Ventifacts

Ventifact, Wright Valley, Antarctica

In 1980, I worked for a season as a field assistant at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Among my most memorable adventures during those 4 months - and there were many - was a visit to the "Dry Valleys", a series of remarkable ice-free canyons.  I joined a group of scientists doing some sampling in the saline ponds there - see photo below - but also just enjoyed exploring this weird, lunar landscape.

The floor of the canyon was littered with rock, of course, mostly basalt (dolerite) chunks from a series of sills high on the ridges on either side.  What really made them unique, however, was their having been carved by the incessant wind into smooth, graceful objects - sometimes referred to as "ventifacts" or wind-carved stones.  I grabbed a couple of these mini-sculptures but left thousands more...including some perfect stone pyramids 6 feet tall, as smooth as if made from polished granite.

This little pyramid is only about 4 inches tall, but you can see the smooth, polished surface and the faceting caused by sitting in the exact position in the prevailing winds for many decades, perhaps centuries.  I have carried it with me for the past 31 years since that trip, and it is one of my most treasured possessions.

This is a similar process, by the way, to the "Topoliths" in the post below, though this is much harder rock, and polished over much longer periods of time.

Wright Dry Valley, Antarctica 1980