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		WATER & ICE EXPLORATION
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EXPLORING UNDER THE ICE
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QUESTION: What methods do scientists use to find out what is under 
the ice which covers the continent? 

ANSWER from Wilber King on Dec. 29, 1994:
I provide technical and administrative support for the team of scientists 
and engineers currently in Antarctica.  Your question asked what 
methods the scientists use to find out what is under the ice that covers 
the continent. Specifically, you were interested in active volcanoes.

The scientists and I work for a department called SOAR which stands 
for Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research. To see what's under 
the ice we use four different devices: 1. radar, 2. laser, 3. gravity 
meters, and 4. magnetics. Here is a brief description of what each of 
those items can do.

RADAR: is used to measure ice thickness. We attach the radar system 
to an airplane and fly all over western Antarctica measuring the ice 
thickness. The ice thickness in western Antarctica is over 2,000 
meters.

LASER: is used to make a map of the surface of the ice. So if there are 
active volcanoes under the ice they will cause the ice to melt above it 
which leaves a depression on the surface of the ice. The depression 
might look like a "pothole" on a city street, just thousands of times 
larger.

GRAVITY: gravity meters are used in the airplane to make sure the 
airplane doesn't shift up and down during its flight. The straighter the 
airplane flies, the better picture it can take of the surface of Antarctica.
 
MAGNETICS: are used in the airplane which we fly over Antarctica 
to find volcanic rocks as well as other rock formations. The magnetic 
system hangs from a long rope under the airplane as it flies over the 
ice.

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QUESTION: How many things (once living) have you found in ice?

ANSWER: On February 2, 1995, Diane Stoecker answered:
We've found many different living things in the ice, but they are all 
one-celled. We've found bacteria, algae (at least 10 species) and 
protozoa. They live in little pockets of very salty water (brine) in the 
sea-ice. Associated with the bottom side of the sea-ice there are also 
zooplankton and small fish.

We also see dead cells in the ice; these usually are organisms that live 
in the plankton. They got trapped in the ice as it was forming and 
weren't adapted to the cold and salty conditions in the sea-ice and thus 
died there.

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QUESTION: Do scientists go into the icy waters of Antarctica?

ANSWER from Katy McNitt, LTJG, NOAA, S-257 Monitoring 
Climatic Change, Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, on January 7, 
1995:
Yes! Scientists DO go into the icy waters of Antarctica! I've never 
done it, but I have been scuba diving in relatively cold water and it's 
very strange! The people who dive off the coast of Antarctica will 
probably tell you that it's very painful, too.

Have you ever reached into the bottom of a cooler at a picnic (because 
the best sodas are always at the bottom) and realized that your arm was 
starting to hurt? But you couldn't quite reach that One Can that you 
wanted, so you kept pushing your arm past the ice cubes and water 
until you had that can in your grasp, only to realize that your arm had 
gone numb, and you couldn't grab the can anyway? Not that I've ever 
done this ;-) but it only takes a minute or two. Now, imagine jumping 
into that cooler and swimming around for several minutes to an hour! 
Yikes!

People who dive in cold water have to wear special diving suits to stay 
warm and dry. How do you suppose they keep the water out of these 
suits? The suits don't cover the divers' faces or hands, which become 
numb very quickly in such cold water. Face masks and mittens don't 
help much when the water is below freezing! With a numb face it's 
hard to breathe through a regulator, and with numb hands it's hard to 
do everything else! Can you think of other problems Antarctic divers 
might face? And: how can water be "below freezing" and still be 
water?


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SCUBA DIVERS
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QUESTION: How do you video the penguins under water?

ANSWER from M. Castellini on 1/13/95
These videos are taken either by divers carrying underwater cameras or 
by going down in an observation chamber that is dry and can be 
lowered from the surface. I am not a diver, but I have watched 
penguins from such a dry chamber. Very cold and dark, but very 
special to watch the birds from underwater!

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QUESTION: Do scuba divers ever explore the sea near Antarctica?
	
ANSWER from Jeff Merrell on January 23, 1995:
Even though the waters surrounding Antarctica are extremely cold (- 
1.9 degrees Celsius), divers have been exploring them for about 30 
years. Routinely, divers are used for collecting organisms that live 
under the ice, such as starfish and other bottom-dwelling creatures, 
that cannot be easily collected in other ways. In most parts of the 
world, divers wear a wetsuit that allows the water to touch the skin; 
however, in the Antarctic the divers wear dry-suits with several layers 
of protective clothing underneath to protect them from the cold 
temperatures. Because of the cold temperatures, most dives in the 
Antarctic only last about 1/2 hour. People that are lucky enough to 
dive in Antarctica have the opportunity to see penguins, seals, etc., 
under the ice. 
 
ANSWER from Diane Stoecker on January 31, 1995
Yes, people do dive through the ice to study life on the underside of 
the ice, in the water under the ice and, in shallow places, life on the 
bottom. They have to wear big, bulky dry suits. Only their faces get 
wet, but still they can only make short dives because it is so cold. Our 
group didn't do any diving, but divers collected some samples of 
sediments for us so we could look for resting stages of ice algae in the 
mud. The animal life on the bottom in McMurdo is quite spectacular, 
big sponges, scallops, sea urchins and brittle stars. Some of the 
researchers studying penguins dive so that they can watch the penguins 
feeding underwater.

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QUESTION: What do you wear when you go diving in the ice water?

ANSWER from Deane Rink, Live From Antarctica field producer, on 
Wednesday, December 14:
I'm not a diver, but I have had the privilege of filming three Antarctic 
divers from topside and have watched how carefully they prepare for 
diving under the annual sea ice down here in Antarctica. You're 
probably familiar with the normal wet suits that most mid-latitude 
divers wear. Well, down here, the divers prefer to wear what is known 
as a dry suit, a large body glove that incorporates a layer of air 
between the inner body lining and the outer, water-resistant 
polypropylene. Dry suits are much warmer and allow divers to work in 
the 28 degree Fahrenheit salty water that resides in McMurdo Sound. 

Divers always work in pairs, with one standing by at the surface in full 
diving gear ready to dive in case of some emergency. There is also a 
communications line through radio band that is set up between diver 
and tender (the safety diver topside); the radio band travels in a line 
enclosed inside the tether that the diver has attached to his/her body. 
Until the phytoplankton (microscopic marine plant life) bloom around 
this time of year, visibility in the waters of McMurdo Sound will 
generally run around 600 feet, much more than in normal tropical 
waters. 

The movies that these divers bring back from their dives, shot on 
regular Hi-8 cameras contained within special watertight housings, 
show an abundance of undersea life, most of which is very colorful. 
Starfish and sea spiders dominate on the bottom, with fish, seals, and 
penguins among the denizens of the actual water column itself. We 
hope to be able to show you some of the underwater life in one of our 
future Live From Antarctica programs.


ANSWER from Dale Andersen on December 19, 1994:
While diving in the cold Antarctic waters we wear protective suits 
made of neoprene, vulcanized rubber or coated nylon. These suits are 
waterproof, having seals at the cuffs and neck. Since water cannot get 
into the suit, we wear warm clothing underneath. Special diving mitts 
keep our hands warm and we must wear a neoprene hood on our 
heads.  So "dry suits" are the best way to keep warm while diving 
underwater here. The water temperature in the ocean here is about -2 
degrees centigrade (~28F) but in the lakes I dive in it is just a bit 
warmer--0 degrees centigrade (32F). Most of our dives last 45 minutes 
or so.


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UNEXPLORED PLACES
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QUESTION: Are there unexplored places in Antarctica?

ANSWER from  LT "T" Stevens, U.S. Navy, on February 13, 1995:
I'm sure there are many places in Antarctica where man has not 
stepped foot on, but about 95% of Antarctica is covered in ice. The 
parts covered in ice are studied for depth and age of ice, etc. The 5% 
not covered in ice is still largely unexplored, though. Land vehicles are 
not allowed over most of the continent, so the only way to get to most 
of these places is by helicopter. Scientists explore new places every 
year, but with all the harsh extremes of the continent, it will take a 
while before the continent is fully explored.