Stopover in Hong Kong

Having been traveling now for a little over 24 hours, we have now completed the second of the six legs of the trip that will take us to Concordia. There are 7 of us on this trip, though only 2 from Strasbourg. We met up at the airport in Paris, and shall travel as a group all the way to Concordia.

The voyage has been good so far, with a comfortable aircraft and good weather for our morning walkabout in Hong Kong today. This year's impressions of Hong Kong reflect those I had a year ago: a very disturbing place by virtue of the juxtaposition of poverty and squalor with luxury and modernity.

Three of us have come back to the airport early, leaving the others to explore more widely. In the lounge we have been given access to thanks to IPEV, we are enjoying comfortable armchairs, internet, food, and even the access to showers. We are stocking up on comfort for the next two legs of the trip: another long haul flight to Auckland, then on to Christchurch.

Next update from New Zealand!

30kg for six weeks

Less than one day left, and I have just finished packing my bags for 6 weeks in Antarctica. All the cold weather gear is supplied by IPEV (the French polar institute) and should be waiting for me in Christchurch NZ. I go through Paris, Hong Kong and Auckland to Christchurch, then fly to McMurdo, and then on to Concordia, so there will be no seasick posts from the Astrolabe this year - yay! The rest of the stuff I am taking is shown below:


And here is what it all packs down to:


Not bad, eh? It all weighs in at under 30kg (of which 9kg are scientific material we shall need in the first two weeks at Concordia): so whoever said girls cannot travel light should think again.

To be perfectly honest, I'm not quite finished packing: I am still missing the warm socks I got during last year's trip and my pocket knife, both of which are probably in my office. At least I hope they are, for I don't much fancy leaving without them!

PS: Found the socks. Still no knife...

PPS: Phew! Finally found the knife! It was at home after all...

Sunday Seismometer digest

Just a quick post to announce the appearance of the Sunday seismometer digest, a pdf version of the Sunday Seismometer series.

Heads up

Hello everyone!

Yes, I'm still here... although you would be pardoned for thinking
I'd dropped off the planet somewhere... I can't believe it has been
three months since I last posted anything!

Just a quick heads up to let you know I'm off to Antarctica again,
and leaving this Sunday. This year's trip won't be quite the
adventure it was last year, as I know what I'm getting into this time
round! I shall keep you posted...

In the meantime, in keeping with the current Wordle craze, here is
one of the projects that has kept me from blogging over the past
three months (my latest contribution to the technical literature in
seismology).

Any guesses on the topic of this paper??

Sunday Seismometer #12

Rocard (1958)

From last week's prototype, let's move on to a more useful set of instruments, designed specifically to detect nuclear explosions in the context of Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty monitoring.



They are named after Professor Yves Rocard, the physicist who started to develop detection seismology in France in the 1960s, and who founded the division of the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) that is in charge of geophysical studies and activities associated with monitoring and the environment (LDG).



The Rocard is a classical electromagnetic seismometer, with a 1s natural period and electronic amplification. Rocard instruments were in operation at the Welschbruch station not far from Strasbourg.