Low angle but intense sun and sublimation have made these hedgehog like spines in the blue ice. They're like angled penitentes (usually found at high altitude, low latitude locations). Extraordinary #StrangeIce phenomena, #iQ2300 #Antarctica #Fieldwork #FieldPhoto

"Good morning LISA - and how are *you* feeling today?"

Probably the last (long) day in our temporary lab at Wasa today. 10m of cores to process, collected from the ice sheet yesterday, but also a nice view to keep me company.
Reward will be genuine Finnish sauna at the neighbouring Finnish research station this evening, where we also have much #science to discuss!

#iQ2300 #Antarctica #Fieldwork #FieldPhoto

Found the reflector!

Clément spotted a bright layer on a radargram taken over this glacier earlier in the season, so today we went back and drilled through 15m of snow and firn and nice to see what it was: a ~3cm thick layer of clear refrozen meltwater.

This one is coming with us for chemical analysis (along with the other 15m of core). Tomorrow will be a busy day in the lab.
We found many of these kinds of refrozen meltwater layers through the core, with lots of interesting features in the snow and firn pack associated with them. As so often in science, in seeking to answer one question, we end up asking many more as a result.
#iQ2300 #Antarctica #Fieldwork #Fieldphoto

Heading back to Wasa after a few nights out in the field...
#iQ2300 #Antarctica #Fieldwork #FieldPhoto #PolarForskningsSekretariatet

View from my sleeping bag this morning through the ark window at our neighbours, a post for #FensterFreitag #FensterFriday

Later I had to o dig out the samples I'd put in my snow pit to keep cold.
The cold wasn't a problem but the fresh snow was...
#iQ2300 #Antarctica #Fieldwork #FieldPhoto

Snow layers: I'm quite fascinated by these ice lenses, not melt exactly but glaze, very thin (~1mm) and a product of high winds and intense solar radiation
From last night's snow pit...

#iQ2300 #Antarctica #Fieldwork #FieldPhoto

The Polar might is drawing in, the neighbouring nunatak
Ploegen, with the sun almost setting behind it.
#iQ2300 #Antarctica #Fieldwork #PolarScience #ClimateScience #FieldPhoto #FieldworkPhoto

Farewell site RF1, for now. A total of 54 metres of ice, cored and processed. Then time to head home before the weather comes in, with a quick coffee stop to admire the wildlife: incredibly small lichens that somehow hang on at the nunatak Fossilrygen.
#iQ2300 #FieldworkPhoto #FieldPhoto #Fieldwork #Antarctica #ice #icetodon #frostodon #mosstodon #DronningMaudLand

Today has mostly been about melting and processing ice cores, so there's been a lot of voting an building snow walls to shelter from the sun. But I also found time to dig a snow pit, and to admire the rime patterns on the sastrugi.
#iQ2300 #Antarctica #Antarktis #FieldPhoto #Fieldwork

We were rewarded late yesterday evening with beautiful sun and spectacular snow crystals.
Today I have mostly been in the lab tent...

#iQ2300 #FieldPhoto #Fieldwork #Antarctica #DronningMaudLand #frostodon #icetodon