Once we finished transferring pax and freight to DDU, the next task was geological and glacial research. We took a group of rock hoppers out to Correl, a rock outcrop near the Mertz Glacier which has been identified as having the same rock as South Australia. Finding somewhere to land was challenging, especially as the constant katabatic wind scours around the rock, with many gusts and eddies
View from the cockpit
While they were drilling for rocks, we nipped off to the Mertz Glacier to look for old GPS stations. They are tracked to map the position of the Mertz, which has a crack developing which will eventually allow 100 years of glacial growth to separate and float off into the ocean. A natural event, it has been monitored for 30 years by the French, and could completely break within years.
The crack is growing from both sides of the glacier, plus offshoots in the bulk of the glacier
While we refuelled, one of the French glaciologists wanted a photo with the penguins and glacier in the background. Who was I to say no?
When we got back to the ship it was slowly grinding to a halt in the ice, but before we shuddered to a stop we had a visit from three Orcas
