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ANTARCTICA

Hoopers Shoulder

Photos © 2002 Seth White

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Early in the season, I was asked to accompany the Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory (MEVO) team up to the mountain to help install a new seismic station. So I checked my schedule, and told them that yeah, I might be able to fit that in sometime.... Yeah right - of course I jumped at the chance. Remarkably, they mentioned that some science techs in years past didn't want to do any of this field work. Flying around in a helicopter to work on an Antarctic volcano? Naw, that doesn't sound like a good time at all. Gimme a break. Anyway, they have been running a network of seismic stations to monitor the volcano's activity for many years, but the time had come for more sophisticated and comprehensive instrumentation. So, this year's field season was primarily concerned with getting 6 new broadband seismic stations installed at various points on the mountain. An ambitious task. This particular day, they were working on Hoopers Shoulder, on the West side of Erebus, about 7000' up (the peak is 12,400'). We flew up in an A-Star helicopter to the site. This is a view of Erebus from the cockpit.

We flew in on the west side of Hut Point Peninsula, which is visible on the right.
Another picture, closer in.
Getting closer still. The weather this day was fantastic. The field season this year for these guys was plagued by bad weather. On the top of Mount Erebus, where they have a camp, it can be absolutely brutal. And this year it was. Many days, it was impossible to work outside at all. But they still managed to get 5 of the 6 new broadband stations installed, as well as complete a slew of other tasks - including fixing the Erebus Crater Cam. This camera is at the crater rim, pointed toward the lava lake inside. Real time video from this camera can be viewed as a link from the New Mexico Tech site here.
The set of two parallel, curving lines in this picture is a lava levee. Bill McIntosh, one of the team members, was telling me that these things form during lava flows as tunnels, where the outside of the flow cools and hardens, while the inside contiues to flow. After time, the tunnel roof will collapse, leaving a semi-circular trench winding its way down the mountain. At Hoopers Shoulder, these are evidently some of the best lava levees in the world.
A view of the seismic site, with Bill and Rich waiting for the helo to come in. The landing zone is on the right.
A pic of the helicopter landed on site. The two red bags are survival bags, and contain the essentials for a few days survival if we somehow were to get stranded here due to weather.
The helicopter departing. When this thing powers up to take off, it produces a very stiff wind which is loaded with ice particles from the ground. To turn around and take this picture while getting blasted with snow gets you very cold, very fast.
Another picture of the A-Star departing. It's sheer luck that these pictures turned out at all, because it was nearly impossible to see the field of view on the camera monitor.
The installations on Hoopers Shoulder. There is an older, short period seismic station here, GPS equipment, and the new broadband seismic station. A wind generator is also installed, along with solar panels for power. The hope is that the combination of solar and wind power will keep the stations powered throughout the entire year. Other seismic stations on the back side of the mountain also link to McMurdo through this site, due to it's (relatively) good line of sight to the station. So there is a lot of stuff sitting here. Note the rocks sitting on one of the cables. All the cables must be 'rocked down', so they won't get thrashed by the wind. Hoopers Shoulder is very rock-poor. To get rocks, you have to make them. Luckily, lava chunks here breaks off pretty easily with a crowbar.
Another picture of the site. The solar panels and battery banks are off to the right, and the wind generator is uphill to the left.
Rich Karstens, Bill McIntosh, and Rick Aster. Rick is a co-PI for the project along with Phil Kyle. Phil has been studying Erebus for over 30 years. Bill, among other things, is the lead on the video monitoring of Erebus. Rich is an electronics/computer jedi, and came down for the season to help out. The Erebus group has arond 75 seasons of field work in Antarctica between them, and a slew of unbelievable and hilarious stories of things that have happened here.
This is the box which houses the new seismometer. It is surrounded by rocks and soil to keep it stable in the high winds and to keep its underside protected.
A concrete pad, with my boot for a scale reference. The pad is put in place with water, otherwise known as Antarctic cement.
The seismometer pad with the box.
The seismometer is simply set on this pad, oriented, and leveled. This instrument is a three-axis device, unlike the older single-axis sensors (still in use on the mountain). It also has a wider dynamic range and frequency range, to better capture the full character of the seismic signals.
Racks of solar panels, hooked up to a battery bank.
The Instrument Box. It contains, among other things, a radio for transmitting the data back to McMurdo and a GPS receiver.
The Power Box. This mainly regulates and controls the power delivered by the solar panels and wind generator.
A GPS antenna.
An antenna mast. The two antennas pointing left are directed toward McMurdo. Directly down the mountain is Cape Royds, where Shackleton build his hut during his 1908 expedition. There is actually a route by which you can ride a snowmobile up to the top of Erebus. You pass by Cape Royds, turn right, navigate some glaciers and crevassed areas, and arrive within a few hundred vertical feet of the top. The search and rescue team did this recently to get familiarized with the route in case of emergency. Well, that's the official reason anyway. It sounds to me like the ultimate boondoggle!
Rick Aster, showing off the team's handiwork (the instrument box and the seismometer box).
Mid-day, the helicopter comes back to the site to pick up a sling load. A sling load is a netting of stuff that is flown, suspended under the helo, to and from a field site. The task here is to wait until the pilot comes to a stable hover about 6 feet off the ground, then pick up the hook and attach it to the mechanism on the underside of the helo. So Rich Karstens did this one. His description of the process involved the phrase 'huge while whale coming to squash you', along with some other choice words.
The helo taking off with its sling load.
A view up Erebus from Hoopers Shoulder.
Another view looking up the slopes of this huge mountain. On a volcano scale, this is a big one.
On the way flying out from the site, there was this little rock outcropping. The wind eddies had sculpted the snow away from its base. I thought it looked cool, so here's the picture.
The helicorder. This device was used to record seismic signals on pieces of paper mounted to the two drums, which rotated as the pens slowly moved sideways. This created a long helix over the course of a day, with little squiggles when the seismic sensors picked up something. However it had become outdated with the use of digital digital data recording. They still kept it running for the heck of it, and I had been changing the paper every day. We were going to stick it out in the hall for people to watch (hey - everyone loves helicorders!), but the NSF representative here thought that it was too archaic, and we needed to appear more modern (doesn't he have anything better to do?). So, out the door it went. I called up the Scott Base science technician (my NZ couterpart), and asked him if they needed a spare helicorder since they have several in operation there. He said sure, so I drove it over. I'm glad it will still have a home, and didn't end up in a scrap heap somewhere back in New Mexico.
Here's Bill McIntosh with the helicorder. And an ice axe. You wouldn't know it by looking at this picture, but he was also a little sorry to see it go