![]() Equally important is finding a convenient spot for the loo (toilet for North American readers), placed a suitable distance from all other camp activities one benefit of working summers in the Arctic is that you never need to stumble in the dark in search of it. That the water was probably a few thousand years old was humbling (although there was a distinct paucity of gin and tonics to take advantage of the ice). ![]() One base camp on western Axel Heiberg in 1983 sourced water from an iceberg a few 100 m offshore, retrieved by a helicopter dipping a 45-gallon drum into a melt pond and ferrying it to camp. ![]() A source of clean water commonly dictates the location of a camp. ![]() Food, tents, and general field equipment are deemed essential. Geodetic Hills, the location of the middle Eocene fossil forests, is located on east-central Axel Heiberg Island.įield logistics in places like Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg islands require good planning – getting there and moving around while on site that, in addition to foot-slogging, frequently relies on a helicopter that needs fuel and an engineer. Frigid winters (minus 40 o C and F – this specific temperature is the same on both scales) and snow-drift blizzards mean that most field work is a summer venture (some geophysical work is conducted during winter when fjords and seaways are frozen). Mentally, because it really is isolated, and the one or two companions you will spend the next 6-10 weeks with should be reasonably accepting of each other’s foibles. Field work in remote places is always a challenge, mentally and physically.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |