Rothera Station and Latitude Question

     We are now steaming south towards Rothera Research Station on Adelaide Island. We do not need to arrive at Rothera until 6am on the morning of December 3^rd but sea ice conditions in Antarctica are often unpredictable so they Captain told us it is wise to leave a with a bit of extra time. As the Palmer pushed through fields of brash ice, we used the free time as an opportunity to pack up our science labs and organize the data we collected so far. Unfortunately, our collection of Antarctic critters does not include any king crabs, but there is still hope for next year when we return to the Antarctic! We do; however, have a very nice collection of seafloor images which have some pretty neat animals.

     As I sat here writing this, Hanu (the head of WHOI’s SeaSled operations) informed me that we are directly south of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which is located in Woods Hole Massachusetts. He has proposed a question for you all. If Woods Hole is 41°N latitude and 71°W longitude, and the our current location is 66°S latitude and 71°W longitude, how far is the Palmer from Woods Hole? Once you figure this out, can you figure out what the circumference of the Earth?   

-Steph, Katie and Dan

Hint: It may be helpful to look up many nautical miles are in a degree of latitude?

The 'road' before us....

...and the path we left behind