Weekend: Gerald Webers talks about upcoming trip to Antarctica

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Dr. Gerald Webers, a geologist at Macalester College in Saint Paul, talks about his upcoming three-month expedition to Antarctica, studying everything from seal behavior to upper atmospheric radiation. The expedition is being funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation and will be based at Camp Macalester in the Ellsworth Mountains. Webers has agreed to send back his observations on tape from time to time so that we can hear firsthand how things are going.

Read the Text Transcription of the Audio.

Ellsworth mountains are pretty much an unknown good for Martin's they are they have been studied an please reconnaissance geological Expeditions, but nothing is known in detail about them. They contain something like 40000 feet of sedimentary strata. For example, please try to have been deposited very very slowly over long periods of geologic time, you know, we have some spare that are at least 600 million years old and they range from about six hundred million years ago or two about or something like 235 million years ago or so, there's over 400 million years of History tied up in those settlements and also in the settlement we find such things as fossil animals and plants. We have already found a number of these and the ones we have found us far are indicative of a tropical nature so we know that in alreadyNot always word is today. It is at one time. It was probably on the east coast of Africa. With Australia on the east side of that in India on the north side of Antarctica about 200 million years ago. We believe this fragmented with the anartica moving south Australia moving East and Indian movie North the impact in southern Asia. So I'm going to other things. We hope to document the geological history of the Ellsworth mountains and put it into perspective of the Antarctic continent and finally to put that in perspective of the the history of the world. So Antarctica sort of the last piece in the puzzle, then we hope to unravel and see what it was all about. That must be a pretty exciting a quest to go on a given the fact that in these these times at least it seems the most Frontiers her pretty well done with and most investigation of this sort seems at least it'll a person like myself to have been taken taken care of who have been done. That's correct. It's one of the Last Frontier and it's really a chance to do something original and has a lot of rewards academically. And it's it's cynically just a beautiful place to be very lofty Mountain chains of glaciers and so forth. So from a variety of standpoint, it's quite rewarding. Other than writing Grant proposals and looking for money what other kinds of things go into a preparation of an expedition of this size. Well a lot more than I would have thought of a short while ago is very efficient operation and I do not have to worry about most of the logistical concerns. I will have three helicopters and doesn't snowmobiles in a variety of support. I don't have to worry about how the helicopters will get there how the fuel for the helicopters will get there. I don't have to worry about food and I'm essentially responsible for the scientific program. Which is enough in itself, but I'm not having to worry about logistics. Freeze me to do a much better job on the scientific end of things what kinds of things then on the scientific end of things. Do you have to be responsible for when you're supervising that large number of investigators are typically qualified they must be able to get along with people and that in the past is proving to be a very important item. If you're out in the field for several weeks with individuals that it can be a very important thing. I must worry about the details of the season. I will expect to be checking my investigations away from base camp. Mostly I will have helicopter support, but I will have up to 60 or Cruise in 10 camps around the mountains. And I will have three to five Personnel in these groups. And they will be in one place for up to a week. Sometimes two weeks at figure out who should be wear and it which time and I will try to coordinate the movements of all these people and so I'll be moving these about the mountain chain changing Personnel within the groups like chess pieces with the expertise of the end of individuals involved. So that's been a big part of the program to try to figure out how to handle efficiently the the time and the $500 of helicopter time that we have. With all of this work, are you going to be able to do any scientific investigating of your own? Yes. I am for a couple of weeks. All I want to do it and secondly animated in this by the fact that I have the number to men in this operation Will Be Giants + taser of the Minnesota Geological Survey. John is from Saint Paul. He's been down in the Antarctic 67 times. He's had this position before at other times and he'll be a logistical coordinator so he can schedule helicopter flights from you on a daily basis who has to be picked up and move where and all of this detail will be off my back so you can more or less say well it's time to move crew. And that's all you have to do is decide that then and John will take it from there to get it right and I think we should have a pretty efficient system I have Sign up since we all the problem to do you like a problem two different individuals and different Cruise. However, I expect to fill in personally where I'll be need it. What's it going to be like down there weather-wise in another three or four weeks when you arrive? Well, what are the benefits of going to Antarctica? Is it to miss a Minnesota winter? And the temperature is probably range from 0 to 35 above with an average day being 10225 above somewhere in that range. So the temperatures are not unpleasant. The Sun is up all the time. The main discomfort is not the cold temperature, but the wind the wind can be annoying at 10 to be blowing all the time shifting snow at times and so forth. Most of the Antarctic continent is technically a desert that is it receives less than equivalent of 10 inches of rain. Are we do have dry valleys as matter fact where there is no snow cover. The snow has come down occasionally, but very rarely we do have blizzards. However, because of a high wind velocity and you can get a ground blizzard where the snow adjusting picked off a rounded blown up alarm with a clear blue sky above you. How do you coordinate your day and night cycles when it's light out all the time. That's what are the advantages of the Antarctic in that with 24 hours a day. Like if you want to work an 18-hour day you can and you might come back and sleep for 12 or something like that. But the only thing that really cool place to go is radio communications. He must make ready Community Communications at least once a day back. If you don't throw me something on the way out to pick you up after the general safety feature so in a passcode Turn on cruise where they got up and made it radio contact other Crews were just sending their day at the same time. So you can operate on any schedule that you like the woman caught a part of the day do exist. So you tend to work to Walmart Parts on the sun is little bit higher than the tens of regular people when you're done working. What kind of social activity do you have any at all? If we even Basecamp they will have such things as movies and volleyball games and cross country skiing and so forth. If you in the field you really don't need that that is you work long days and to make a meal you look sort of gather around and melt snow for a while and that's sort of a social event in itself to chat about things in the first whether the first water that you get if I make up a few Cups of Tea and then put some more snow on the mountain. Like being in a very beautiful mountain chain, you don't need any outside interest.

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