I am on the midnight to noon shift so every day, I start my work at midnight. And, yeah, it’s kind of awkward to wake up at 23h30, even on Saturdays and Sundays and go to work at midnight. But I can’t complain at all. Take a look at the view that I had on the sea this morning at midnight! And it’s quite the same every day since we are drilling in the Ross...…

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  ……………nothing!! You can try to use a very simple analogic model to understand. Let’s take few ice cubes (they are your iceberg!) and put them in a glass (your southern ocean) and ……………wait and see!   Nothing happens! This is so disappointed! And a little surprising for anyone who is not a physicist. So I asked to a physist for some help. It took him a least 5 min to understand what I did...…

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  Episode 1: Reaching the mid-Miocene Drilling at the first site is complete. Scientists looked at cores that revealed the presence of former glaciations and reached back in time about 16 million years to the period of geologic history known as the mid-Miocene. The mid-Miocene is important because it was a warm period in Earth’s history, similar to how it is today. Because of this past warmth, the mid-Miocene may provide an analog to what lies in store...…

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Diatom specialist and experienced Antarctic scientist David Harwood gives a 5min tour of the JOIDES Resolution, from the bridge to where the cores are brought on deck to the labs.

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Imogen Browne is a Fulbright student from New Zealand doing her Ph.D. in marine science at the University of South Florida. She is sailing as a physical properties specialist aboard the JOIDES Resolution during Expedition 374: Ross Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet History. In this video she walks us through her work on the ship.

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A lot has happened in our transit from New Zealand to Antarctica. We crossed the Antarctic Circle and the Prime Meridian. We cut straight through the Southern Ocean to meet up with the icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer, and got escorted safely through the ice.     Ice was a really big problem for Southern Ocean explorers in the past, and it still can be for scientific ocean drilling today. On past expeditions to polar regions,...…

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Our expedition to the Ross Sea echoes the journeys of Antarctic explorers more than a century before us. This very area is where the famed Ernest Shackleton, Robert Scott, Roald Amundsen, and James Ross strode out onto the ice to begin their epic adventures, some of which ended in disaster and others in triumph. What is known today as the Ross Ice Shelf used to be called The Barrier, because it was a barrier from...…

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The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is the worlds largest ocean current, and the only current that flows completely around the globe. The ACC flows eastward around the Antarctic continent and connects with the southern portions of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Nearer the continent the easterly winds cause a counter-current with a special clockwise circulation in the great indentations of the Weddell and Ross Seas and they drive to the surface the waters of...…

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We made it to our first drill site! Because we are drilling about 1,600 feet (that’s about 500 metres) below the sea floor, it takes a few hours to get the drill string down to the sea floor to begin coring. After that, 31 ft (or 9.6 metre) sections of cores begin coming up every 40 minutes or so. The core is brought on deck, we let it sit for about 4 hours so it...…

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Much has happened in our 8 day transit from New Zealand to Antarctica. We learned about each other’s science and how we will work together in the coming weeks, hearing talks and taking tours. We crossed the Antarctic Circle and the Prime Meridian, and celebrated co-chief scientist Rob McKay’s birthday with a surprise party. Some were seasick through the Southern Ocean waves but we all made it. The Nathaniel B. Palmer escorted us through some...…

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