| Tuesday was the last day that we sampled using two separate sampling teams. One marine station was occupied, Station 62.This station was located just east of the fuel line that serviced the ice runway from October through last Saturday. The two vehicles in the picture are Sprytes, the one nearest the fish tent has air tanks that provide breathing air to the divers. The second, on the other side of the fuel line, transports the samplers to the site under the guidance of Sally Morehead. The divers collected sediment samples. Water samples and a CTD cast were also collected at this station. | |
| Every year the airport operations switch from the ice runway, located just off McMurdo Station, to Williams Field due to the ice becoming soft for safe landings. It is an amazing feat to move an entire airport a few miles and in one day being completely operational. That has become a routine operation down here! | |
| The three sediment samplers (Kristi, Marietta and Sally) after the completion of their last marine site. |  |
| Sally and Kristi carrying the cooler with samples to the Spryte for transport back to the laboratory. |  |
The next photos show some of the laboratory work that is performed following
collection of a marine station.
| Sediment samples are preserved by Marietta with formalin and Rose Bengal for analysis of the infaunal community at the Marine Science Institute at the University of Texas at Port Aransas. |  |
| Sediment and water samples are analyzed for e-coli in the lab. This next photo shows the laboratory set-up for this analysis. |  |
| The sediment samples are checked for toxicity using a Microtox. This photo shows Sally during this analysis. |  |
| Once back from the marine sampling, the Hydrolab CTD is downloaded by Guy. |  |
| This afternoon the marine sampling team also visited the masticator building where all the sewage is ground up prior to release. |  |
| A total of 38 terrestrial samples were collected from the west side of Observation Hill, at the Fortress Rocks waste management area, |  |
| and storage areas to the south of Fortress Rocks. |
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| The weather was fantastic and the view of Mount Erebus spectacular (see photo). |  |
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