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Zircon, time travel, grotesque disfiguration, a beast with huge pincers and Doug Thost. What do these have in common? No, it’s not a 1950’s science fiction movie, the above were all described in graphic detail by Professor Simon Harley from the University of Edinburgh in his surprisingly entertaining talk on Antarctic geology yesterday. Nearly as exciting (depending on your interest in rocks) was the call from the bridge that an iceberg had been sighted. This time it was undeniably bigger than the ship and even though it was eight miles away was quite prominent. As one observer said it looked like a crumpled piece of photocopy paper sat on the surface of the ocean. It was shortly followed by another and we have commenced our routine of regularly recording the location and dimensions of bergs to pass on to our ice scientists back in Hobart. Just when we thought that was enough for one day a whale was sighted spouting off our starboard quarter. When we awoke this morning the ship was dusted with snow and more icebergs could be seen coming slowly out of the mist towards us. We gathered on the helicopter deck this morning for a routine emergency muster rehearsal and while we are making good speed through the calmer seas and more favourable wind the ship now slows at night to avoid collisions with ice bergs.
Map
A map showing Australia and Antarctica. The map shows the journey of one voyage that has occured in the season, with each route highlighted in a distinct colour.