Bad weather delays Thwaites Glacier camp; Araon crew works on nearby sea ice

Bad weather forced a postponement of attempts to set up camp on Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier, forcing the icebreaker Araon to sail from a nose‑to‑nose position with the glacier to nearby Pine Island Glacier in the Amundsen Sea.

Low clouds made it impossible to land helicopters and begin the expedition’s main research project, so the ship planned to return in a few days to try again. Dominic O’Rourke, one of the expedition’s two pilots, said of the start of the season: “It’s a gnarly start, for sure,” and added he couldn’t recall another field season beginning with so many days of uncooperative weather in 10 years of flying scientists at Thwaites.

As the Araon traveled north it encountered a large, sturdy plate of sea ice and stopped. Guides tested the floe’s safety, and Siobhan Johnson of the University of Cambridge led teams that collected ice cores with a power drill, took seawater samples, calibrated a robot’s compass for later deployment near Pine Island Glacier, and surveyed the ice’s inner structure with a device towed on a snow tube.

In the area declared safe the ice felt solid; according to Ms. Johnson’s cores the floe was about two‑and‑a‑half feet thick. After work concluded, scientists strolled, took photos and even had a snowball fight, and the group was visited by a lone Adélie penguin. The ship intends to return in a few days to renew attempts to land on Thwaites.

Key Topics

Science, Thwaites Glacier, Araon, Pine Island Glacier, Amundsen Sea, Siobhan Johnson