Welcome to PLU Glacial Geology! In its current form, this blog will share the work of four National Science Foundation-funded researchers from Pacific Lutheran University, Berkeley Geochronology Center, and Tulane University as we investigate the glacial history of the northwestern Ross Sea, Antarctica.

The goal of this project is to track the retreat of the Antarctic ice sheet by mapping and sampling glacial deposits left behind by three glaciers in the northwestern Ross Sea - Tucker, Aviator, and Mariner glaciers. Our work will provide insights into ice sheet response to climate change and past contributions of the ice sheet to sea level rise.

Our field season is now complete!! We will use this blog to share our Antarctic experiences with you, including our field work, our time in McMurdo Station, and our time at Mario Zucchelli Station. Thanks for checking in!

Monday, January 12, 2015

First explorations of our field area!

Hi Friends!

After setting up our camp, it was time to start exploring our field area! Our first order of business was to find a safe travel route to access the mountains nearby.


Isaac is an excellent snowmobile driver!

Once we had traveled as far as possible on snowmobiles, we put on our crampons and walked!

You can see why we hesitated to take snowmobiles through this area! Here, evaporation of ice is causing ice flow to converge on this location - resulting in a concentration of rocks at the ice surface.
Rocks absorb solar energy and heat up, causing the ice to melt.

The glassy area in front of us is a frozen melt pond!
A short climb up the hillslope allowed us to look out across Tucker Glacier!


After establishing a safe travel route, we walked back to the snowmobiles!
Time to go back home!
It's always good to get back to camp!
Relaxing in the cook tent after a productive day!
More to come from us! Thanks for checking our blog!

Claire


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)