Today I was able to go on a Crary Lab Tour. The building and those that work inside it are the reason we as DA’s have a job. Serving Science, literally. McMurdo is a research base and we are here to assist those who come down here looking for answers to questions I can’t even began to fathom. The Lab is the newest building on site, built in the 90’s and that is the first thing you notice. It’s new. No casino 70’s outdoor carpet in the halls, or retro cubical walls. Stainless steel, efficient railings and a feeling of moderness. Ahh yes, this is what the world outside still has.
Designed with science in mind the building has an internal humidity of 30% meaning you’re skin sighs with relief and you feel yourself getting younger just by standing inside. The large freeze doors with metal pop latches are the portals that allow you access to the building. They have to be heated otherwise they would freeze shut with the mixture of internal humidity and external cold. Also the is air constantly being sucked out of the building as a safety measure. Pumped in, sucked out, all as precautionary action should a poisons or toxic gas escape in one of the labs. There is a system in place to filter it so it cannot be released into the rest of the building as well as the outside air.
The lobby of the Crary lab is lined with glass shelves that show off specimens discovered over time. Dinosaur fossils, seal skulls, aquatic life in jars and jells. Things that you think were discovered on another planet float and stare back from glass. From meteorites to ancient dive relics, the sites that welcome you are a testimony to the history of such a large land mass. These are all hints of the lushes life that once existed on the land. Hard to image trees and plant life here on this white dessert, now covered in tons of ice and snow. What happened, you have to ask staring at the preserved specimens in the cases. Flood related I like to suspect. Perhaps. For a place so cold, it is amazing what still thrives here and calls this fridge climate home.
On the tour we get to visit the touch tank where live aquatic specimens are allowed to be handled. The water is a skin numbing 28 degrees, so really feeling them is not possible. Sea slugs and worms, to water spiders and urchins rest just beneath the surface of the water, dazzling the eye with their color and size. Things that appear much smaller else where, have double if not nearly tripled in size.
The fish in one of the tanks is nearly double the size to the cousins back home. As soon as they spot you they come swimming towards the surface and nearly jump out at you. It is strange and slightly frightening when fish start to attack you. Like Alfred Hitchcock”s The Birds but without so many feathers. Mouths flailing open, gills ribbing out, they leap from the water out at you, and only then do you notice the jagged pieces of teeth rimming their jaws. Are not fish supposed to be afraid of us? What has happened in Antarctica to make them see us as potential sources of something.
These fish in the tank were not feed or anything to alter their normal pattern. What it does make for is some easy fishing. Stick a hand in and wall-la - instant dinner.
After being entertained by the fishes we move on to an informative discussion about Mt Erebus, the active volcano here on the Ice. Erebus was the son of Chaos and represented the “personification of darkness and shadow.” Pretty intense name for a Volcano. Much edger than St. Helen’s wouldn’t you say? It is only one of three of it’s type in the world. It is an open mouthed volcano with a large lava lake in the middle still fully active and spewing. If you could peer over the rim into the center of the volcano, you’d see a large molten red lava lake, bubbling and spewing like an outraged espresso machine. The other two are found in Africa and much more politically difficult to get to and study. That is what makes Erebus so appealing and ideal. Easy access minus the harsh conditions. We were allowed to handle lava rocks that had exploded out of the mountain. They appeared to be heavy but in were the weight of wet sponges and just as porous. Magma gets launched out of the volcano when it “burps” and then solidifies in the cold as it cools on the ground.
There are also stones called Erebus crystals that are formed inside the lava tube. Finding these is a highlight for those here as they are not often discovered this close to base but treasured when given by traveling science crews or shuttle drivers. In fact there are several different types of stones here if you can find them. You just have to access to the land beyond McMurdo and those people are few and highly privileged.
Since Erebus “burps” on a weekly basis, there is not threat of a large eruption. As long as the gases are able to release and not build up there is not threat of any continental disaster. Makes you feel safe, right. There are three mountains on Ross Island, Erebus, Mt. Terror, and a third I can’t remember. I live on an island, hard to picture. But I saw the map and now have a better idea of what it looks like from the air.
We are a tropical island complete with volcano and dancing natives (really its the penguins but they do have a funky waddle). We are surrounded by water, but most of it is the permanent ice shelf - meaning it will never met. As summer continues to grow, the water on the opposite side will met away and vessels well be able to dock here in the bay by late January. Makes me smile because we land planes on that ice now but soon it will be boats instead.
