Pushing the Limits

Story and Photos by: Kate Harris
Edited by: Lynn Thomasson

By most measures and standards, Antarctica is an alien planet. For months at a time, the sun never sets on an elemental landscape of snow, stone, and sky. The rest of the year, Antarctica slumbers through a long night. Human explorers first left footprints on the continent just over a century ago, and even today no nation owns the place. Instead, the Antarctic Treaty preserves the entire continent as a zone for the peaceful conduct of science. Antarctica is famously the coldest, highest, driest, windiest, emptiest, and most inaccessible place on Earth. Despite its forbidding reputation, there is no place on this planet I find more alluring.

I have always been drawn to the alien and extreme. As a starry-eyed kid inspired by science fiction, I used to dream about the possibilities for life on worlds beyond our own. Those dreams persist, but my love for science fiction has evolved into a passion for science fact. In the future, I hope to be active in the search for life on Mars. For now, Antarctica is the best possible substitute. The McMurdo Dry Valleys, which comprise the largest ice-free region on the continent, are particularly evocative of Mars. Both the Dry Valleys and our neighboring planet share year-round freezing temperatures, negligible precipitation, desiccating winds, relatively high solar-radiation, and relatively low magnetic-fields. Mars, however, has a carbon-dioxide atmosphere with an extremely low surface-pressure, so Antarctica as a terrestrial analog is still a stretch. But all things considered, the Dry Valleys qualify as the most Mars-like place on Earth.

The search for life on Mars begins with the search for liquid water. A few years ago, scientists discovered geologically young gullies on Martian hillsides. They interpreted these features as possible evidence for recent water flow. When he learned of the Martian gullies, Berry Lyons, director of the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University, realized similar features existed in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Like the Martian gullies, the Antarctic examples looked like they were shaped by water of subsurface origin. In other words, with no glaciers or snow patches nearby to supply water, the gullies on the Dry Valleys appeared to have formed through reservoirs of subsurface ice melting and seeping above the ground.

The goal of my field project in Antarctica was to test the seepage hypothesis. With Lyons as my mentor and advisor, I was to survey the entire length of Taylor Valley for water seeps, collect samples where possible, and later analyze the geochemistry of the samples. The idea is that the water chemistry reveals the water source. If the water is coming from glaciers, it should be markedly different from water coming from melting subsurface ice.

After stepping off the plane, our research team spent a few days getting oriented at McMurdo Station, the main American base in Antarctica. McMurdo is a hybrid of a mining town and a college campus. Beneath its frontier-town facade, the station is surprisingly civilized. There are dorms with hot showers, an exercise gym, a library, a few coffee shops and bars, and a laundry room that seconds as a classroom for belly-dancing lessons. McMurdo’s population is comprised of scientists, who are here to study Antarctica, and support workers, who keep the station running. The support workers are probably the most highly educated and accomplished group of janitors, cooks, and toilet scrubbers on the planet. I met published creative writers sorting trash, astrophysicists dishing out oatmeal, and computer scientists hammering away in the carpentry shop — all working these jobs for the chance to live in Antarctica.

Antarctica hosts one of the least diverse ecosystems on the planet. Our research team studies this rudimentary system to glean insight into ecological processes in general. In Taylor Valley, the subtle processes and structures fundamental to most ecosystems aren’t obscured by higher plants and animals. Because this polar-desert ecosystem is so simple, the ultimate goal is to understand and model it completely. If scientists succeed, the model could provide a framework for understanding the intricate web of life in more lush, complex environments.

Kate Harris is a senior biology major and Morehead Scholar at Carolina. Find out how she learns to build a cozy snow cave and if she discovers evidence for the seepage hypothesis. Endeavors Magazine – Fall 2005.

During her sophomore year at Carolina, Harris’ fascination with Mars led her to spend two weeks in Utah in the Mars Desert Research Station. As part of a study abroad program, she traveled to Mongolia living in a yurt. Check out her past adventures at “Mars in Utah.” ( https://admprosapp.admissions.unc.edu/sciencecarolina/students/harris.asp) and on her personal web site at http://genmars.com/desert/.

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