PreCambrian Ecstasy in Gondwana

               

Finally we get to Terra Nova Bay, the site of some busy base activity.  The Italian Antarctic Base is there, and the (hopefully South) Koreans are busily building a swanky base in the bay next to Gondwana Base, which is unmanned by the Germans with bright orange pods!

The rocks!  The rocks are spectacular!  The rocks are the best example of PreCambrian basement rocks that we have seen!  I have got everyone interested in the volcanic side of things – they are all picking up bits of vesicular basalt and bringing them to me with great excitement to see if they have got it correctly identified!  But these rocks amazed everyone.

Greatly deformed gneisses with big biotite shears, microfaulting and folding, people recognised the granitic origin, even correctly identifying dolerite dykes intruding into the gneiss.  Up on the ridges lots of foliated gneiss weathered into sharp knife-like structures, and plenty of transported glacially and wind eroded rocks. Fascinating!

Even the skuas liked the rocks as they have built their nests there, and as there were a lot of chicks running around, there was plenty of divebombing of invading humans happening.

The afternoon was complete with a zodiac cruise around the icebergs to the edge of the glacier, one of my very favourite things to do.  The highlight was the beautiful emperor penguin standing at attention on an iceberg, very graciously allowing us all to take photos after which he dove into the water.

Back on board, the Gin and Tonic corner of the Bar/Library was temporarily located to the Bar itself due to invasion of computers, and with the hope of a 2am wake up call for a landing at Inexpressible Island in the pipeline, early-ish bed for everyone.

The 2am wakeup call turned into the 7am wakeup call due to the re-arrival of the katabatic winds howling throughout the night, so no landing on Inexpressible Island.  The other name for it should be Underwear Island, as in Regency and Victorian times, the English called all their undergarments “inexpressibles”! I know this for a fact because I have read Georgette Heyer novels!