Day 3 Beginning of Field Work

Today we began the research. We met this morning at the "theater", and went to the first lake we'll be studying. This is known as "Freshwater Lake" since it used to be the town's source of freshwater. We split the work up between the two doctors' programs. Dr. Hinkel is focused on the general conditions of the lake, and he's studying craters on the bottoms of the lakes, which are formed by methane bubbles being released. Dr. Townsend-Small is studying the conditions of the lakes, also she's taking samples to be tested for methane, and other greenhouse gases. Chris, Dr. Hinkel's student, and Dr. Hinkel went out on an inflatable raft to gather the instruments Dr. Hinkel left out since he was here last. Then, Dr. Hinkel, Dr. Townsend-Small, and Frida set out on the raft to place the other devices and collect water samples. The winds picked up and the waves in the lake soaked them, so after that we decided to call it a day. We finished off the day with dinner at a restaurant named Arctic Pizza. Which was as good as could be expected. At the restaurant we met our pilot, Jim, who will fly us to the lakes that we cannot reach with a truck. Then, Chris, Amy, Frida, and I drove along the coast and saw all of the limited sights. It was a great first day of field work.

The coastline outside of Barrow.