I am back at Rothera after a brilliant week out in the field at Fossil Bluff at 71 20S 68 17W. The Bluff as it is called is 222 miles north of Sky Blu and 226 miles south of Rothera. Only 585 miles from the south pole. The hut is on Alexander Island which is 145 miles wide in the south, 40 miles wide in the north and 275 miles long. The King George VI Sound which divides the island from the peninsula is 300 miles long and between 15 and 40 miles long it is an ice shelf more than 150 feet deep fed by glaciers coming in from the sides. The 24 hour sunlight in the summer melts the surface creating streams and lakes. The ice front is receding down the sound.

There is evidence on Alexander Island of continental drift – igneous, metamorphism, sedimentation, earthquakes, faulting, glaciation, and fossils showing profusion of life in the past showing climate change. 50 miles north and south of the hut is an area of sedimentary rock that was in shallow water with a large variety of flora and fauna. There are fossils of belemnites, ammonites, brachiopods, bivalves, plant remains, mould, coprolites, fossil dung, coal surrounded by trees and a variety of other plants. Submarine molluscs, aucellina, inoceramus, fish teeth and annelids have all been found here. The north and west of Alexander turns to volcanic with pyroclastic flows, dykes and major uplifting. Across the sound on the peninsula the rocks are plutonic with granite, azurite and other minerals having been found. The rocks are frost shattered creating scree slopes.

There are many lateral and medial morraines showing the ice sheets and glaciers are retreating. The hut is built on a lateral morraine where the fossil bluff glacier (one mile long) meets the sound. The scree covered slopes rise 1200 feet behind. The hut is 200 feet above sea level and 40-50 feet above the level of the sound. From the porch to the north you can see the Eros Glacier and Sucession Cliffs. To the East is the Antarctic Peninsula and the Batterbee Mountains over 7500 feet and 45 km away.

The first people to stay in the hut wintered arriving on March 4th 1962 after a 10 day build team had put the hut together. The hut is 20 feet long and 14 feet wide framed of iron girders, insulated prefabricated walls and a very heavy door. The main living area is 13 by 14 feet.