descent on the fast ices, we often have to leave the Prinoth stationned on the iceshelf, 50 meter above sea level and take the skidoos to drive down until sea level.
  • In these blue containers, we have a kitchen, a laboratory, and quarters to sleep in.
  • That's the way it looks along the antarcrtic coast lines, open waters first, horizontal fast ice second (about 2 m deeep), the ice cliff, third, and finally the iceshelf on top of the cliff.
  • One of the Prinoth : like a eagle ready to jump on his pride... Prinoth is THE vehicle of the Antarctic.
  • We had one main base camp (at 220 km from the station) and we travelled 150 km away from it : each night we had to set a new small base camp, mainly on the fast ice.
  • Measuring the depth of this crevasse to see if it is deep enough for Katherine's drillings.
  • Another small camp on the fast ice : it looks like the sky is opening for a few minutes.
  • It's time for tea time and for few moments... contemplation this amazing landscape. In Antarctica, one often works 14 to 16 hours a day.
  • This place will be our base camp for three nights because of a stormy weather that forced us to stay in the tent (on the fast ice).
  • I found a ramp to go down on the ice ; I had surveyed this place last season and knew where to go for Katherine's measurements.
  • Stormy weather : it is extremely dangerous to venture one self alone outside.
  • The tractor Prinoth comes into the picture when we have to remove snow accumulation after a storm at our base camp.
  • Whatever the weather may be, the scientific work has to be done. One sees clearly on this picture that a storm is coming towards us.
  • Sometimes we had to travel very near to the seashore.
  • The scientific work starts with drilling the 2 m deep fast ice.
  • When the drill gets to the water, a geyser gushes out of the ice with tiny blocks of ice in it.
  • After the drill comes the depth measurements to see if the waters are deep enough to lower the CTD bottle.
  • Finally, the CTD bottle is lowered until the bottom at a speed of 22 meters per minute and making four measurements per second.
  • All in all, in ten days, we manage to do ten water measurements.
  • Kirstoff taking care of the good unfolding of the measurements, here he is checking if the cable is descending allright.
  • We were not that lucky with the weather : only one or two days of clear sky out of the ten days mission.
  • American scientist Katherine Leonard has to write down the measurements of her CTD bottles each time the bottle gets out of the water. For more explanation about this scientific work, please visit the PEA station website.
  • Very strong ice at the north of Derwael ice rise at 350 km from the PEA.
  • Each second of the travelling, we have to be most careful with the crevasses and crevasses fields.
  • Once in a while, we had a nice encounter with a seal coming out of the water to see what's going on with all these people on the ice !
  • Once done with our work, we leave the fast ice and iceshelves to these magnificent animals, the penguins Emperor. The mission was a big success.