Day 5: Reindeer on the final hike

We round out the days on the expedition with kayaking, polar plunging into freezing arctic waters, and a long hike.

The reindeer are remarkably resilient, surviving at the top of the food chain in the most remote of areas.  They do not have predators, as they can outrun ice bears.  Only humans hunt them for their meat.   They are plentiful in places, and remind me of cows in their demeanor and peace.

We find antlers, bones and other traces of reindeer everywhere.  They shed their fur routinely, and lose their antlers once a year.  

This reindeer species came from Siberia, but the ones living in the Svalbard archipelago have evolved into a smaller, more compact species.  Since they have no natural predators, the reindeer have shrunk so that they can have an easier time eating and collecting food over the sparse terrain.

Day 4: Ice Bears!

Today we say a polar bear approach the ship.  It was roused when we were ice breaking through pack ice.  Perhaps thats why it was yawning.  According to naturalist Magnus Forsberg, "ice bears" evolved from the brown bear 200-600 thousand years ago.  Quite recently, in the past ten years, hybrids between Ice and Brown bears have been found in the wild.   This is more evidence that as the climate changes, the species are adapting and also changing.  Male ice bears will have 350-650 kg of mass on average, depending on how many seals they can eat.  They hibernate much of the year, and need to eat seal blubber for the hibernation season.  They will typically only eat seal blubber, leaving much of the meat for scavengers who also depend on bear kills to survive.  These include the arctic fox and many bird species.

Bears have been designed to insulate all the heat from escaping.  Thermal imagery shows that they lose almost no heat from their coats.  In addition, their paws have to be like snowshoes to walk through the various ice, snow and also be able to swim long distances.   They toes are webbed and here we see a good look at one of the paws.  It was truly amazing to see the bear making tracks.

This curios bear got right up to the bow of the ship for all of us to enjoy.  

Day 3: Worlds third largest ice cap

Svalbard houses the world's third largest ice cap-which is land that is covered by glaciers that make one giant continuous ice cap!  It is 100 miles long and 100 miles wide.  It is called Nordaustland, and represents one of the many types of solid water we have seen here.

Glaciers are slow moving rivers that have been calving and receding due to melting from the rise of air temperatures and other varied effects from climate change.   This is very apparent in Svalbard.   As we travel along the shores, we see areas that used to have glaciers, but as they have disappeared, the ground underneath them is exposed.  Futhermore, as the ice leaves, the weight force from the glacier goes to zero.  Therefore, the land rebounds upward as the stress from the glacier is gone.  This process that has happened quite rapidly (on a geologic timescale) is called the isostatic rebound.   The result is that the beaches can become hills and show the different levels of rebound.   

Day 2: Arctic Fox in a cliff full of kittiwakes

Saw an arctic fox today.  The thing looks like a large cat and eats opportunistically here in these cliff full of some 20,000 kittiwakes.  The birds make their nests on shear cliffs so as to avoid the foxes climbing ability.  But every now and then a chick will fall or birds will fight and injure each other.  In any case, the fox is ready.

Its amazing to see the fox.  Despite listening, it did not make any noise, that is, it did not "say" anything.  It moved and looked like a cat.  

The colony of kittiwakes was amazing.   They fight for the best nesting sites.  This next month, they will be laying eggs and waiting for their chicks to hatch.  They will help them on their first time flights, hoping they dont crash land and get eaten by the fox.  

Day 1: on the expedition: Whales

This morning we set off on the ship, National Geographic Explorer.   Before we left, we did "fire" drills and found about our life vests and safety protocol.  We also checked in to our Teacher cabins.   We have a porthole that easily shuts all the light out of the room.  This is good in the land of 24 hour sunshine.   After setting sail, we soon found fin and humpback whales feeding on the coast of Spitsbergen.

Fin whales we learned, are a type of Baleen whale (the kind of whale with string like hairy teeth that preys on krill) that are the 2nd largest mammals in the world behind the Blue whale.  They measure 89 feet in length and have 120,000 kg of mass.  That is a relatively large disturbance in the higgs field.

They will create bubble nets when they are feeding (which they were doing, since there were so many of them up here in this bay--along with other whales, seals and birds).   The bubble nets are created by the whale as it swims in a spiral or circle under water.  The cavitation creates bubbles that entice or corral prey.

Day 0: Its amazing we can fly!

Almost did not make it to Oslo in time for the expedition launch.  My United flight was scheduled to connect in Newark, NJ and travel directly to Oslo.  Thunder storms hit the east coast, and we were delayed several hours, long enough to miss the connection.  More than 8 flights where cancelled in Chicago, leaving hundreds of passengers scrambling for seats on other flights.   I called the Lindblad Air department and they worked like champs to reschedule my flight thru Copenhagen.  I only showed up 8 hours late.  Many people have to wait until to tonight just to leave Chicago!

The Captain of the plane came out and showed the doppler radar image of the storm on his IPad.  This was funny because the Lindblad Air folks said it was dry skies in New York where they worked.   But the doppler clearly shows the approaching monsoons from the West.   

All in all, its amazing that I can travel 6000 miles in one day, from Utah to Norway.   The fact that people can travel such vast distances is only capable from science and technology.  I flew in the air for hours at hundreds of miles per hour.  Our elevation in the plane was so high that temperatures where below freezing and pressure was really low.   Man was not designed to do this, but our magic aircraft enable us to get there.   Now, add several hundred people on the flights, and global weather conditions, something is bound to go wrong.  Its amazing our exceptions for the travel industry is that it function perfectly all the time.  My sentiment is that it continues to improve, and there still is a demand to improve the infrastructure and technology.   

I arrived in the afternoon in Oslo, only to meet some folks.   We took an evening stroll and found many young people in the park watching the World Cup.  

I also found a G-Star Raw (Clothing) store in Oslo.  They model Magnus Carlsen, the World Chess Champion in their ad campaign.   In my flyover Norway, at one point, we flew over Stavanger, where Magnus just finished a chess tournament in second place.  

Day -1: What is this all about? One day before heading out...Boots!

I am embarking on a 11 day expedition sponsored by National Geographic and Lindblad expeditions.  The journey will be in the Arctic Svalbard, an archipelago north of Scandinavian countries.  The experience is aimed at getting geographic educators to enhance their teaching skills by participating first hand in nature.  I teach physics at an urban city school with diverse and large populations.   My expectations are to create lessons and experiments that I can use to enhance my teaching skills and experience for my students.

I am packing light for this 11 day extravaganza above the arctic circle.   My carryon weighs 22.6 pounds and my mid sized backpack is still a work in progress.  One challenge faced in packing for the trip is the issue of boots.  I am to take large rubber boots, made for Alaskan fisherman called XtraTufs.  I borrowed my sister-in-law's (Rainy Butler) boots (she has the same size feet) for this occasion.  (She was an alaskan fisherwomen last summer).  They are brown, and therefore sort of a challenge to coordinate ensembles in a fashionable way.   The XtraTufs are large, and have trouble fitting into luggage.  Therefore, I have resolved to solve the problem of the boots by wearing them on the plane.   This is an interesting choice since they are warm and possibly tricky for security to handle.   But on the up side, if I have to walk through any water, I should be fine.