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Pages and Posts Tagged ‘ice sheet’


Clues from Ancient Glacial and Interglacial Times

ABOARD THE JOIDES RESOLUTION, OFF THE COAST OF WILKES LAND, ANTARCTICA– The poles are a great place to study both natural and man-induced changes in Earth’s climate because of a phenomenon called polar amplification... {Read More »}



Iceberg City

ABOARD THE JOIDES RESOLUTION, OFF THE COAST OF WILKES LAND, ANTARCTICA– We drilled for 18 hours and then had to pull the drill pipe up out of the hole and reposition the ship to avoid a large iceberg that was heading straight for us... {Read More »}



Detonation

WHILLANS ICE STREAM, ANTARCTICA-- These two videos show the detonation of our excess explosives, used for seismic surveys of the base of the glacier... {Read More »}



Exploring the Unexplored Continent

MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA-- I'd like to do a little scene-setting here and explain what it's like to explore the interior of Antarctica. Using your imagination, consider an area a bit larger than the contiguous United States and Mexico combined... {Read More »}



AGAP South: Population 42

AGAP-SOUTH CAMP, ANTARCTICA-- There are finally planes in the airspace of AGAP-South! We flew our first survey lines during the transit of scientists from Pole to our main camp. With the first flight, came the first observation of... {Read More »}



Life on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

WHILLANS ICE STREAM, ANTARCTICA-- In this audio dispatch, I describe our first week in our field camp on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Hear about our research on lakes under the glaciers and get a slice of life as a remote polar scientist... {Read More »}



Casting Off the Lines

CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND-- It is a quiet spring night in Christchurch, New Zealand. The air is filled with the heavy scent of the spring flowers. In twelve hours if the weather and aircraft cooperate we will take off for Antarctica... {Read More »}



Antarctic Fish and Climate Change

MOSS LANDING, CALIFORNIA– All Antarctic organisms have unique adaptations that allow them to survive the extreme freezing Antarctic environment. Antarctic fish, for example, have antifreeze proteins that keep their blood from freezing... {Read More »}



Minding the Data for Ice Sheets

ILULISSAT, GREENLAND-- In this video, we talk with Jeaime Powell, a graduate student from Elizabeth City State University working on the Polar Grid project. After every twin-otter airplane flight made from Ilulissat to map the Greenland Ice Sheet, Jeaime and his colleagues check over the data... {Read More »}



Ice Sheets & Climate Change

ILULISSAT, GREENLAND-- We spent a lot of time at the Ilulissat airport, hopping on helicopters at every opportunity but also hanging out with the crew on an ice-mapping project out of the University of Kansas and NASA. In this video, we talk with Earl Frederick of NASA about the ice-mapping flights over the Greenland Ice Sheet... {Read More »}