I am back in Miami! It’s still not quite real what just happened – being in the Arctic, watching instruments being sent down 2.5 miles deep to take measurements of the ocean, a ship cracking through 6 foot thick ice, WALKING on that ice, meeting scientists (and new friends) who made me look at the world with new eyes, and seeing a part of the world I never even thought I would see. AND, on behalf of me and all of us at the Miami Science Museum, I know that sharing all of that knowledge and excitement with you was a huge part of why this was such a phenomenal experience. I am beyond grateful that this opportunity came our way, but it’s also nice to be home!
After my first night off the ship, and my first day in Miami (after 2 days of traveling), I was thinking that “green” has many meanings. It really has to do with all the senses. Green is a color of course (I haven’t seen the color green for 5 weeks, and the trees are so many shades), a sound (the quiet rustling of leaves), a feel (the humidity of the tropics), a smell (flowers, grass and trees), and even a taste (we all were looking forward to our first fresh green salad). And of course it’s a way of thinking and being, when it comes to taking care of our Earth. (To all the students in Miami who followed along with me on this journey, I’ll be coming to visit your schools!)
Some final thoughts:
My wish for the scientists onboard the expedition:
If you don’t remember how cool what you do really is, remember. If you do remember how cool what you do really is, don’t forget (…and more people will also realize it).
My wish for all of us:
Appreciate where you live, and where you don’t live, and learn about it, because it’s all connected through climate.
A wish from around the world:
Only you fully know how it is there, on the icy ocean, far from home, making it possible to fulfill all this research. How many things you have to know and how deep the knowledge must be. Let interest and enthusiasm never leave you! Best regards from school #6, Nyagan, Siberia
Hi im Nicolas. what was the reason of you drilling holes in the ice?
Dear Nicolas, we were drilling those small holes in the ice to measure the thickness of the ice, and the accumulation of the snow, and to see any different layers of ice, which would tell us information about the ice like when it formed, if it had melted and refrozen, etc. We took several measurements along a line (called a transect) so we could measure those parameters.
Will you be taking anything you learned over the past 5 weeks and applying it to your everyday life?
Hi Nicole, absolutely, I am going to take a lot of what I learned and develop some programs and activities that we can do in the Museum, to help people understand just how important the climate, the environment, and the Arctic really are to all of us. And I hope that all of this inspired some people to try to be more conscious of taking care of the environment, conserving energy in our homes, recycling whenever possible. It all really adds up to make a big difference!
I think it is wonderful that you are actually going to take the time to visit the students that followed you throughout your trip. I know that I am looking forward to it and I am sure everyone is as well.
Hi Nicole, thank you so much for saying that! I am definitely looking forward to it too!
Welcome back to land! I can’t wait to hear all about this trip from Eric! But I do want to thank you so very much for your blog. Without it, none of us back home could have possibly tracked all the excitement, all the amazing experiments, and all of the wondrous people (besides our own faves) who made up this fabulous group. I am so grateful to you for letting us into your lives and allowing us to experience the trip with you! By the way, I tried to get my badges via Credly, but it didn’t work. I don’t know why.
Hi Judi, thank you so much for the wonderful comments! I like your word “wondrous,” because that definitely describes how I felt about all the operations onboard, as well as the people I met. I will miss seeing the smile on everyone’s faces (including Eric) whenever I told them that I had gotten a message from their families! I’m sorry that you had trouble with the badges, I think it was working fine for others, but I will definitely double-check and try to troubleshoot as I can. But thanks again for following along, and I’m so glad that all of our families got to go along with us!
It must feel so good to finally be home! What was your favorite part about your expedition?
Hi Jennifer, definitely the best part of the expedition was getting to learn about the Earth and see it from an angle that I never expected to see. Seeing ice all the way out to the horizon (which was so beautiful), and knowing I was there with people who were trying to understand how this place and this climate works, and that I was sharing it with all of you, was totally amazing. It feels great to be home, but I’ll miss the Arctic and those people!
Hey Lindsay! Welcome home. I was wondering what your favorite part of your whole expedition was?
Dear Luiggi, the hardest question! I think what I have to quote as my favorite part of the trip is that I got to see the Earth in a way I never expected to see it. I never expected to see a frozen ocean as far as I could see! And if I could pick a part 2 to my favorite thing, I would say getting to share everything that I was learning to make all of you guys more interested in the climate, was awesome.
Hey lindsay, now that you are back in miami, do you miss the weather from the artic? I must imagine that you got use to the cold climate over there.
Hi Luiggi, actually, as much as I love Miami, I quite like the cold weather, so for me I’ll need to adjust to the heat again! 🙂
Hi Lindsay my name is Danyl Hernandez From Law Enforcement Memorial High School and i wanted to know what was the best part about your trip
Hi Danyl, you have the hardest question of all for me! It’s so hard to choose, but I think that the best thing is that I got to see the world in a whole new way (literally and figuratively), and I appreciate the environment even more now. The fact that I got to share it all with you and everyone else, and hopefully help everyone else have that new perspective as well – was the icing on the cake!
How was your trip on the way back ?did u see of find anything interesting?
Dear Joseph, well, on the trip back, I saw one thing that I didn’t think I’d be able to see on this trip, and that I have always wanted to see – the aurora (or the Northern Lights)!!! We didn’t see them while on the ship because it’s summertime in the Arctic and the Sun never totally sets (also it was cloudy most of the time anyway), but I got to see it on the plane ride through Norway. Spectacular!
Now that your back, how do you feel? Would you like to go back
Hi Joseph, I feel exhausted but exhilarated! It was a lot of work, but I learned so much, met so many great people, saw the Earth in a way I never expected to see it, and shared it all with you and everyone else. Would I go back? In a heartbeat!
It’s good to know that your back home safe and sound. That Miami’s heat has received you with a warm embrace and that all the shades of green found in our sunny state has brought you joy. Im excited to hear that you’ll be visiting out schools. Will you be going in depth on some of the data you collected and how that will affect our lives or our future generations?
Dear Jose, thank you so much for the well wishes! I’m glad you are excited about me visiting your school, I think it’ll be awesome to meet all of you in person! And yes, it’ll definitely be easier to talk more in person about all the science onboard!
I forgot to ask earlier, during your expedition, did you see any auroras?
Hi Jose, funny you should ask now, because I saw the aurora – for the FIRST time in my life – on the plane ride from the north to the south of Norway! It was so exciting! We didn’t see it in the Arctic for a couple reasons – one was because the Sun never totally sets during the Arctic summertime, and the other reason is that it was cloudy nearly all the time anyway.
When you first came back to your original climate in Miami, did it take a couple of minutes to adapt back to the humidity?
Hi Ronesha, the humidity was definitely the first thing that I noticed! (And my hair noticed it too.)
The tool that you used to drill in the ground did you study that while you were on board how to use it and what for?
Hi Ronesha, yes, we absolutely got a lesson on all of the tools before we even left the ship. The drill is interesting because it not only has the spiral/screw element that helps drill into the ice, but also the motion of the spiral/screw part of the drill auger is such that it doesn’t push the ice down, but it pulls the ice up as it drills in.
What is the diffrence between miditerranean sea & atlantic ocean salt levels which is more dense.
Hi Deion, it’s a hard question because the answer is that it depends on the layer/depth and region that you are comparing. Currents connect major bodies of water, so they definitely affect each other!
What does it mean when a satellite gets info about data base on mediterranean how can it impact research on artic ocean?
Hi Deion, satellites take images constantly of what is happening in the Arctic, the Mediterranean, and everywhere else. In the Arctic for example, we can see how the extent of sea ice changes over time, and since everything about the climate is connected through the atmosphere and ocean currents, it’s important to understand all of these areas.
Hey Lindsay! Welcome Back… Do you think that adapting to Miami again; meaning its climate, food, etc. is going to be a problem/ challenge?
Hi Yanelis, thanks! It’s great to be back in Miami. And yes, it’s quite a shocking weather difference, to go from freezing to hot and humid overnight! I do miss being on the expedition, but at the same time, it’s nice to sleep in a dark, quiet, non-tilting room, and eat fresh fruits and vegetables too!