How I celebrated Thanksgiving in Antarctica

By going out on the sea ice, of course! Yesterday (Thanksgiving) we went to Cape Evans, which is the northern end of the sea ice route. We were hoping to find different sea ice as a point of comparison with our regular sampling area, where we still go every week. And we found it! Cape Evans is at the base of Mount Erebus and the ice is snow free with dusty pockets of crushed volcanic rock. The ice was much wetter and softer than the ice at our regular sampling area. We're excited to see if this means different chemistry and biology.

The ice looked dirty, likely from the volcanic dust blowing down off Mt Erebus.

An iceberg stuck in the sea ice.

There were several seals right next to the sea ice route yesterday. One was even crossing the road! (Why did the seal cross the road? Submit your responses in the comments section.) When we see seals nearby, we need to swerve out onto the ice to so we don't disturb them. But our snow mobiles are so noisy that they definitely noticed us anyway. Since seals have no land predators here they mostly don't care what the noisy humans are up to because they don't see us as a potential threat.

The seal at the end of the sea ice route.

The military chaplain at McMurdo, Ben, came with us for some adventure. We taught him how to be a real ice scientist.

The hut where the members of Robert Falcon Scott's expedition lived is also at Cape Evans. We didn't have permission (or the key) to go inside, but we had a nice view of it. It's amazing how well preserved wooden structures are here, probably because it is so dry. The hut was built in 1911. Scott's expedition to the South Pole did not work out well for him or his group. He was poorly prepared for the environment. He eventually made it to the South Pole (although he was not the first), but he died on the way back.

Scott's hut at Cape Evans. The hut closer to McMurdo station was mostly used for storage.