Blog

Note: This is the first in a series of posts about my time at Insight Data Science.

A few weeks ago I went on a tour of the South Pole ice tunnels. These run underneath the station, connecting it to the power plant, food storage, water treatment plant, and water supply. Probably the most interesting part was understanding how the water supply works. Fresh water comes from a Rodrigues well ("rodwell"), a hole in the ice we slowly expand by melting and pumping water out of it. To do so, we have to pump in hot water. Part of the heat is excess from the power plant, but the water needs to be heated again to 120 F immediately before being pumped into the rodwell.

Several people have asked me about the different stations in Antarctica. This time I'll provide some facts based on a table of the Antarctic stations displayed in the galley. Note that the version here was updated March 2009. More recent information can be found at https://www.comnap.aq/Information/. First the permanent U.S. stations are Amundsen--Scott (South Pole), McMurdo, and Palmer. Their peak populations are respectively 250, 1000, and 43. The total peak population of all stations listed is 4460.

The flight to McMurdo was about as good as it could be on a Hercules. It was only 7.5 hours, and as I wrote last time, not too crowded. The weather was beautiful when we landed. About freezing and clear skies. There wasn't much new to see so I didn't take too many pictures. Getting off the plane, we were told the bus to station had broken down and that they were sending something else. 40 minutes later a vehicle/truck/object arrived (see photo).