The RV/IB Nathaniel Photo at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Photo taken at 1 AM during the eternal light of the Antarctic summer. © Marlo Garnsworthy As I go about the ship, seeking interviews with those who work aboard, it strikes me that the ship itself is a character without whom our story would be impossible. Having experienced a hundred or so expeditions since it was first commissioned in 1992, the RV/IB Nathaniel B. Palmer would have many stories to tell if she were to sp

Someone who’s become one of my closest buddies aboard, a man who’s sailed many cruises in many places over many years, confided last night that, as cruises go, this one is not so (visually) interesting. While I feel it’s always interesting and the view ever-changing, on some days, I can quite understand why some would think that. A few minutes ago, I stood on the bow, having my afternoon mug of tea, gazing out at what might look like “Nothing to see here.” Grey, featureless c

Frankie (wearing the purple shirt) Nothing lasts forever in the ocean. Organisms die and sink to the seafloor. Dust particles enter at the surface and fall to the bottom. Salts evaporate or stick to particles and are removed from the sea. Even the water itself cycles out of the ocean and through the atmosphere, continents, even the interior of Earth. The final resting place for salts and particles in the ocean is the seafloor. As material accumulates at the ocean bottom, it b

Phytoplankton, tiny plants of the sea, are the life-sustaining force of our beautiful blue planet. They produce most of the oxygen we respire, devour massive amounts of CO2 like delicious candy, and feed ocean creatures, including those charismatic whales and furry marine mammals we love! Just like any other living organism, phytoplankton need food to live, grow, and reproduce. Their diet consists mostly of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. However, they also require metals l

There is a small antechamber on the aft of the Main Deck, a landing really for the stairs leading down to bowels of the ship, those mysterious, noisy places the engineers and oilers disappear to between meals, which most of us have never seen. Here, I slip out of my sneakers and into my rubber steel-toed boots and grab my PPE (personal protection equipment) before hauling open the heavy door to a space called the aquarium room. It’s nearly 1 AM, and we have been waiting patie

Hi! We’ve been receiving a lot of great questions via the website and social media pages, so today I thought I’d pull a few from the grab-bag. It’s very fun for us to share our journey and our science with you, so ask away! If you melt the ice from an old iceberg and drink it, what does it taste like? It should taste like fresh water because that’s what icebergs consist of, just like snow in your backyard. Icebergs are created over time by many layers of snowfall, which becom

Today is a great day for science on the Southern Ocean: the weather is overcast but (so far) dry, and the seas are relatively calm with wave heights of 9-11 feet (at the time of this writing). One of the first things many of us do in the morning is check the weather map, which also indicates the likely wave height we’ll experience during the day. Wave height (and the sea state in general) is one of the main factors that affects our daily schedule. If the weather becomes too r

Hello everyone! My name is Diana, and during this cruise, I am responsible for measuring the chlorophyll concentrations in the water at each of the stations along our transect. As today’s guest blogger, I will tell you a little bit about phytoplankton and how these fascinating microbes are closer to us and do more for us than we think! Phytoplankton are microscopic plants that live in both fresh water and marine ecosystems. Diatoms are one type of phytoplankton. This makes mo

The marine technicians steady the Kasten corer after its return to the surface. We are still at yesterday’s sampling site this morning, waiting for a piece of coring equipment, called a Kasten corer, to return from the seafloor. You may have read about our previous efforts using the megacorer. We’ve had little success with the megacorer at this current location, due to the nature of the mud on the seafloor below us. Some members of the science team have been up basically all

Colin’s first diatom growth experiment is complete. A day or so ago, I talked about the final stages of the experiment at which point the diatoms in Diatom Alley were growing successfully. Once they have consumed around 50% of the nitrate available to them, it’s time to filter the water in which they have been living. Last night, Colin and Ivia carried this out for two of the carboys. Today, I observed Colin’s filtration process and had a hands-on experience with Ivia as she