The International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration

We're off to the next adventure. I am back in Antarctica, getting ready to fly out to the Thwaites Glacier. I am part of a very large collaboration between the US and the UK to study this enormous glacier in West Antarctica, which for all intents and purposes looks like it's at the brink of collapse. The Thwaites Glacier is the one place with the biggest potential for sea level rise in the next several decades. We're trying to find out how fast this could happen. Our contribution is to drill through the floating part of the glacier to directly measure how warm the ocean underneath is. It is this warm water which is driving the retreat of the ice.

There is a lot more information about our project and all the companion projects on this website.

But for now, we're still a long distance from our field site. At the moment we are at the US Antarctic station in McMurdo, doing training and getting cargo ready for the field. It will be a long journey.

The adventure starts in Christchurch New Zealand after a long flight from Alaska via San Francisco. Christchurch was destroyed by an earthquake in 2011. I've been back a few times since, but this is the first time when it felt like the city had mostly recovered. There are still many signs of the earthquake damage (as in this picture), but there is a vibrant new town.

.. but it is the only place where I have ever seen a hotel advertising its earthquake safety. It's understandable, they have suffered many aftershocks since 2011, although I didn't feel any this time.

Here we are, all outfitted and checking in for the flight south

We're getting to Antarctica in a C-17 military plane

This is the inside of this huge plane with lots of space for cargo

Landing on the ice.

The weather was quite nasty when we landed, windy and cold.

McMurdo is an ageing station and is now in the middle of a total rebuild.

Right behind McMurdo is Observation Hill, which offers a great view. The volcanoes in the background are Mt. Erebus and Mt. Terror.

The sea ice offshore from McMurdo

McMurdo Station from Observation Hill