It’s still good weather but colder and windy today. We finish drilling pingo site. There is ice and rocks alternated layer up to 14m

We move to new site and setting up drill rig. then back home!

I like this time of the year! I love deep blue sky!!  I understand when I look at this sky, why I am here…Unusually… All day great day for drilling, today at 78 degree North middle of the Arctic!

Good view from the top of the pingo

Drilling in sunny spring day!

The way back home!

We are little far from town upstream Adventdalen for drilling Pingo

beautiful clear ice!

Here is drill site!

Taking 2 days to reach Longyearbyen!! We drill immediately for 11m!

Dear Science Teachers and Principals,
Thank you for supporting our program. Hopefully, you are having a great
Spring, and enjoying the sunshine!
Here is a recent update of our program:

1. The Kilimanjaro trip has been a great success over the last several
years. YES! We are starting to work on this years’ plan. We’d like to give
many Alaskan and African teachers and students an opportunity to learn
together, and from each other. The expedition will take place between
September 22 and October 1, 2012. I would like to make a Kilimanjaro group
(news flyer) mailing list. So, please let me know who is interested, who
wants to go or who is just curious and wants to join this group. Please send
your email address to kyoshikawa@alaska.edu.
We still need to figure out the final schedule, but this is a rough idea:
When: September 22 and October 1, 2012.
Where: Nine days at the Kilimanjaro Seasons & Biomes Mountain School
including overnight stay on the summit glacier and permafrost drilling.
Who: Kenji Narita (Biology) and Kenji Yoshikawa (Earth Sciences) will lead
observations and discussion groups daily.
How much will it cost: about $2000 for mountain fee (transportation to and
from airport, permission, food, tent, porter, guide, etc…for the 9 days on
the mountain) AND airfare from your home town to Kilimanjaro airport (about
$2000-$2500 from Fairbanks)
For more information: http://xpeditiononline.com/home.html
Report from previous expeditions: http://xpeditiononline.com/2011results.pdf
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Kilimanjaro2012

2. We will start a Siberian trip to establish frost tube sites this coming
Spring to Summer. At the same time, we are preparing the TunnelMan episode 3
Russian version!!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJfWna__M3s

3. This winter we established frost tube sites at eight Japanese schools. If
you would like to see their information, we have a Japanese web site:
http://www.myu.ac.jp/~haradak/frost_tube.html

4. For frost tube schools, it is nice to check your frost depth after Spring
Break! This is the most important time (maximum depth!) of the year. If you
have a chance to check the frost tubes, please e-mail me the depth of frost
and snow. I will update your school data on our web page. Protocols and
worksheets are available from the web site:
http://ine.uaf.edu/werc/projects/permafrost/frost_tube.htm

5. “Tunnel Man Episode 5 (The great Journey)” is almost completed. This will
be the last episode, stay tuned!!

Again, thank you for your participation.
Enjoy the Spring!

I am leaving for Norway and Russia today. For Longyearbyen (far north of Norway, only 3000km from Alaska!), we did have a school in our network, but I never meet students!! That will be exciting!!

And Salekhard, Russia, we will install 4-5 schools. Stay tuned how is going!!

Pressurized artesian ground water where is  from 40m below sub-permafrost aquifer making beautiful icing mound in this winter. The shape of the mound is almost former pingo!!

I did fall in the water pocket! That is trick of the icing…but not cold today!

I am going to several schools in Norway and Russia (Siberia) next two weeks. This is first Russian version for Episode 3!!

it is strong inversion in this morning. The inversion makes sun rise more colorful! I feel this atmosphere seems almost summer!! We’ll see mosquitos within a month!