Click the icons to follow me and the expedition on Twitter and Instagram at @ArcticLindsay
Post a question or comment on Instagram or Twitter (and this blog), and I’ll reply!
Click the icons to follow me and the expedition on Twitter and Instagram at @ArcticLindsay
Post a question or comment on Instagram or Twitter (and this blog), and I’ll reply!
Hello Lindsay. My name is Manuel Avila and I am from Ms. Gonzalez’s Science Class at Jose Marti MAST Academy. How long have you been in the Arctic?
Hi Manuel, I have been on the ship for about 2 and a half weeks now, and we have about 2 and a half weeks to go!
Hello Lindsey, I am Patrick from Ms.Gonzalez’s class at Jose Marti MAST Academy. What types of animals do you help or study in the artic?
Hi Patrick, there are lots of living things, big and small, in the Arctic. Scientists are directly studying something called phytoplankton, which are microscopic organisms in the ocean. They are “primary producers,” meaning that they make their own oxygen and are at the bottom of the food chain. But we have also seen polar bears, walruses, seals, and birds, and these animals depend on the environment the way it is. As the ice melts, polar bears are losing the place where they can hunt for food in the ocean, so decreasing ice is a big problem for them.
Hi Lindsey, my name is Chris from Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial High School, in Ms. Gilbert’s Physics class. How do you dispose of wastes accumulated on board the ship?
Hi Chris, there is an incinerator onboard which takes care of a lot of the waste, and then whatever we can take off the ship to dispose of after the expedition, that’s what we’ll do. For example, we all have water bottles because we have 1.5L of water allocated to us each day (because the tap water onboard isn’t good to drink), so we have a lot of bottles that we will be taking off the ship to recycle.
hey girl how u doin are u in antarctica right now i wanna visit
Hi, I am actually on the other side of the planet from Antarctica, I’m in the Arctic, but it is super cool here, and I hope you get to see it someday too!
hi lindsey I really liked the pictures on instagram my favorite is the cat lying down
here are some questions
how many layers of clothing do you have to wear? how cold does it get? how thick is the ice? have you seen a polar bear yet? just wondering. thanks!
Hi, the layers of clothing are really important in the cold for sure, and it depends how long you will be outside. When we were out for only a couple of hours, most people had 2 layers of pants, 3 layers on top (base layer, then maybe a sweater or fleece, then heavy coat), 2 layers of socks, then boots, hat, gloves, etc. Sometimes 2 pairs of gloves even – fingers can get cold easily. The coldest it’s been here so far is -6°C (it’s summer here too), but the wind makes it feel lots colder. The ship can crack through ice up to 2 feet thick, which is amazing, and if it gets thicker than that, we have to back up and turn around. I have been lucky enough to see two polar bears so far, and it was AMAZING!
Hi,
How do people living in such extreme weather as you are in now, get enough vitamin C and D if there is little sun and a limited amount of fresh fruits and vegetables?
Dear Camila, the blog has been a lot of work, but totally worth it, because it seems like so many people were almost as excited about it as I was! And I agree, that blue color that I saw in the ice is my absolute favorite color! It is so beautiful. About the thickness of the ice, it depends from location to location, but you can see an amazing and scary animation of what satellite images have shown us about ice conditions over the last couple decades. Go to the “Learn, Animate, Experiment” page on the blog (http://www.miamisci.org/lindsayinthearctic/learn-experiment-animate/climate-animations/) and click on the first image, then choose “sea ice” and slide the bar back and forth to see ice conditions over time.