News

Science is just starting to get underway, so I thought this would be a good time to respond to some commenter questions. Just so you know, I’m doing this all by email, not internet, so I can’t reply in-line to your comments. Richard: What is the break down on crew versus scientists on board? The… read more

Which is good, because we’ve been doing plenty of rocking and rolling! Things have calmed down a bit, but we were getting 40-foot waves. I wasn’t actually seasick, but I couldn’t do much besides lay down in my bunk and wait for calmer waters. I kept waking up because I was sliding around in my… read more

Yes, those are helicopters. We’ll be doing helicopter operations over the ice and over the water once we’re further south. You can see how well they’re secured to the hangar! There are only a few inches between the blades and the walls. The helicopter pilots let me wear a flight helmet and sit inside! I… read more

Okay, we’re still stuck in port. But a ship is a pretty interesting place even when it isn’t going anywhere. This is where we will be going: That’s the Antarctic peninsula, just south of the tip of South America. The rainbow colors indicate the depth of the water in places that the ship has been…. read more

When I agreed to go on a research cruise to Antarctica, I imagined flying into the charming port town of Punta Arenas, Chile, and boarding the well-equipped research vessel, the Nathanial B. Palmer. It turns out that the town is delightful and the ship impressive, but you don’t just stroll on to a research ship… read more

We are in the midst of a four-day transit from our study site on the East Pacific Rise to the Atlantis’ next port of call in Costa Rica. All of the scientists aboard will depart for home from there, while many of the crew will stay on for another leg of the cruise. The transit… read more

This will be my last post from land. We’re still setting up to do science, but this is so cool I just had to show it to you. We store entire containers on ships. Containers (like the one you saw in the last post) are the big metal things on the back of trucks, and… read more

Right now, everyone is busy working in port. There is cargo to load, labs to set up, and endless problems to solve. But it will all be worth it once we set sail on January 2nd. Here’s the Research Vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer, otherwise known as the NBP And here’s cargo being moved to one… read more

My name is Debra Tillinger and I’m a graduate student in ocean and climate physics at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Until now, all of my work has focused on the tropics. My thesis is about the Indonesian Thoroughflow, which transports water from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean via the narrow straits and deep basins… read more

A team of scientists, technicians and helicopter pilots will sail from Punta Arenas, Chile, for Antarctica on Jan. 2. I’ll be part of that team, collecting data, and serving as co-chief scientist for the cruise. Our home for the next two months will be the ice-breaking research vessel Nathanial B. Palmer. My journey starts with… read more

As you know yesterday was Christmas, and things are just a little bit different on such a holiday aboard a research vessel. Although the sub was in the water, many of the crew had the day off. As far as I can tell, most of them work around the clock, so such a rest was… read more

Not everything on a research vessel always goes according to plan. Today we awoke to find out that during the night the primary CTD winch failed, leaving about 2000 meters of cable and a large instrument package over the side. Alvin cannot dive when we have a wire in the water, so this situation is… read more