Time 06:37, 56 degrees 41.63' South, 65 degrees 25.58' West, mainly clear at first more cloud later, one or two showers of sleet or snow, Water Temperature 6.1 oC, Air Temperature 8 oC, Wind Southwest force 5.
Drake Passage early this morning, referred to as Drake "Lake" when it is this calm.
Today we spent the day heading south and crossed the Antarctic convergence line about mid afternoon. As before it was marked by the ship being escorted by a small flock of Cape Petrels which seem to appear out of nowhere. They are beautiful birds and circled the ship regularly, sometimes flying close together. Some passengers spent most of the afternoon trying to get the perfect photo of them as they sped past or as they would come almost within an arms length of the ship and speed away just as you got your camera on them.
A Brown/South Polar Skua over the ship near the Antarctic Convergence.
During this cruise our Expedition Geologist, Tom Sharpe, who is originally from Scotland and now resides in Cardiff in Wales will be telling us about the geology of the Antarctic peninsula and the place well will visit there. Over to Tom -
Antarctica rocks! - Tom Sharpe, our Expedition Geologist.
I’m Tom Sharpe, the Expedition Geologist, and Jim has asked me to tell you a bit about the geology of Antarctica and the places we visit. As a geologist, I study rocks and fossils and what they tell us about how the Earth works.
Antarctica is a really, really big place. It’s a continent twice the size of Australia, or one and a half times the size of the USA, or over 50 times bigger than Britain and Ireland. And in winter when the sea around Antarctica freezes, the continent doubles in size, making it even bigger. Nobody lives there except some scientists, and even they only stay for maybe a few months at a time.
Most of Antarctica is covered with ice, so there aren’t many places where we can see the rocks. But we can see enough to understand a bit about how Antarctica was formed.
Antarctica wasn’t always at the South Pole and it wasn’t always covered with ice. 200 million years ago, the Earth was a very different place. All the continents were stuck together to make up a huge supercontinent that geologists call Gondwana.
Antarctica was attached to southeast Africa on one side and Australia the other. And South America was stuck on to the west side of Africa. The Atlantic Ocean didn’t exist. Look at an atlas or a map of the world and you’ll see how South America and Africa can fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw.
About 180 million years ago, Gondwana broke up into the continents we know today and all the pieces started moving away from one another. Antarctica began to move towards the South Pole.
100 million years ago, parts of Antarctica were covered in lush forests. We know that because geologists have found fossil plants like ferns and fossil trees. And there were dinosaurs wandering around in the forests. Geologists have found bones of both plant-eating and meat-eating dinosaurs in rocks in Antarctica.
But about 30 million years ago, Antarctica reached the South Pole and it got colder. Snow and ice built up over millions of years into the huge ice sheet that covers the continent today.
During this week, I’m going to tell you about the rocks I find at the places we visit and about ice sheets and glaciers.
We spent today crossing the Drake Passage, so I didn’t get to see any rocks. The Drake is the stretch of ocean 800 km wide between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula. There are rocks here, but they’re on the ocean floor, over 3,000 metres beneath the surface of the sea. The Drake Passage was formed about 30 million years ago when Antarctica and South America finally separated during the final stages of the break-up of the supercontinent of Gondwana.
Drake "Lake" at 9.45 pm this evening, a very calm day on "the Drake" today.
Wildlife seen on Drake Passage heading South
Mammals
Sei Whale 2
Minke Whale 2
Unidentified Whale 1
Birds
Wandering Albatross 6+
Southern Giant Petrel 12+
Northern Giant Petrel 1
Grey-headed Albatross 4
Black-browed Albatross 25+
Cape Petrel 60+
Blue Petrel 300+
Antarctic Prion 400+
Thin-billed Prion 1
Unidentified Prions 1,000+
White-chinned Petrel 4+
Brown Skua 1
Wilson’s Storm Petrel 10+
Note: A + sign after the counts indicates that we saw at least that number but more may have been present.
Time 22:05, 61 degrees 00.06' South, 62 degrees 58.19' West, Air Temperature 8 oC , Water Temperature 1.7 0C, Wind West force 5, partly cloudy, one or two showers.
