The Winter Solstice, or Midwinter as we call it here on the continent, is a time for celebration here in Antarctica! Here is what our station manager, Ken Keenan has to say about it:
“On the Ice, we celebrate the austral winter solstice as a midpoint in our Antarctic winter season. We have this in common with even the most distant bases, like the Australian Base Mawson or the French Base Dumont d'Urville, thousands of miles away in different directions, but on the same continent. There are about 40 year-round bases on and around Antarctica that belong to 20 different countries. These lonely outposts are separated from one another by sometimes vast distances (although is some cases they can be right next door to each other), harsh weather, different languages, and political ideology, but we all share a common purpose: the Antarctic Treaty, which sets Antarctica aside as a place beyond geopolitical lines and as a place all countries can devote to science and research.”
At Palmer, we leapt into longer days with a plunge into the polar waters! Here is a little video I made commemorating the event:
To read the rest of this blog post please visit Kim's webpage: http://kimsbernard.wixsite.com/zoop-lab/post/antarctic-mid-winter-festivities?fbclid=IwAR0vcU0DZMoZqWj6kE_05W3G0nx_251t-TNex6nCVK0_8PMbmt-RX6iOrhE.
It was a collaboration between me, Kim, and Julia. Kim did such a nice job of taking and formatting all the pictures, and I highly encourage you to check it out!
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