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Imagine spending three months in a city built on an extinct volcano, with Mars-like conditions, no known life forms (except marine life) and a population that varies between 125 in the winter to 1,200 in the summer.

During the summer, the sun shines 24 hours a day; during the winter, the sun never rises. It’s a three-hour plane ride to the South Pole.

Welcome to McMurdo Station, Antarctica.

Paul Jones has been there not once—but three times. Jones (’62), a retired science teacher, is on the ice now, operating the water plant at McMurdo. He first came in 1997 as a National Science Foundation Teacher Experiencing Antarctica (TEA). He spent four weeks in Dry Valleys, an ice-free and moisture-free area, where his team monitored glacier stream measurements to determine weather fluctuations. Jones collected water samples and tested for things such as total solids, volatile solids and total organic carbons.

“When I went as a teacher I didn’t realize I was in the absolutely best place on the continent or really anywhere in the world. My tent was 50 yards from a huge glacier, 150 feet tall, of slightly moving ice,” said Jones, who taught biology, chemistry and physics for 36 years in Montezuma, retiring in 1998. “When I retired I realized I wanted to come back and thought the utilities was my best chance. Due to a power plant accident there in 2004, they needed an operator fast. They called me on a Thursday and I was in the air to New Zealand Sunday morning.”
His last two times at McMurdo, he has worked for Raytheon at the water-wastewaster-electric facility.

Jones’ most recent trip, a 10-week contract, began in early November. “You never know when I will get out, earliest will be mid-January, the latest mid-February, I guess. I’ll miss Christmas in Iowa.”

Jones hasn’t been to the South Pole and has no desire to do so. At 9,300 feet above sea level, it’s inherently dangerous. “The South Pole is an ugly place to live and work even in the summer. Many start and get sick and have to return. Some stay here in McMurdo; some decide to return to the United States; others heal and return to the Pole.” 

Jones’ e-mails serve as a fascinating journal of his experience. Here are a few excerpts:

11-09-2006 I’m back on the ice. I get my first shift tomorrow and then work one day on and one day off, 12-hour shifts. I will work days. We are preparing for the summer, as short as it is. It does get above freezing now and then. Then it is Mud Murdo for a day or two.

 

11-15-2006 I’ve been mostly at water and they are cross-training me for wastewater and power plant. I would like to feel competent in all three utilities. The other utility workers are very helpful, which certainly makes things easier for an old guy. 

 

12-4-2006 McMurdo is like any other city. The same jobs here; the notable exceptions are no police or teachers. Imagine a mining city like Butte, Montana, with a science dept. like Harvard and an airport that will handle jumbo jets all packed close together. It’s built on an extinct (I hope) volcano and everything is on lava. The lava breaks up easily with the heavy equipment and the roads are in decent shape. All the buildings are close, with the Science Lab and dining hall the most important. 

 

In about two to three weeks, an icebreaker will smash its way into the harbor, followed by a fuel tanker and then the supply ship.  Last time I was here the tanker off-loaded 12 million gallons of jet fuel and gasoline. Imagine being able to order supplies only once a year. Nothing ever spoils or is damaged by birds, bugs, mice, as there are no living things here at all.  

12-4-2006 I’ve been shifted to nights, if you want to call it that with 24-hour daylight. It has been deader than a doornail here the past two nights. I still work 6 to 6 but now it is p.m. to a.m.  There are no teachers at all but four or five that I know that are working with the science teams. We don’t have a police officer at all, if someone gets drunk or in a fight, you are on the next plane out to New Zealand.

 

The word ‘arctic’ means life and the word ‘antarctic’ means no life and they are correct. The highest on the food chain here is a soil microbe called a nematode. Now and then a little green algae can be found in certain spots. The life is all marine animals, penguins, seals, whales; only one bird—the skua, which is a rat with wings and UGLY.

 

12-05-06 The reverse osmosis equipment does just about everything. When it works well there is not much for me to do. RO units are like screen on the kitchen window; it will let the air through but not the flies. The difference in particle size between salt and water is very small. To get the water through the hole and not the salt requires high pressure, over 800 pounds per square inch. We have big loud compressors to do this task; they need monitoring and maintenance. We also have to mix up solutions of chlorine to kill germs; we use acids and bases to balance the pH of the product water. The airstrip and some of the base camps haul water to their facilities and we load the sleds for that operation. We produce about 75,000 gallons of water a day.

 

12-11-06 It is 4:30 a.m. here. (McMurdo is 19 hours ahead of CST.) I have two more hours to go and all the tanks are full; I’m dumping water back into the ocean. You don’t want to stop the process here; once you get it running correctly, you let it go. If you get full, which we are now, you let it go to the drain. In another hour people will start getting up and we will start using water again. 

 

12-14-06 I’m back at work tonight. Boy, you really have to watch the sun and the wind and the reflections.  They keep gallon containers of California sunscreen at the dining hall’s exit doors. If you’re outside you look like a raccoon with rings where your sunglasses were. If it’s cold you also have to wear a facemask. Luckily I’m inside, not tough enough to do that outside stuff any more. It’s been tough the last couple of days, temps in the teens and ugly wind for a couple of days. It must be straight off the ice sheet—cold and raw.

12-15-06 In mid-winter it rarely hits 60 below. The South Pole does get to minus 100 each year. It was 14 below for a high there yesterday. People work outside if the temperature is above 50 below and the wind chill is less than 70 below. It is mid-teens here and today may hit 40 above, which is about the best it will get.  When that happens it’s nasty in town with slop and slush everywhere. The big thing is the wind. Today it’s calm and nice, yesterday and the day before, nasty cold-go-through-anything wind. 
For Christmas, there will be a special meal. Food is one thing that we have lots of and it is good. The dining hall is the social center and is open for food not quite 24 hours, but close. You could get toast and breakfast cereal and coffee 24 hours a day.

There are few decorations because it’s so hard to get that material here. Everyone usually brings one good outfit and the women really dress up. Some men have sport coats and ties but I brought a nice sweater. They allow wine that day and put out the nice tablecloths; it is really done well. 

Photos courtesy of Paul Jones)

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Last Modified: January 23, 2007