Happy New Year! Though we have celebration dinners for Thanksgiving and Christmas here, New Years' isn't such a big deal, especially because we work through New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, and then just have a two-day weekend. There will be a dance party, though, for those who can't call it New Year's without a party. :)
Last year I know I did a blog post about my visit to the South Pole Ice Core (SPICECore) drilling project, which was so much fun, and I think I also mentioned at some point that every Sunday evening during the summer season, one of the scientists here through the NSF gives a lecture about the project he or she is working on. One recent Sunday, it was a SPICECore scientist talking, and he even brought in bits of core samples taken that day for us to pass around (as they slowly melted). The thing that I thought was most incredible is the way the ice sparkled, due to the fact that it is compacted snow, and snow is composed mostly of air. So beautiful. I zoned out when he said how many years ago this snow would have fallen on the continent so I can't give you a number, but safe to say it's many hundreds of years ago--likely thousands. Wowzers.
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