The research team, which includes undergraduate geoscience students participating in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program, will travel to Svalbard, Norway, to investigate how climate change affects sediment transport and deposition associated with the tidewater glaciers, icebergs, meltwater streams, and marine currents. Tidewater glaciers are among the fastest changing systems in the Arctic, offering the team the opportunity to monitor rapidly changing and dynamic systems.
She's from Everett, Washington. She is an Earth Sciences major, with an Environmental Studies minor, at Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire. She will be celebrating her 22nd birthday while she's here in Ny Alesund. Here's the best part about Laura Kehrl . . . she rides back and forth across the fjord with her head in a garbage bag. No, it's not that she's having trouble dealing with the 24/7 sunlight here. It's part of what her project is . . .
. . . "Kongsfjorden floor morphology and its implications for glacier stability"
So what exactly is "Laura K" doing in that bag? (We call her "Laura K" because we also have "Laura P" in our little group.) The only reason Laura K has to have her head in a garbage bag is that she is trying to read a laptop computer screen. The bag blocks out the sunlight so that she is able to see the data on the computer. That data is coming from an instrument called an EchoSounder. We have rigged up brackets on the boat that allow the EchoSounder to be lowered down into the water. The EchoSounder bounces sound waves off the fjord floor and detects them coming back up. It is attached, by a wire, to a suitcase-sized yellow box that processes the sound waves into data that is exported to the attached laptop that Laura K is monitoring. This data is converted to show the depth to the fjord floor from the surface. The process involves something that Ross Powell calls, "mowing the lawn". We get the EchoSounder set up in the water and Laura K gets set up on the laptop computer, with her head in the bag. Ross then drives the boat slowly back & forth across the fjord, both parallel to and then perpendicular to the glacier. Kind of like mowing your lawn. At 1 to 2 minute intervals, Laura K calls out a time mark when I take a waypoint on the GPS and record it in the notebook. That's it. Except when the fjord is full of icebergs or "brash ice". (Brash ice is like slush or crushed ice in a soft drink from a fast food restaurant. Only much bigger.)Then we need to be careful we don't let an iceberg hit the EchoSounder.
In the lab, Laura K downloads the data to her own computer, plus inputs the GPS waypoint data. Ultimately she is hoping to map the bathymetry* of the fjord floor in front of the glacier.
Laura K is all smiles in Svalbard!
* see Project Vocabulary under Overview tab
Tell me again . . . why do I have to put my head in a bag?
It seems many of you who have been following our "High Arctic Change" adventure have been wondering . . . "What kind of food do you eat in Svalbard?" When I found out where we were going to be headed on this expedition, I was wondering the same thing. Would we be eating processed food out of a can? Sardines in mustard sauce? Dried fish and reindeer meat?
You may have seen that while in Longyearbyen, we did try whale meat at a restaurant. And it was actually very good. But here in Ny Alesund it is certainly not the type of fair I expected. You may be surprised as well.
Remember, Ny Alesund was once a coal mining village run by the Kings Bay Kull Company. But now it is an international arctic science and research station. And now, Kings Bay AS manages the village, including the infrastructure, lodging, and meals. There is a main Service Building that includes a reception office, laundry facility, conference room, lounge area, and a wonderful cafeteria & dining area.
Can you figure out when it's time to eat? (Bonus points if you can translate the whole notice. I'll give you a way to cheat at the end.)
Potatoes. Potatoes. And more potatoes. But we're not tired of eating potatoes yet. Several years ago I took a trip to Indonesia. I remember the very first day we met a man from the U.S. that had been living & working there for a few years. He told us, "You will eat rice here every day. But you will have it served so many different ways that you won't get tired of it." Well, in Svalbard, it's the same thing, but with potatoes. Good ‘ole white potatoes. Like in Idaho.
On a typical day, for breakfast it's eggs, with bacon, or another meat we can usually recognize. We've had scrambled eggs, "sunny side up", hard & soft boiled. You name it. Along with this there might be fresh tomatoes, peppers or even cucumber. Bread: Some of the best bread I've ever eaten. Cheese: I think I found cheese I like better than Cabot cheese from Vermont. It's so good.
On Saturday, dinner is a special occasion. Many people dress up a bit. (I think some of the hard-core, out in the field scientists even take a shower.) The tables have table clothes with napkins and wine glasses. And, if you wish, you may bring your own bottle of wine to share. It's a very relaxed meal where people mingle a bit more than other days when it's rush, rush to get into the field or get back to the lab. It's very nice. Even if we do have potatoes, again!
Ironically, the quietest, most reserved, members of our crew have been dubbed, the "Iceberg Cowboys" by everyone else. This journal entry will introduce you to Phaedra Tinder and Hector Zamora. You will learn a little about them and their projects, as well as the science they are doing that has earned them the moniker, the "Iceberg Cowboys".
Phaedra Tinder calls Vero Beach, Florida her home town. But as a student majoring in Geology, she heads a bit north to the Philadelphia, PA area where she attends Bryn Mawr College.
Why is she interested in becoming a Geoscientist*? Phaedra says, "I like studying and learning about the processes that make up and shape the systems of the Earth and seeing how they interact and influence each other in important yet unexpected ways. I have been interested in science for a long time, and geology uses aspects of all the sciences in its study, which I found appealing. I am also interested in doing work that can give people greater insight into environmental problems, and geology is a great field to do this in."
Phaedra says that she learned of the Svalbard REU program while searching for research opportunities in her sophomore year. The Svalbard REU program "was linked through the NSF website."
According to Phaedra, "This REU deals with the over-arching fields that interest me, generally, in geology: examining interacting systems and climate change."
"Polar geoscience* wasn't a necessary component of my choice of the REU, but this particular program deals with issues that interest me. And, it happens to take place in the Arctic, which is interesting to study because of its more rapid climate change effects and its very different nature, in some ways, to regions I am used to."
So what is her focus in our "High Arctic Change" expedition?
"Iceberg and IBRD Debris Flux into the Fjord"
"I am studying how the icebergs enter the fjord from the Kronebreen glacier. The central questions are:
Can we detect large calving events using the tidal pressure gauge?
Does the number of these events appear related to environmental variables such as weather, tides, depth, salinity, and temperature near the ice face?
How much sediment is being carried into the fjord via ice bergs, and how has this changed since 2005?"
Hector Zamora actually does comes from "cowboy country", . . . Texas.
Hector has "always been interested in the processes that have taken place in our planet, how they have shaped it in the past and how they continue to do so in the present." This is why he wanted to study Geoscience*. "Besides," he says, "I have always loved nature and the opportunities to meet new people and see new places." He is certainly doing that here in Svalbard.
Coming from a warm place like El Paso, Texas you might wonder why Hector wanted to study POLAR Geoscience*.
"The arctic is a beautiful place. The polar climate is completely different from the place where I live. Since I was a kid, I always wanted to explore and study in this part of the world. And it is important as well, because changes in global climate are greatly reflected in the polar regions."
Hector's "High Arctic Change" project focus is . . .
"Sediment Provenance and Dispersal"
His emphsis is sediment mineralogy and geochemistry. He has been collecting rock samples along the glacier margins as well as till samples from recently calved ice bergs. By doing this he can get a more accurate source of the sediment from the glacier. He is determining bedrock sources of glacial sediment and the relative contributions of those rock types to the glacial fjord sediments. Then, by collaborating with other students and their data, he will look at the mixing of the various bedrock sources by the subglacial stream flows into the fjord. This data will be used to compare the two main subglacial stream sources in the Kronebreen/Kongsvegen glacier front, the delta plume area to the south vs. the subglacial upwelling plume to the north.
Basically, he is interested in which portions of the ice front are contributing to the fjord sediment in front of the glacier.
Though this UTEP "Miner" finds the temperature in the arctic a bit chilly, he's happy his advisor recommended this REU program to him. He's been doing some great science. Plus, he's "cowboyed" a few ice bergs. Not too many folks from El Paso can say they've done that.
* see Project Vocabulary under Overview tab
Future journal coming up: "The Bag Lady of Kongsfjord" OR "It sure is dark in here. You'll tell me if we're going to run into the glacier, won't you?"
It's midnight. We have a boat. We have our survival suits. We have water skis. We have what???? That's right! Water skis!
Ever since we noticed the water skis at the French station, we just knew . . . we had to try it.
[video]
Just so you know . . . real scientists don't just sit around in lab coats looking in microscopes all the time. They have fun! Especially polar geoscientists!
Keep checking in. You'll see that our lab coats are big orange survival suits. Our data is collected from a small boat in front of a 60 meter tall glacier. And we do look at things under a microscope. Things that are found in chunks of centuries old ice at the bottom of a glacier.
Next up: A cowboy walking on the bottom of a glacier. (No, I didn't hit my head waterskiing.)
If you've been following along on our expedition through these journals, or the photo gallery, you may be wondering, "Who are these people?"
In the Overview tab, you found out about me, the PolarTREC teacher, and Ross Powell and Julie Brigham-Grette, the researchers. But not about the REU students. Go back to the Overview tab, and you'll see this photo:
You'll also be introduced to Hector, Theo, Laura K, Laura P, Hannah, & Phaedra.
Now, why are they here? These 6 students are undergraduate college students from various colleges and universities across the U.S. This "High Arctic Change" expedition is part of the "Svalbard REU" program. (REU is an acronym for: Research Experience for Undergraduates.) Each of them is taking on one or more specific aspects of the research we are doing. The samples and data they are collecting will help them to develop a senior thesis project. Each of them will work on the information collected here, in Svalbard, back at their respective schools, working closely with their advisors over the next 2 semesters. In April, each of them will present their final projects at the 40th International Arctic Research Workshop, in Boulder, CO, coordinated by INSTAAR.
What a great "hands-on" experience for future geoscience* researchers! And, quite possibly future "polar" geoscience researchers.
In upcoming journals you will get to know each of these students a little better. You'll also get to see the science they are doing. That's right, they are "doing" science, not just learning about it in a classroom. And that's the best way to learn . . . by doing. And it is fun! Have you seen the photo gallery?
So check in again to find out what each REU student is up to.
I'm an Earth Science teacher. So, I'm interested in stuff about the Earth, and Earth Science, or Geoscience*. That's why I subscribe to an e-news service called Geology News. (find out more at www.geology.com)
In the U.S. we go "hiking" on a "trail". Ross Powell is originally from New Zealand. (Read more about Ross in the expedition High Arctic Change '09 Overview tab.) He says that in New Zealand, it's known as "tramping" on a "track". In order for our expedition crew to get started on our research, we needed to get to know the area we are working in. We also needed to "see, touch, and smell, . . . oh yeah, and hear" a glacier and get to learn what it can tell us about what is going on here. So . . . we went "tramping on a glacier". Actually, 4 of them.
It's easy to see glaciers as just huge chunks of ice that just sit there. Maybe with a little snow on top. They are beautiful to look at in person, or in pictures. But glaciers are more. From the way they form, where they occur on Earth, and how they move, erode and deposit unbelievable amounts of rock, glaciers are very dynamic. And very fascinating. And that's why we are here. Here, in Svalbard, where any direction you look you can see glaciers flowing out of, and carving down, the mountains into the sea. The types of glaciers we will be studying are called tidewater glaciers*.
Coming up: So who are these people I'm working with? What is REU? And, what do Bates, Bryn Mawr, Dartmouth, Miami, UTEP, & Whitman have to do with Svalbard?
* see Project Vocabulary under Overview tab
Getting the lay of the land - observing glacial processes*, past and present.
