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What is the best place that I have played guitar in Antarctica?
Definitely on Erebus.
Up at 11,000', near the lower hut.
Underground.
In a fumerole Ice cave.
After our descent from Erebus' crater rim, I climbed down for the fourth
time into the underground world that surrounds and interpenetrates the lower
top of the volcano. Fumeroles are large towers of ice that have built up
around warm gas venting from deep inside the volcano. Beneath them are large
ice caves full of warm, moist air. Perhaps they are warmed by subterranean
lava flows that are still cooling; high concentrations of carbon dioxide gas
are also present. The temperature can even rise above freezing in these
rooms and halls beneath the earth.
Bill MacIntosh was kind enough to come along and videotape me playing music
in an ice cave. I had not slept much in the past 24 hours, but I was
inspired to come up with a piece in open C tuning (capoed at the 7th fret)
that will certainly be on my Antarctic Guitar CD that is to be the final end
product of my grant.
Every day here, I am amazed by the surprises and revelations that occur to
me. Home again now, in my office in the Crary Lab, it's been 3 days since I
came down off the volcano. The same day as the trip to the crater rim and
the ice cave recording session, I flew in a helo back to McMurdo and was
instantly accosted by Ben Hunt to buddy with him on two back-to-back dives
beneath the ice at Hut 19. The snow brought by the storm had made the sea
ice opaque to light and it was darker than most night dives, as we swam out
600' from our ice hut dive hole to retrieve a piece of gear that had been
left on the bottom some distance away. On the second dive I held a flashlight
as Ben used a net to catch many small fish on the bottom, down at 70'. Today
Kevin Hoefling and I dove at hut 19, but we stayed up near the ice ceiling
at 17' with darkness all below us as we chased and eventually captured
dozens of tiny, guppy-sized fish with small aquarium nets. The fish were
needed back in the lab and it was a challenging task to swim around and
chase them down. Its something that would have looked very foolish and comical
to an observer, but also spooky and strange in the deep, cold darkness, with
a few areas of orange and blue light shining through the unbroken ceiling of
ice overhead. Those fish were particularly evasive little devils who
excelled and disappearing in to the ice ceiling that they make their homes in.
Prof. Art DeVries, who had invited me to join his dive team, thus making it
possible for me to make many dives here, has studied the special antifreeze
proteins in the blood and organs of the fish here that live in the 28 degree
water, colder than the freezing point of the water in their bodies. The
special proteins protect the fish from freezing. This topic is central to
what is studied with investigations from the underwater outreach of our dive
group.
Yesterday Kevin, our excellent dive tender Brett, and I made the hour-long
Sprite (tracked vehicle) drive across the sea ice to Little Razor Back
Island, where we made one dive. There the ice was not covered by snow and in
the shallow caves and channels, beneath the ice, up against the island, many
delicate and glorious colors were captured by my underwater video camera.
Some stills from that and other underwater adventures for you all in the
next journal entry, very soon. Seven teaser images are also below.
HK
12,485' Erebus from Below
Ice Tower Near Summit
Steaming Fumeroles
Large Fumeroles
The Ice Cave is Below Here
Erebus Ice Cave
Ice Cave Light
Playin' in Ice Cave
Pupil Size?
A Way Out
Fumerole Cave Exit
Henry and Kevin
Not for the Claustrophobic
Worms
Loads of Starfish
One Happy and Content HK
HK Blows Bubble Rings
HK in a Lovely Place
Listen to Henry play guitar:
See video of Henry diving under the ice:
*Note: You will need a media player (e.g. RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, etc.) installed on your computer in order to listen/see these clips.
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 See video clips of Henry in Antarctica.
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