At times I have the excellent opportunity to go into the field with scientists and report out through the lens of #AntarcticLog comics.  Here’s a sampling, ready for the holidays. Perhaps, like me, you are thankful for fruitcake?  This one time when I went to Antarctica aboard the drill ship JOIDES Resolution, my children’s author/poet/photographer/baker friend Leslie Bulion sent me with a fruitcake. Why? Read on. 

 

 

It seems that one person who wasn’t thankful for fruitcake was early Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott. We don’t know who sent him off with a dainty and delicious fruitcake, but when it was found a century later, it was just as dainty — and, if not delicious, edible — as ever. 

 

 

Of course I was willing to share my tasty treat.  But this ship of fools — er, sediment scientists — used it to buff up their sediment core description processes as we headed to our drilling site in the Amundsen Sea. 

 

 

I’m so proud to have sailed with these amazing scientists, who are now presenting their findings based on the data gathered on International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 379, the history of the West Antarctic Ice Shelf. Find out more here. 

 

 

–Karen Romano Young is a writer, artist, deep-sea diver, and polar explorer. Follow her on Twitter & Instagram.