The ride was a little smoother than in the past and some of us were able to process a little data. Steve A. is always busy on the drives as he collects data of all the subsurface snow layers down to a depth of 90 meters over the entire traverse route. It is amazing that the same layers extend across hundreds of kilometers. The continuity of these layers enable him to calculate accumulation rates over hundreds of square kilometers of West Antarctica. These maps show minor variations in elevation in a 2-3 kilometer radius around each site.
Today is business as usual with everyone getting as much science done as possible.
We hope to drill another 80 meters of core at this site. We have gotten more people onto the drilling team including Leigh, Brian, and Dave. With this much help we should finish drilling in record time. As a result, the views of Mount Sidley have been stellar. At the last couple sites it was flat white snow scape all around.