Hi everyone, it's Daniel again!
In the last post Jamie told you about our Field work in Pyramiden so I'm
going to take the opportunity while Jamie and Kendal are away at a cabin to
tell you about the last couple of weeks.
We were all so tired after Pyramiden that we didn't go on any hikes that
weekend. The next week we began Sediment Transport (a refreshing reminder of H2
Marine Geology for those at SAMS) with guest lecturer Jim Bogen and our
first lectures for AT-210 Arctic Environmental
Pollution. The first lectures were mostly introducing us to the topic
and outlining the variety of toxic chemicals that are found around the world
and defining contaminants and pollutants. With the sediment transport though we
got another field excursion and our first lab work! This meant going on a tour
of Longyearbyen and taking water samples from the main rivers and the dam
that supplies the town with water. In the lab we followed a procedure allowing
us to find the mass of dissolved particles and the percentage of that which was
organic (using some pretty impressive mass balances which were mounted on steel
pillars). It meant an early morning (0815) on Friday morning to combust
our samples but then that gave us the afternoon free.
The next week we had a reading week for hydrology but in pollution
however we were learning about fuel transport, storage and spills which
involved three (yes, three!) field excursions. This meant a tour of the fuel
storage facilities at the airport the next day and of Longyearbyen's fuel
storage the day after. On the Friday our excursion was a boat trip to and a
tour around the Russian town of Barentsburg! I think (and I suspect that Jamie
and Kendal will agree) that the highlight of the day was on the way to the town
when we saw a fin whale!
We then stopped to have lunch in front of a glacier while the crew
grilled a range of meets on the main deck. Moral questions were raised when we
were offered whale meat for lunch (morals aside, don't try it, Kendal and I
agreed it was tasteless). This continued to be one of the most relaxed field excursions we've been
on to date as after touring the massive (and rather unsafe) storage facilities
(for fuel that they didn't use in the town - conspiracy theorists love that
one) we ended up in a hotel trying the local brew of beer.
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That weekend Jamie and Kendal and our friend Susanne went for a hike up
to Trollstein with our guest lecturer for pollution Anna Waitkus on the
Saturday which was much more interesting that my detour to the shop across the
plateau beneath Nordenskiöldtoppen with some friendly Arctic Biology Students.
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This week past though we were given our Hydrology report assignments (my
group has a short literature review, think I got the best assignment!) and
lectures on Permafrost with Hydrology and Mercury in Polar Regions by guest
lecturer Michelle Nerentorp for Pollution. This meant studying the
lectures each day as we competed in a quiz each morning with the overall winner
getting a bag of sweets but everyone else in the class got a Kvikk Lunsj (very
much like a Kit Kat back home). While the rest of us left class on Friday for
the UNIS Oktoberfest celebrations Jamie, Kendal and Susanne had been very
organised and arranged with the Longyearbyen Hunting Society to use a cabin in
Foxdallen for the weekend and I’m sure Kendal with have some fantastic pictures
and stories to tell about that.
Finally, we all had plans to view the super lunar eclipse tomorrow
morning but at the moment it is snowing as so I am afraid that it is
unlikely that we will see anything.
That’s all from me, hopefully Kendal will write another post soon all
about our hikes this week and their trip to Foxdallen!
P.s. She might even have some pictures of the night sky recently, hint
hint!
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