Ponds

I have been a blah blogger this year. The internet had a recent "upgrade" so it's no longer painfully slow. I have a couple of pictures from the upland ponds that (I think) deserve a chance to be seen. I took these photos on my last trip to Taylor Valley when I fearlessly crossed Lake Hoare following in Rae's footsteps. (It was scarier on the way back.) It was worth the scary part though, to hike up onto Andrews Ridge and see this lovely pond.

Hopefully my team will make a day trip to the ponds near the Marr Glacier soon. These ponds behave very much like the lakes in the valley bottom. They wax and wane, depending on the summer temperatures and the glacial melt that feeds them. They accumulate salts over time. As you can imagine, this pond fills a depressions in the landscape, so water flows in, but it does not flow out. Water leaves by evaporating and sublimating off the surface. Some of the ponds do have small streams flowing out to other ponds. We have been studying these ponds recently to better understand their hydrology and chemistry.