Saturday, July 24, 2010

Do A Lot Of People Go To Cancun For Spring Break?



Stories by name
scientist who spends the summer in a tent in Antarctica
Cecilia Draghi

To THE NATION

Madrugada February 1991 in the camp "Geolamas" Marambio Island, Antarctic Peninsula.
The words were in the tent. "We were talking and breathing condensed in a way that seemed to fog, "says Dr. Andrea Concheyro geology." I'm dying of cold, I told my companion that night. And I said: "There can be if the sleeping bag support? 30 ° C. In this, look at the thermometer and marked? 36.5 °," he adds.

What did? "Holding. Putting together a little mats for warmth. It is horrible to sleep with cold", described as a story about one of his sixteen scientific investigations carried out in a tent the coldest continent on the planet. He's been almost three years, 32 months to be precise, to live surrounded by ice, which separates a synthetic canvas awning not more than two meters high by as much area. This is their home each summer. She and her team, a handful of researchers, are taken by plane or helicopter as the hidden site frozen territory to explore. There are left and will be sought two months later, after they collected material to rebuild the marine environment in these latitudes more than 60 million years.



1 of 13 - Concheyro and his team at James Ross Island, in the summer of 2009 - Photo: Courtesy of Andrea Concheyro



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always been in a tent in Antarctica, even his first expedition in 1989 when he was 25 and was carried test. The team camped four hours' walk from the Marambio base. "I'm not female base, but Camp. Is the absolute freedom," said vehemently and not hide his passion for his work over nearly three hours of interviews. Sitting in his laboratory at the University City, surrounded by papers, geological samples awaiting analysis, she turns to her computer again and again to show photos or graphics to help you understand your story. Teaching soul, enthusiastic laughter, she had no children only exhibits her coquetry to wear with pride, almost mother-shirt that gave her students. Without makeup, her face expressed no traces of polar storms, but two fingers of your hand Freezing sensitivity lost as a result of remaining minutes without gloves outdoors in the cold south. Of unstoppable verbosity, Concheyro seems accustomed to doing several things simultaneously without losing the humor and with the energy of the pioneers.

Indeed, in his first trips were very few women who dared to reach the southernmost destination in the world, let alone in a tent. "In my stay at the Antarctic Institute have never been discriminated against for being women. Always-accurate I was highly respected by my peers. It is difficult because it is frankly an environment of men. This meant that the girl I had to say no feats but almost. Show unbeatable. A break could not physically or psychologically, but then you went to the tent and were dead until the next day. On the other hand, must show that engaged in a course of conduct, and hold it over the years. This is what gives all the credit for people to respect you, you consider ".

the first day of a new life
Antarctica, from the Greek 'antarktikos", "opposite the Arctic", is actually the antipode everything that humans are accustomed. A continent where land claims have been frozen, are prohibited nuclear testing, as well as bases for military purposes and waste radioactive. Men from countries where old grudges work together. Indeed, it seems this planet a territory where only seeks to maintain peace, develop science and protect the environment. It could be called Utopia and would do honor to his name.

apparently stepping on his snow-covered ground is a passport to unexpected sensations. "You get there and you're another person, for better or for worse. It's great. You can not put into words. It's something that feels. Somehow the existence of God, for those who believe," he says while the idea came with his arms, his whole body and still one second while her brown eyes leaking above the lens in search complicity.

is not uncommon for the early hours of arrival take the visitor to shake, either cold, emotion or excitement to a strange and fascinating landscape. "Nobody comes and goes in the Antarctic, just as it was" secure from the Department of Geological Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires, where he always arrives aboard his unmistakable Land Rover, blue and white, model 80. While this daily trip around the city can be an adventure in battered 4 x 4, will always be very far from matching the journey to arrive at the white steppe.

"The first day you get to Antarctica? Indica-one dies of cold. We leave Buenos Aires with 40 degree heat to Rio Gallegos, Santa Cruz. There he boards a Hercules aircraft and six hours and you're on base Marambio, a? 10 º. That is, in less than a day through a temperature range of 50 degrees. "As head of the group," Andreita "as they call those who know the past twenty years in these latitudes, it takes under its responsibility for all procurement two months in camp. tents, fuel, backpacks, sleeping bags, food, tools, radio equipment, generators form part of equipment supplied by the Argentine Antarctic Institute, Directorate General of Antarctica.

Following this where they face forced climbing all elements of logistics as well as friends or old friends, it is their final destination. In the 2009 season was the James Ross Island. To reach this area is necessary to do so by air. "You have to go through? Points-the Weddell Sea in two helicopters. It is forbidden for security in a single device, because if you fall no one survives more than three minutes in those frigid waters. If this happens, another helicopter goes immediately to the rescue. "

back on terra firma, it all begins deployment of equipment. A land all charged with lung and arm. Bedroom carp, carp laboratory, kitchen tent, toilet tent and the national flag, that "I" says "in the handbag to install it as soon as we arrived." A housing complex in the middle of nowhere or the whole, to be overcome temporary deaf, without thunder or lightning, winds of seventy miles per hour, hard snow and furious drag given the speed, known in slang as a blizzard Southern or blizzard.

helicopters and just go back in a month to refurbish the equipment supplies for three to six researchers who will be left alone for two months. "Since the departure of Buenos Aires until you put the tent in the middle of nowhere, takes two days without sleep at least. For there are three in the morning but it's day. Just a twilight between midnight and 2 am. At that time, all I want is to rest, but you have to tie everything in a matter of hours because the weather changes, and the blizzard or blizzard destroys everything. In these circumstances I ask: Who sends me to come here? Then you miss, "he says.
Smoothie ice

The place chosen to set up the tents in the James Ross Island varied as climate change." We were going to put the camp in the same place where he had made ten years ago but the melting ice is not allowed. We had to run it a lot and install a 300 meters high because there was no space to do on the coast. There are glaciers retreated ten years a mile. It's awesome. From the first time I went to now, climate change was such that I'm in shirt because we have 14 º, compared.

The effect of temperature increase on earth melts the ice and upsets, creating situations unthinkable just A few years ago. For example, as the team always kept under the ice in the open the box of 20 kilos of meat for food and places a flag to locate the position where the need to eat. "We had to change the site because dissolve and ice is exposed, without cooling, "he says.

Almost all the white continent is covered with ice, if it disappeared entirely, oceans would rise by several meters its current level. Today, Antarctica acts as a cooler Earth and regulates both ocean currents and global climate, says. Also retains much of the globe's fresh water. She drinks it every summer, and is not an easy task. "Making Water" is part of daily activities. "Spades ice and load 20 or 30 kilos in your backpack. Then you climb a hill to the camp and put it in the" brunette ", a pan fire, it melts.'s Actually distilled water, as you have no salt You should replace food sweet or savory. When you return to your home in Buenos Aires paranoied you follow the care of the water and you use only the exact amount. Do not waste because it gives you the idea of \u200b\u200bthe work it takes to get "points out this woman very short hair, not very high and essentially practical.

Similar work is required to take a bath. It is necessary to heat about 15 liters." I have a shower head where the water is loaded tibia. On the floor is a small channel for the drain, "he says. It usually choose the days of little wind so that the heat of the heaters it is perceived in the tent. Then wash the clothes in a basin and hang them in the shop-laboratory because overseas would be frozen. Workday


At half past seven or eight o'clock the day begins. "Sometimes you have to be very brave to go on the morning of the warm sleeping bag, because it can do? 18 degrees or so inside the tent. It's a tough time," he says. Not the only instance difficult, it remains out to the tent-kitchen to prepare breakfast while heating with heaters. If the weather is bad stay at the camp. Seize reading, loading data into the laptop that runs on generator power, to classify the material that will bring back to the mainland or start writing the draft of a scientific paper. Will also play at cards or dice. "Sunday can be a Tuesday or Wednesday because? Explains the rest day is the storm."

If good weather dawns prepare backpacks with tools and meats along with drinks for a frugal lunch one day be cut from ten to twelve hours of field explorations. For safety, always come in pairs, never alone for there is always someone who can give notice in case of emergency or to help the rescue. They can walk four hours dodging cracks and ice bridges to get to where you take fossils, rocks and other samples to piggyback the camp. "Charge 20 or 30 kilos or you can handle in the bag.'re You and your backpack, is part of your body, "defined without complaint. This transport difficult, sometimes it's the end of a previous work hard." The last summer? recalls did excavation on a slope 300 meters high and which could not given the inclination to stay standing. Tired shot came back to the tent at about 10 or 11 at night. A cook, wash dishes and sleep. Twice a week you can talk to family or friends for radio "sums.

Today, the team travels on foot which was an ocean millions of years ago." I study calcareous nannofossils are shells of algae that formed part plankton in the last 195 million years. When the algae dies, plates fall to the bottom of the sea and that is what we discussed "he says. Anyone could walk past without being fossils draw attention, however, specialists valuable data obtained from them." We know the conditions of the oceans past such as age, temperature, salinity, depth or level of oxygen. It is rebuilt as was the ecosystem. By knowing the past climate change, can make a prediction for the future. "

James Ross Island holds a unique treasure." That area? Indicates, is a watershed of 6000 m thick marine sediments representing largely of geological ages. If you could walk without stopping could learn all the Cretaceous geological history (125 million years to 65 million years). That is, it is 60 million years bounded by 6 thousand meters. It is a unique sequence for the Southern Hemisphere because of its ".

Sometimes fully engaged in the field, watching a black bird, a storm petrel is the signal that should return rapidly coming to camp because" pesto or bad weather. Sometimes there is no bird of ill omen, but the accumulated experience of years of campaigning on the white continent, which captures perceptions inaudible to the newcomers. "You see the ice and there's something you do not like. You say to your team that we must return. It is not uncommon for younger you say, "Why should we go back, if you're cute?". Two hours after a snowfall rises impressive, "he says.

The difference between being a visitor and Antarctic seasons are more experienced in this cold desert. The body goes to see, hear, smell or develop ways that neither knew had in the big city, but there are awakening and help the survivors. Is it animal instinct or knowledge applied? The truth is to be the Antarctic is being integrated with body and soul to the white steppe.

"I was born in Pompeii, four blocks from the Creek, "he says as if to prove it Buenos Aires by birth but by adoption Antarctic. After three years, his father, a surgeon with whom she now lives, led her to make their first steps on the mountain and enjoy the community life of the camp. "I lived the spirit of small-group solidarity. I know what you do not do it, hump to the other. Your life depends on the other and you have to have confidence in him. Or, conversely, if your partner falls into a crevasse , I have to save until I can die trying, "he stresses. The relationships are tested to the point that the results are extreme. "I went with friends and lost friends. Instead I went with strangers and friends came back for good. Anything is possible in Antarctica, "he adds.

Imagine for a second live for two months with their colleagues and unable to return home with their affections. For 24 hours there will be coexistence Extreme discomfort everywhere, a hostile climate and very few for work hard. Who to choose for such an experience? "It's a big problem. A brilliant academic, but a bad person? "Good but not very prominent person professionally? "Good person, good professional but vague? Human combinations are varied, and to raise the question about why he prefers, he replied: "After twenty years I learned that the important thing is to go to a good person." Of course, only in Antarctica each shows who is, and there are previously unknown facets of itself.

"is a place that you find yourself with yourself. Such views will always lead to a reflection, a personal balance. It is an experience so strong that when he returns there is a change in thinking. In each, the Antarctica will feel differently, "he says. Holidays


Each February 22, the day of Antarctica Argentina, Concheyro repeats with the fervor of always the same ceremony. "With or without blizzard sing the national anthem together with the flag and say a few words," he says. Hear ye mortals, the sacred cry of a handful of Argentines who feel proud of it. The ceremony was complete with a steaming dish of lentils with chorizo. "Well Rico and Argentina," he says.

await that day happier. It is the birthday of her sister who lives in New Zealand. "Now I can say hello from the satellite phone, whose use is quite expensive. The service is free only for emergencies but not for personal matters, of course," he notes.

Now comes the return date. In the white continent, daylight hours are shortened from 31 January and seven minutes before it gets dark the previous day. At the end of February, at 21 am and is dark. It's time for goodbyes. Two nights before the final withdrawal, the party finale: homemade cannelloni with white sauce, flan with dulce de leche and a "champagnecito" for the toast. "I prepare a speech where he spoke of the characteristics of each, a balance of two months spent rods and harmonious flags for delivery to the uninitiated, a kind of diploma Antarctic," laughs remembering. Lift

camp, load everything in the two helicopters that went to look and take flight. From the air, there are traces of what was his home for two months. And that's the idea, to preserve the best possible environment. "When you replicate, is a mixture of joy and sadness," says Concheyro. Never wants to return to the mainland, unless you learn that a loved one is needed. Passionate

paleontology, Antarctica, and grateful for his fate, she is on hand with life. "If I die today, I'm done. I've been extremely happy. I learned to feel what is to be in full. What I felt there had not felt before. I want everyone to have this experience. People begin to see their true potential because here is subject to many pressures and you do not behave as it is, "he says. Is that in its opinion, this continent selected kindred souls. "In the world we live in is very difficult to get in tune with people who have the same values. Antarctica is decanted to the people and remain so which are on the same page lifestyle. This makes a very fraternal community, "he says.

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