Crary.

Once upon a time in Antarctica...

...I did a 10k! Go me!

And then I walked. Haha.

Came in third from last (granted, there weren't many people that did it). Whatever, I am not in good running shape and my asthma did not like the cold weather and mile-long hill! But, I did a 10k in Antarctica and that is more than a lot of people can say! :)

I also went on a tour of the Crary Science Building, where all of the scientists on station do their science-y things. :) It was incredibly interesting, and we only scratched the surface of the science that takes place down here.

This is the skull of a Weddell seal. See how his teeth are pretty sharp? Weddell seals make holes in the sea ice to get in and out, and they keep these holes open the entire year. The seals use their teeth to prevent their ice holes from freezing over during the cold winters. Over time, their teeth get really worn down, which you can tell from the next picture. (I thought it was interesting).

We happened to come across some scientists doing work on Mt. Erebus on our tour, so we stopped to talk to them. Mt. Erebus hasn't had a large eruption (with lava flow outside of the Erebus crater) since the mid-80s, but they said it's probably going to have another big eruption within the next 1,000 years. Eek. Hopefully it won't be an Antarctic Pompeii. :) I did get to hold a pumice rock from the crater, which was very interesting. The rock was a decent size, but it was as light as styrofoam!

Pumice Rock

(The entire time the Erebus guy was talking, I kept thinking about Dr. Evil's secret volcanic lair with liquid hot mag-ma. I was trying really hard not to laugh)

We also got to talk to someone from the University of Wisconsin team that sets up automatic weather stations across the continent. These stations don't do much, if any, forecasting, but they look back at weather data over the course of a season. They have about 60 stations on the continent!

Bearded Man with a Weather Station :)

Last, but not least, we got to see a bunch of fossils. Scientists have used this fossil of the fern leaves to support the idea that Antarctica used to be further north and had a climate that sustained plant growth.

Oh, and here is me with a stuffed penguin :)

 Peace, Love & Science-y Things. :)