|
|
|
Matt Okraszewski, '99, on eleven months in Antarctica
Posted Friday, August 29,, 2003 By Jake Weber He’s not exactly sure what time zone he lives in, but when you haven’t seen the sun, not to mention fresh fruit, for four months, the time zone seems irrelevant. “It’s an interesting existence,” says Matt Okraszewski, ’99, of 11 months on “The Ice,” at McMurdo station in Antarctica. |
Matt Okraszewski, '99, on Antarctica's Castle Rock. Okraszewski has spent the past eleven months in the United States Antarctic Program’s Crary Science and Engineering Laboratory. Photo courtesy of Matt Okraszewski. |
|||
|
|
His Albion science background, however, allows him to occasionally “play a science support role” with some of the lab’s many research teams. For one science team, Okraszewski caught, measured, tagged and released a 120-pound mawsonai fish, working in water temperatures that were below freezing. He’s also launched and tracked helium balloons carrying scientific instruments, drilled ice holes for human divers and monitored those holes while divers were in them. |
|||
|
These activities, says
Okraszewski, are “boondoggles -- events that everyone comes [to
Antarctica] for, but few get to really experience. My science degree made
these activities more accessible.”Despite the remoteness and ruggedness of the setting, however, Okraszewski
notes that McMurdo station feels more like a “company town” than the Wild
West (or South, as the case may be). “Raytheon and the National Science
Foundation have complete say over what goes on,” he says, noting that this
control sometimes borders on the absurd. Okraszewski recalls a particular
incident in which he, his co-worker and the McMurdo human resources
director were all reprimanded for an article Okraszewski wrote for the
McMurdo Newsletter, in which he humorously intimated that his job in the
supply department was monotonous. “The Denver headquarters did not find
it humorous,” he recalls with a smile. “Luckily for me, those sorts of
events act to give the work deeper meaning.” |
Okraszewski helping launch a helium balloon that carries ozone monitoring equipment above the South Pole. The "dawn" light is actually the early summer sunshine, after four months of darkness. Photo courtesy of Matt Okraszewski. | |||
|
But despite the difficulties of ordinary life, Okraszewski is much more focused on the unique perks of the Ice. “Walking the two miles to Scott Base with auroras shimmering all over the shooting star sky. Taking a helicopter onto the continent proper for three days in the Dry Valleys -- the crown jewel of this area … seen by very few workers and even fewer first year people as myself. Rappelling into a crevasse cavern on search-and-rescue training, jumping into a hole in the sea ice into the sub-zero water,” he lists. “It is almost impossible to describe the feelings of most of the experiences.” |
||||
|
|
||||
Albion College ◦ Albion, Michigan
◦ 517/629-1000
| ||||
