[{"awards": "1443522 Wannamaker, Philip", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((166 -77.15,166.34 -77.15,166.68 -77.15,167.02 -77.15,167.36 -77.15,167.7 -77.15,168.04 -77.15,168.38 -77.15,168.72 -77.15,169.06 -77.15,169.4 -77.15,169.4 -77.22500000000001,169.4 -77.30000000000001,169.4 -77.375,169.4 -77.45,169.4 -77.525,169.4 -77.60000000000001,169.4 -77.67500000000001,169.4 -77.75,169.4 -77.825,169.4 -77.9,169.06 -77.9,168.72 -77.9,168.38 -77.9,168.04 -77.9,167.7 -77.9,167.36 -77.9,167.02 -77.9,166.68 -77.9,166.34 -77.9,166 -77.9,166 -77.825,166 -77.75,166 -77.67500000000001,166 -77.60000000000001,166 -77.525,166 -77.45,166 -77.375,166 -77.30000000000001,166 -77.22500000000001,166 -77.15))", "dataset_titles": "Erebus volcano/Ross Island Magnetotelluric (MT) data", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601493", "doi": "10.15784/601493", "keywords": "Antarctica; Mantle Melting; Mount Erebus", "people": "Hill, Graham; Wannamaker, Philip", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Erebus volcano/Ross Island Magnetotelluric (MT) data", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601493"}], "date_created": "Mon, 05 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "General Description: This project is intended to reveal the magma source regions, staging areas, and eruptive pathways within the active volcano Mount Erebus. This volcano is an end-member type known as phonolitic, which refers to the lava composition, and is almost purely carbon-dioxide-bearing and occurs in continental rift settings. It is in contrast to the better known water-bearing volcanoes which occur at plate boundary settings (such as Mount St Helens or Mount Fuji). Phonolitic volcanic eruptions elsewhere such as Tamboro or Vesuvius have caused more than 50,000 eruption related fatalities. Phonolites are also associated with rare earth element deposits, giving them economic interest. To illuminate the inner workings of Mount Erebus, we will cover the volcano with a dense network of geophysical probes based on magnetotelluric (MT) measurements. MT makes use of naturally occurring electromagnetic (EM) waves generated mainly by the sun as sources to provide images of the electrical conductivity structure of the Earth\u0027s interior. Conductivity is sensitive to the presence of fluids and melts in the Earth and so is well suited to understanding volcanic processes. The project is a cooperative effort between scientists from the United States, New Zealand, Japan and Canada. It implements new technology developed by the lead investigator and associates that allows such measurements to be taken on snow-covered terrains. This has applicability for frozen environments generally, such as resource exploration in the Arctic. The project supports a new post-doctoral researcher, and leverages imaging and measurement methods developed through support by other agencies and interfaced with commercial platforms. Technical Description: The investigators propose to test magmatic evolution models for Mount Erebus volcano, Antarctica, using the magnetotelluric (MT) method. The phonolite lava flow compositions on Mount Erebus are uncommon, but provide a window into the range of upper mantle source compositions and melt differentiation paths. Explosive phonolite eruptions have been known worldwide for devastating eruptions such as Tambora and Vesuvius, and commonly host rare earth element deposits. In the MT method, temporal variations in the Earth\u0027s natural electromagnetic (EM) field are used as source fields to probe the electrical resistivity structure in the depth range of 1 to 100 kilometers. This effort will consist of approximately 100 MT sites, with some concentration in the summit area. Field acquisition will take place over two field seasons. The main goals are to 1) confirm the existence and the geometry of the uppermost magma chamber thought to reside at 5-10 kilometer depths; 2) attempt to identify, in the deeper resistivity structure, the magma staging area near the crust-mantle boundary; 3) image the steep, crustal-scale, near-vertical conduit carrying magma from the mantle; 4) infer the physical and chemical state from geophysical properties of a CO2-dominated mafic shield volcano; and 5) constrain the relationships between structural and magmatic/ hydrothermal activity related to the Terror Rift. Tomographic imaging of the interior resistivity will be performed using a new inversion platform developed at Utah, based on the deformable edge finite element method, that is the best available for accommodating the steep topography of the study area. The project is an international cooperation between University of Utah, GNS Science Wellington New Zealand (G. Hill, Co-I), and Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan (Y. Ogawa, Co-I), plus participation by University of Alberta (M. Unsworth) and Missouri State University (K. Mickus). Instrument deployments will be made exclusively by helicopter. The project implements new technology that allows MT measurements to be taken on snow-covered terrains. The project supports a new post-doctoral researcher, and leverages imaging and measurement methods developed through support by other agencies and interfaced with commercial platforms.", "east": 169.4, "geometry": "POINT(167.7 -77.525)", "instruments": "IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e MAGNETIC/MOTION SENSORS", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "MAGNETIC FIELD; FIELD SURVEYS; Ross Island; Magnetotelluric; Mount Erebus", "locations": "Ross Island; Mount Erebus", "north": -77.15, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Wannamaker, Philip", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD SURVEYS", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -77.9, "title": "Magma Sources, Residence and Pathways of Mount Erebus Phonolitic Volcano, Antarctica, from Magnetotelluric Resistivity Structure", "uid": "p0010444", "west": 166.0}, {"awards": "1644234 Phillips, Fred", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((166.17 -77.3,166.32799999999997 -77.3,166.486 -77.3,166.644 -77.3,166.802 -77.3,166.95999999999998 -77.3,167.118 -77.3,167.276 -77.3,167.434 -77.3,167.59199999999998 -77.3,167.75 -77.3,167.75 -77.34,167.75 -77.38,167.75 -77.42,167.75 -77.46,167.75 -77.5,167.75 -77.54,167.75 -77.58,167.75 -77.62,167.75 -77.66,167.75 -77.7,167.59199999999998 -77.7,167.434 -77.7,167.276 -77.7,167.118 -77.7,166.95999999999998 -77.7,166.802 -77.7,166.644 -77.7,166.486 -77.7,166.32799999999997 -77.7,166.17 -77.7,166.17 -77.66,166.17 -77.62,166.17 -77.58,166.17 -77.54,166.17 -77.5,166.17 -77.46,166.17 -77.42,166.17 -77.38,166.17 -77.34,166.17 -77.3))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Mon, 12 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Nontechnical Description: The age of rocks and soils at the surface of the Earth can help answer multiple questions that are important for human welfare, including: when did volcanoes erupt and are they likely to erupt again? when did glaciers advance and what do they tell us about climate? what is the frequency of hazards such as landslides, floods, and debris flows? how long does it take soils to form and is erosion of soils going to make farming unsustainable? One method that is used thousands of times every year to address these questions is called \u0027cosmogenic surface-exposure dating\u0027. This method takes advantage of cosmic rays, which are powerful protons and neutrons produced by supernova that constantly bombard the Earth\u0027s atmosphere. Some cosmic rays reach Earth\u0027s surface and produce nuclear reactions that result in rare isotopes. Measuring the quantity of the rare isotopes enables the length of time that the rock or soil has been exposed to the atmosphere to be calculated. The distribution of cosmic rays around the globe depends on Earth\u0027s magnetic field, and this distribution must be accurately known if useful exposure ages are to be obtained. Currently there are two remaining theories, narrowed down from many, of how to calculate this distribution. Measurements from a site that is at both high altitude and high latitude (close to the poles) are needed to test the two theories. This study involves both field and lab research and includes a Ph.D. student and an undergraduate student. The research team will collect rocks from lava flows on an active volcano in Antarctica named Mount Erebus and measure the amounts of two rare isotopes: 36Cl and 3He. The age of eruption of the samples will be determined using a highly accurate method that does not depend on cosmic rays, called 40Ar/39Ar dating. The two cosmic-ray theories will be used to calculate the ages of the samples using the 36Cl and 3He concentrations and will then be compared to the ages calculated from the 40Ar/39Ar dating. The accurate cosmic-ray theory will be the one that gives the same ages as the 40Ar/39Ar dating. Identification of the accurate theory will enable use of the cosmogenic surface dating methods anywhere on earth. Technical Description: Nuclides produced by cosmic rays in rocks at the surface of the earth are widely used for Quaternary geochronology and geomorphic studies and their use is increasing every year. The recently completed CRONUS-Earth Project (Cosmic-Ray Produced Nuclides on Earth) has systematically evaluated the production rates and theoretical underpinnings of cosmogenic nuclides. However, the CRONUS-Earth Project was not able to discriminate between the two leading theoretical approaches: the original Lal model (St) and the new Lifton-Sato-Dunai model (LSD). Mathematical models used to scale the production of the nuclides as a function of location on the earth, elevation, and magnetic field configuration are an essential component of this dating method. The inability to distinguish between the two models was because the predicted production rates did not differ sufficiently at the location of the calibration sites. The cosmogenic-nuclide production rates that are predicted by the two models differ significantly from each other at Erebus volcano, Antarctica. Mount Erebus is therefore an excellent site for testing which production model best describes actual cosmogenic-nuclide production variations over the globe. The research team recently measured 3He and 36Cl in mineral separates extracted from Erebus lava flows. The exposure ages for each nuclide were reproducible within each flow (~2% standard deviation) and in very good agreement between the 3He and the 36Cl ages. However, the ages calculated by the St and LSD scaling methods differ by ~15-25% due to the sensitivity of the production rate to the scaling at this latitude and elevation. These results lend confidence that Erebus qualifies as a suitable high- latitude/high-elevation calibration site. The remaining component that is still lacking is accurate and reliable independent (i.e., non-cosmogenic) ages, however, published 40Ar/39Ar ages are too imprecise and typically biased to older ages due to excess argon contained in melt inclusions. The research team\u0027s new 40Ar/39Ar data show that previous problems with Erebus anorthoclase geochronology are now overcome with modern mass spectrometry and better sample preparation. This indicates a high likelihood of success for this proposal in defining an accurate global scaling model. Although encouraging, much remains to be accomplished. This project will sample lava flows over 3 km in elevation and determine their 40Ar/39Ar and exposure ages. These combined data will discriminate between the two scaling methods, resulting in a preferred scaling model for global cosmogenic geochronology. The LSD method contains two sub-methods, the \u0027plain\u0027 LSD scales all nuclides the same, whereas LSDn scales each nuclide individually. The project can discriminate between these models using 3He and 36Cl data from lava flows at different elevations, because the first model predicts that the production ratio for these two nuclides will be invariant with elevation and the second that there should be ~10% difference over the range of elevations to be sampled. Finally, the project will provide a local, finite-age calibration site for cosmogenic-nuclide investigations in Antarctica.", "east": 167.75, "geometry": "POINT(166.95999999999998 -77.5)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "AGE DETERMINATIONS; Mount Erebus; VOLCANO", "locations": "Mount Erebus", "north": -77.3, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Phillips, Fred; Kyle, Philip; Heizler, Matthew T", "platforms": null, "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -77.7, "title": "A Test of Global and Antarctic Models for Cosmogenic-nuclide Production Rates using High-precision Dating of 40Ar/39Ar Lava Flows from Mount Erebus", "uid": "p0010397", "west": 166.17}, {"awards": "1853377 Shero, Michelle", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((162 -76,162.6 -76,163.2 -76,163.8 -76,164.4 -76,165 -76,165.6 -76,166.2 -76,166.8 -76,167.4 -76,168 -76,168 -76.2,168 -76.4,168 -76.6,168 -76.8,168 -77,168 -77.2,168 -77.4,168 -77.6,168 -77.8,168 -78,167.4 -78,166.8 -78,166.2 -78,165.6 -78,165 -78,164.4 -78,163.8 -78,163.2 -78,162.6 -78,162 -78,162 -77.8,162 -77.6,162 -77.4,162 -77.2,162 -77,162 -76.8,162 -76.6,162 -76.4,162 -76.2,162 -76))", "dataset_titles": "Weddell seal dive behavior and rhythmicity from 2010-2012 in the Ross Sea; Weddell seal iron dynamics and oxygen stores across lactation", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601835", "doi": "10.15784/601835", "keywords": "Aerobic; Antarctica; Cryosphere; Weddell Seal", "people": "Shero, Michelle", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Weddell seal dive behavior and rhythmicity from 2010-2012 in the Ross Sea", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601835"}, {"dataset_uid": "601587", "doi": "10.15784/601587", "keywords": "Aerobic; Antarctica; Dive Capacity; Iron; McMurdo Sound; Weddell Seal", "people": "Shero, Michelle", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Weddell seal iron dynamics and oxygen stores across lactation", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601587"}], "date_created": "Tue, 09 Aug 2022 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Within any population, some individuals perform better than others. These individuals may survive longer or produce more offspring. Weddell seals in Erebus Bay, Antarctica, provide an unparalleled opportunity to investigate how an animal\u0027s physiology, behavior, and genetic make-up contribute to lifetime reproductive success because they have been the subject of a long-term population monitoring study and are easily accessible during their reproductive season. This project will distinguish key differences in energy allocation, reproductive timing, and dive capacities between female Weddell seals with a history of frequently producing pups (\"high-quality\" group), versus females that have produced pups only infrequently (\"low-quality\" group). For each group of females, physiology and behavior during the nursing period will be analyzed to assess whether investments influence their probability of reproducing the following year. Whole genomes will be compared between groups to identify underlying genes that govern reproductive success and population stability in a long-lived mammal. This collaborative project will provide research opportunities and training to several undergraduate and graduate students at the three participating institutions. Results will be broadly disseminated through presentations and peer-reviewed publications, and to students via an extensive public outreach collaboration with museum programming, curriculum-aligned science lessons, and pedagogy training. Within any wild animal population there is substantial heterogeneity in reproductive rates and animal fitness. Not all individuals contribute to the population equally; some are able to produce more offspring than others and thus are considered to be of higher quality. This study aims to distinguish which physiological mechanisms (energy dynamics, aerobic capacity, and fertility) and underlying genetic factors make some Weddell seal females particularly successful at producing pups year after year, while others produce far fewer pups than the population average. In this project, an Organismal Energetics approach will identify key differences between high- and low-quality females in how they balance current and future reproductive success by tracking lactation costs, midsummer foraging success and pregnancy rates, and overwinter foraging patterns and live births the next year. Repeated sampling of individuals\u0027 physiological status (body composition, endocrinology, ovulation and pregnancy timing), will be paired with a whole-genome sequencing study. The second component of this study uses a Genome to Phenome approach to better understand how genetic differences between high- and low-quality females directly correspond to functional differences in transcription, translation, and ultimately phenotype. This component will contribute to the functional analysis and annotation of the Weddell seal genome. In combination, this project will make strides towards distinguishing the roles that plastic (physiological, behavioral) and fixed (genetic) factors play in complex, multifaceted traits such as fitness in a long-lived wild mammal. The project partners with established programs to implement extensive educational and outreach activities that will ensure wide dissemination to educators, students, and the public. It will contribute to a marine mammal exhibit at the Pink Palace Museum, and a PolarTREC science educator will participate in field work in Antarctica. This award is co-funded by the GEO-OPP-Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems Program, BIO-IOS-Physiological Mechanisms and Biomechanics Program, and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF\u0027s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation\u0027s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.", "east": 168.0, "geometry": "POINT(165 -77)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "McMurdo; MAMMALS", "locations": "McMurdo", "north": -76.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Shero, Michelle; Hindle, Allyson; Burns, Jennifer; Briggs, Brandon", "platforms": null, "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -78.0, "title": "Collaborative Research: Physiological and Genetic Correlates of Reproductive Success in High- versus Low-Quality Weddell seals", "uid": "p0010369", "west": 162.0}, {"awards": "2147554 Chen, Nancy; 2147553 Rotella, Jay; 1640481 Rotella, Jay", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((162 -74.95,162.8 -74.95,163.6 -74.95,164.4 -74.95,165.2 -74.95,166 -74.95,166.8 -74.95,167.6 -74.95,168.4 -74.95,169.2 -74.95,170 -74.95,170 -75.295,170 -75.64,170 -75.985,170 -76.33,170 -76.67500000000001,170 -77.02000000000001,170 -77.36500000000001,170 -77.71000000000001,170 -78.055,170 -78.4,169.2 -78.4,168.4 -78.4,167.6 -78.4,166.8 -78.4,166 -78.4,165.2 -78.4,164.4 -78.4,163.6 -78.4,162.8 -78.4,162 -78.4,162 -78.055,162 -77.71000000000001,162 -77.36500000000001,162 -77.02000000000001,162 -76.67500000000001,162 -76.33,162 -75.985,162 -75.64,162 -75.295,162 -74.95))", "dataset_titles": "Demographic data for Weddell Seal colonies in Erebus Bay through the 2023 Antarctic field season", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601837", "doi": "10.15784/601837", "keywords": "AMD; Amd/Us; Antarctica; Cryosphere; McMurdo Sound; Population Dynamics; USA/NSF; USAP-DC; Weddell Seal", "people": "Rotella, Jay", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Demographic data for Weddell Seal colonies in Erebus Bay through the 2023 Antarctic field season", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601837"}], "date_created": "Sun, 07 Aug 2022 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Part 1: Non-technical description This is a continuation of a long-term population dynamics study (1978-present) using an intensive mark-recapture tagging of Weddell seals in Erebus Bay, Antarctica. Past work has become a global model for population studies of large animals. Results have documented strong annual variation in reproduction, abundance, and population composition. This program will add components to evaluate the demographic role of immigrant mothers, evaluate possible drivers of annual variation in overall population dynamics, assess genetic differences between immigrant and locally born mothers, and document patterns of gene flow among seal colonies in the Ross Sea region. These new aspects will focus on understanding of population structure, function, and genetics and provide key information for predicting how the seal population will respond to environmental change. The addition of genetic approaches will advance available data for multiple groups in multiple countries working on Weddell Seals. This work includes an early career scientists training program for faculty university graduate and undergraduate students and well as a defined program for data sharing. The research is paired with active education and outreach programs, social media, websites, educational resources, videos and high-profile public lecture activities. The informal science education program will expand on the project\u2019s successful efforts at producing and delivering short-form videos that have been viewed over 1.6 million times to date. In addition, the education program will add new topics such as learning about seals using genomics and how seals respond to a changing world to a multimedia-enhanced electronic book about the project\u2019s long-term research on Weddell seals, which will be freely available to the public early in the project. Part 2: Technical description Reliable predictions are needed for how populations of wild species, especially those at high latitudes, will respond to future environmental conditions. This study will use a strategic extension of the long-term demographic research program that has been conducted annually on the Erebus Bay population of Weddell seals since 1978 to help meet that need. Recent analyses of the study population indicate strong annual variation in reproduction, abundance, and population composition. The number of new immigrant mothers that join the population each year has recently grown such that most new mothers are now immigrants. Despite the growing number of immigrants, the demographic importance and geographic origins of immigrants are unknown. The research will (1) add new information on drivers of annual variation in immigrant numbers, (2) compare and combine information on the vital rates and demographic role of immigrant females and their offspring with that of locally born females, and (3) add genomic analyses that will quantify levels of genetic variation in and gene flow among the study population and other populations in the Ross Sea. The project will continue the long-term monitoring of the population at Erebus Bay and characterize population dynamics and the role of immigration using a combination of mark-recapture analyses, stochastic population modeling, and genomic analyses. The study will continue to provide detailed data on individual seals to other science teams, educate and mentor individuals in the next generation of ecologists, introduce two early-career, female scientists to Antarctic research, and add genomics approaches to the long-term population study of Erebus Bay Weddell seals. The research will be complemented with a robust program of training and an informal science education program. This award reflects NSF\u0027s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation\u0027s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.", "east": 170.0, "geometry": "POINT(166 -76.67500000000001)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "SPECIES/POPULATION INTERACTIONS; McMurdo Sound", "locations": "McMurdo Sound", "north": -74.95, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Rotella, Jay; Chen, Nancy", "platforms": null, "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -78.4, "title": "Collaborative Research: The Drivers and Role of Immigration in the Dynamics of the Largest Population of Weddell Seals in Antarctica under Changing Conditions", "uid": "p0010361", "west": 162.0}, {"awards": "2039432 Grapenthin, Ronni", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((165.5 -77.1,165.91 -77.1,166.32 -77.1,166.73 -77.1,167.14 -77.1,167.55 -77.1,167.96 -77.1,168.37 -77.1,168.78 -77.1,169.19 -77.1,169.6 -77.1,169.6 -77.18,169.6 -77.26,169.6 -77.34,169.6 -77.42,169.6 -77.5,169.6 -77.58,169.6 -77.66,169.6 -77.74,169.6 -77.82,169.6 -77.9,169.19 -77.9,168.78 -77.9,168.37 -77.9,167.96 -77.9,167.55 -77.9,167.14 -77.9,166.73 -77.9,166.32 -77.9,165.91 -77.9,165.5 -77.9,165.5 -77.82,165.5 -77.74,165.5 -77.66,165.5 -77.58,165.5 -77.5,165.5 -77.42,165.5 -77.34,165.5 -77.26,165.5 -77.18,165.5 -77.1))", "dataset_titles": "Erebus GPS timeseries ", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601471", "doi": "10.15784/601471", "keywords": "Antarctica; GPS; Mount Erebus; Ross Island", "people": "Grapenthin, Ronni", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Erebus GPS timeseries ", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601471"}], "date_created": "Fri, 03 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Nontechnical Abstract Mount Erebus volcano on Ross Island, Antarctica, is the southernmost active volcano on the planet. It provides a natural laboratory to study a volcanic system that has been in a continuous state of activity with a persistent lava lake over at least the last 40 years. Worldwide only four other volcanoes with such long-lived lava lakes exist: Erta Ale, Ethiopia; Kilauea, Hawaii; Nyiragongo, Congo; and Ambrym, Vanuatu. These volcanoes are a rare anomaly that provide a window into the underlying magmatic system and behavior. Erebus is of particular interest as it cycles through phases of very explosive activity every 20 thousand years. This project will investigate interactions between the magmatic system, the rift it is located in, and the impact of the gravitational load the volcano imposes on the underlying crust and its own magmatic system. Possible interactions between these factors may explain the changes in activity. The project will analyze geophysical data that have been collected at Erebus over at least the last two decades. The results of this work will be available to the public and scientific community and inform geodynamic models in this region. The project funds an early-career scientist and a graduate student at New Mexico Tech and contributes to the development of the next generation of scientists. Technical Abstract The proposed work targets scientific questions recently formulated by the community during the 2016 NSF-sponsored Scientific Drivers and Future of Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory workshop. The location and geometry of the magmatic plumbing from vent to lower crust system remain poorly constrained, particularly below 1 km depth. The style and causes for changes in volcanic and magmatic activity over the short term (minutes to hours) and on the decadal scale remains enigmatic. Two decades of campaign and continuous GPS data on Ross Island will inform about the longer term dynamics of both, Ross Island growing within the Terror Rift, and Erebus? deeper magmatic system. This project will organize and analyze all existing GPS data for Ross Island, and interpret any anomalies in the resulting time series. These activities require organization, consistent processing and interpretation/modeling of the existing ~20 years of GPS data, which include campaign, continuous, and high-rate GPS observations. We will generate these position time series in a consistent local reference frame and make the results, including models of transient deformation available to the community. Volcanic, tectonic and isostatic adjustment related deformation will be modeled to place Erebus in a broad volcano-tectonic framework of West Antarctica. During the data analysis phase, the utility of existing GPS data for reflection studies of snow and sea-level dynamics will also be evaluated.", "east": 169.6, "geometry": "POINT(167.55 -77.5)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Ross Island; TECTONICS; USAP-DC; Amd/Us; AMD; CRUSTAL MOTION; USA/NSF; FIELD SURVEYS", "locations": "Ross Island", "north": -77.1, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences; Antarctic Instrumentation and Facilities", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Grapenthin, Ronni", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD SURVEYS", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -77.9, "title": "Collaborative Research: Multi-Parameter Geophysical Constraints on Volcano Dynamics of Mt. Erebus and Ross Island, Antarctica", "uid": "p0010255", "west": 165.5}, {"awards": "1640481 Rotella, Jay", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((162 -75,162.8 -75,163.6 -75,164.4 -75,165.2 -75,166 -75,166.8 -75,167.6 -75,168.4 -75,169.2 -75,170 -75,170 -75.38,170 -75.76,170 -76.14,170 -76.52,170 -76.9,170 -77.28,170 -77.66,170 -78.03999999999999,170 -78.42,170 -78.8,169.2 -78.8,168.4 -78.8,167.6 -78.8,166.8 -78.8,166 -78.8,165.2 -78.8,164.4 -78.8,163.6 -78.8,162.8 -78.8,162 -78.8,162 -78.42,162 -78.03999999999999,162 -77.66,162 -77.28,162 -76.9,162 -76.52,162 -76.14,162 -75.76,162 -75.38,162 -75))", "dataset_titles": "Demographic data for Weddell Seal colonies in Erebus Bay through the 2017 Antarctic field season; Demographic data for Weddell Seal colonies in Erebus Bay through the 2023 Antarctic field season", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200300", "doi": " https://doi.org/10.15784/601125 ", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Demographic data for Weddell Seal colonies in Erebus Bay through the 2017 Antarctic field season", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601125"}, {"dataset_uid": "601837", "doi": "10.15784/601837", "keywords": "AMD; Amd/Us; Antarctica; Cryosphere; McMurdo Sound; Population Dynamics; USA/NSF; USAP-DC; Weddell Seal", "people": "Rotella, Jay", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Demographic data for Weddell Seal colonies in Erebus Bay through the 2023 Antarctic field season", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601837"}], "date_created": "Thu, 24 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The consequences of variation in maternal effects on the ability of offspring to survive, reproduce, and contribute to future generations has rarely been evaluated in polar marine mammals. This is due to the challenges of having adequate data on the survival and reproductive outcomes for numerous offspring born in diverse environmental conditions to mothers with known and diverse sets of traits. This research project will evaluate the survival and reproductive consequences of early-life environmental conditions and variation in offspring traits that are related to maternal attributes (e.g. birth date, birth mass, weaning mass, and swimming behavior) in a population of individually marked Weddell seals in the Ross Sea. Results will allow an evaluation of the importance of different types of individuals to the Weddell Seal\u0027s population sustenance and better assessments of factors contributing to the population dynamics in the past and into the future. The project allows for documentation of specific individual seal\u0027s unique histories and provisioning of such information to the broader science community that seeks to study these seals, educating graduate and undergraduate ecology students, producing science-outreach videos, and developing a multi-media iBook regarding the project\u0027s science activities, goals and outcomes. The research has the broad objective of evaluating the importance of diverse sources of variation in pup characteristics to survival and reproduction. The study will (1) record birth dates, body mass metrics, and time spent in the water for multiple cohorts of pups (born to known-age mothers) in years with different environmental conditions; (2) mark all pups born in the greater Erebus Bay study area and conduct repeated surveys to monitor fates of these pups through the age of first reproduction; and (3) use analyses specifically designed for data on animals that are individually marked and resighted each year to evaluate hypotheses about how variation in birth dates, pup mass, time spent in the water by pups, and environmental conditions relate to variation in early-life survival and recruitment for those pups. The research will also allow the documentation of the population status that will contribute to the unique long-term database for the local population that dates back to 1978.", "east": 170.0, "geometry": "POINT(166 -76.9)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "AMD; ANIMAL ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR; Amd/Us; FIELD INVESTIGATION; Ross Sea; USA/NSF; USAP-DC", "locations": "Ross Sea", "north": -75.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Rotella, Jay; Garrott, Robert", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -78.8, "title": "The consequences of maternal effects and environmental conditions on offspring success in an Antarctic predator", "uid": "p0010198", "west": 162.0}, {"awards": "1541285 Tauxe, Lisa", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((162.144 -77.2233,162.8676 -77.2233,163.5912 -77.2233,164.3148 -77.2233,165.0384 -77.2233,165.762 -77.2233,166.4856 -77.2233,167.2092 -77.2233,167.9328 -77.2233,168.6564 -77.2233,169.38 -77.2233,169.38 -77.34097,169.38 -77.45864,169.38 -77.57631,169.38 -77.69398,169.38 -77.81165,169.38 -77.92932,169.38 -78.04699,169.38 -78.16466,169.38 -78.28233,169.38 -78.4,168.6564 -78.4,167.9328 -78.4,167.2092 -78.4,166.4856 -78.4,165.762 -78.4,165.0384 -78.4,164.3148 -78.4,163.5912 -78.4,162.8676 -78.4,162.144 -78.4,162.144 -78.28233,162.144 -78.16466,162.144 -78.04699,162.144 -77.92932,162.144 -77.81165,162.144 -77.69398,162.144 -77.57631,162.144 -77.45864,162.144 -77.34097,162.144 -77.2233))", "dataset_titles": "Four-Dimensional paleomagnetic dataset: Late Neogene paleodirection and paleointensity results from the Erebus Volcanic Province, Antarctica", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200162", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Magnetics Infomation Consortiums MagIC", "science_program": null, "title": "Four-Dimensional paleomagnetic dataset: Late Neogene paleodirection and paleointensity results from the Erebus Volcanic Province, Antarctica", "url": "https://www2.earthref.org/MagIC/16912/14b%20cd18-4c33-858e-de5eab74c528"}], "date_created": "Mon, 24 Aug 2020 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The geomagnetic field is decreasing rapidly, leading some to propose that it will undergo collapse followed by a return to its usual strength but in the opposite direction, a phenomenon known as a \"polarity reversal\" which happened last approximately 800,000 years ago. Such a collapse would have a potentially devastating effect on the ability of the magnetic field to shield us from cosmic ray bombardment, placing our electrical grid at grave risk, among other things. The probability of such a drastic event happening depends on the average strength of the magnetic field. If the average is approximately equal to the present field (as many researchers assume), then the fact that the field is dropping rapidly would be more alarming than if the magnetic field is quite a bit higher than average, as implied by the current data for the ancient magnetic field from Antarctica. The argument over the average field strength stems from the difficulty of its estimation. The new approach advocated for in this proposal will allow researchers to obtain a robust data set for high southerly latitudes which will greatly enhance confidence in estimates of the average ancient field strength, contributing to our ability to assess the likelihood of catastrophic collapse of the geomagnetic field. The difficulty in estimating the average magnetic field strength over the past five million years is apparent when one examines data for ancient field strength as a function of latitude. Directions of the geomagnetic field have been well approximated by an axial dipole (bar magnetic) at the center of the Earth that is aligned with the spin axis. But the signal of such an axial geomagnetic dipole, whereby the field strength doubles from the equator to the poles, is not readily apparent in the database of field strength estimates from the last five million years. There are several possible explanations for this troubling failure: 1) combining data from different ages with possibly different average intensities leads to an inappropriate comparison of field states, 2) there is a depression of field strength at high latitude, perhaps reflecting the role of the `tangent cylinder?, or 3) there is noise and/or bias introduced by poor selection criteria or poor experimental design. The latter is a likely explanation as published data from the 1960 lava flow on Hawaii display the entire range of intensity values observed on the Earth\u0027s surface today, yet samples from this lava flow should all have one distinct value. This proposal benefits from the development of new experimental methods, better field strategies and a new approach to data selection that will allow accurate estimation of the ancient field strength through a comprehensive field campaign to collect lava flow samples from previously studied outcrops targeting the most promising material. These will be analyzed using the most robust experimental protocol and subjected to rigorous selection criteria proven to reject inaccurate results, leading to both accurate and precise estimates of ancient field strength.", "east": 169.38, "geometry": "POINT(165.762 -77.81165)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "McMurdo; PALEOMAGNETISM; LABORATORY", "locations": "McMurdo", "north": -77.2233, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Tauxe, Lisa; Staudigel, Hubertus", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e PHYSICAL MODELS \u003e LABORATORY", "repo": "Magnetics Infomation Consortiums MagIC", "repositories": "Magnetics Infomation Consortiums MagIC", "science_programs": null, "south": -78.4, "title": "Finding the Missing Geomagnetic Dipole Signal in Global Pleointensity Data: Revisiting the High Southerly Latitudes", "uid": "p0010122", "west": 162.144}, {"awards": "1644013 Gaetani, Glenn; 1644020 Sims, Kenneth W.; 1644027 Wallace, Paul", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((164.1 -77.1,164.65 -77.1,165.2 -77.1,165.75 -77.1,166.3 -77.1,166.85 -77.1,167.4 -77.1,167.95 -77.1,168.5 -77.1,169.05 -77.1,169.6 -77.1,169.6 -77.235,169.6 -77.37,169.6 -77.505,169.6 -77.64,169.6 -77.775,169.6 -77.91,169.6 -78.045,169.6 -78.18,169.6 -78.315,169.6 -78.45,169.05 -78.45,168.5 -78.45,167.95 -78.45,167.4 -78.45,166.85 -78.45,166.3 -78.45,165.75 -78.45,165.2 -78.45,164.65 -78.45,164.1 -78.45,164.1 -78.315,164.1 -78.18,164.1 -78.045,164.1 -77.91,164.1 -77.775,164.1 -77.64,164.1 -77.505,164.1 -77.37,164.1 -77.235,164.1 -77.1))", "dataset_titles": "G170 Electron Microprobe Analyses of Melt Inclusions and Host Olivines; G170 Raman Spectroscopy \u0026 Tomography Volumes of Melt Inclusions and Vapor Bubbles; G170 Sample Locations Ross Island \u0026 Discovery Province; G170 Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry Analses of Melt Inclusion Volatiles; G170 Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry Analyses of Melt Inclusion Hydrogen Isotopes; Location and Description of Tephra Samples from the Erebus and Discovery Sub-provinces", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601506", "doi": "10.15784/601506", "keywords": "Antarctica; Ion Mass Spectrometry; Ross Island; Volatiles", "people": "Gaetani, Glenn", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "G170 Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry Analses of Melt Inclusion Volatiles", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601506"}, {"dataset_uid": "601507", "doi": "10.15784/601507", "keywords": "Antarctica; Chemistry:rock; Chemistry:Rock; Geochemistry; Hydrogen; Ion Mass Spectrometry; Ross Island", "people": "Gaetani, Glenn", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "G170 Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry Analyses of Melt Inclusion Hydrogen Isotopes", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601507"}, {"dataset_uid": "601508", "doi": "10.15784/601508", "keywords": "Antarctica; Chemistry:rock; Chemistry:Rock; Geochemistry; Melt Inclusions; Raman Spectroscopy; Ross Island; Vapor Bubbles; Volcanic", "people": "Gaetani, Glenn", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "G170 Raman Spectroscopy \u0026 Tomography Volumes of Melt Inclusions and Vapor Bubbles", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601508"}, {"dataset_uid": "601505", "doi": "10.15784/601505", "keywords": "Antarctica; Chemistry:rock; Chemistry:Rock; Electron Microprobe Analyses; Olivine; Petrography; Ross Island", "people": "Gaetani, Glenn", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "G170 Electron Microprobe Analyses of Melt Inclusions and Host Olivines", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601505"}, {"dataset_uid": "601250", "doi": "10.15784/601250", "keywords": "Antarctica; Hut Point Peninsula; Mt. Bird; Mt. Morning; Mt. Terror; Ross Island; Turks Head; Turtle Rock", "people": "Gaetani, Glenn; Pamukcu, Ayla", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Location and Description of Tephra Samples from the Erebus and Discovery Sub-provinces", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601250"}, {"dataset_uid": "601504", "doi": "10.15784/601504", "keywords": "Antarctica; Ross Island; Sample/collection Description; Sample/Collection Description; Sample Location", "people": "Gaetani, Glenn", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "G170 Sample Locations Ross Island \u0026 Discovery Province", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601504"}], "date_created": "Sat, 08 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Nontechnical project description Globally, 500 million people live near and are threatened by active volcanoes. An important step in mitigating volcanic hazards is understanding the variables that influence the explosivity of eruptions. The rate at which a magma ascends from the reservoir within the Earth to the surface is one such variable. However, magma ascent rates are particularly difficult to determine because of the lack of reliable methods for investigating the process. This research applies a new approach to study magma storage depths and ascent rates at the Erebus volcanic province of Antarctica, one of Earth\u0027s largest alkaline volcanic centers. Small pockets of magma that become trapped within growing olivine crystals are called melt inclusions. The concentrations of water and carbon dioxide in these melt inclusions preserve information on the depth of magma reservoirs. Changes to the concentration and isotopic composition of water in the inclusions provide information on how long it took for the host magma to rise to the surface. In combination, these data from samples of olivine-rich volcanic deposits in the Erebus volcanic province will be used to determine the depths at which magmas are stored and their ascent rates. The project results will provide a framework for understanding volcanic hazards associated with alkaline volcanism worldwide. In addition, this project facilitates collaboration among three institutions, and provides an important educational opportunity for a postdoctoral researcher. Technical project description The depths at which magmas are stored, their pre-eruptive volatile contents, and the rates at which they ascend to the Earth\u0027s surface are important controls on the dynamics of volcanic eruptions. Basaltic magmas are likely to be vapor undersaturated as they begin their ascent from the mantle through the crust, but volatile solubility drops with decreasing pressure. Once vapor saturation is achieved and the magma begins to degas, its pre-eruptive volatile content is determined largely by the depth at which it resides within the crust. Magma stored in deeper reservoirs tend to experience less pre-eruptive degassing and to be richer in volatiles than magma shallower reservoirs. Eruptive style is influenced by the rate at which a magma ascends from the reservoir to the surface through its effect on the efficiency of vapor bubble nucleation, growth, and coalescence. The proposed work will advance our understanding of pre-eruptive storage conditions and syn-eruptive ascent rates through a combined field and analytical research program. Volatile measurements from olivine-hosted melt inclusions will be used to systematically investigate magma storage depths and ascent rates associated with alkaline volcanism in the Erebus volcanic province. A central goal of the project is to provide a spatial and temporal framework for interpreting results from studies of present-day volcanic processes at Mt Erebus volcano. The Erebus volcanic province of Antarctica is especially well suited to this type of investigation because: (1) there are many exposed mafic scoria cones, fissure vents, and hyaloclastites (exposed in sea cliffs) that produced rapidly quenched, olivine-rich tephra; (2) existing volatile data for Ross Island MIs show that magma storage was relatively deep compared to many mafic volcanic systems; (3) some of the eruptive centers ejected mantle xenoliths, allowing for comparison of ascent rates for xenolith-bearing and xenolith-free eruptions, and comparison of ascent rates for those bearing xenoliths with times estimated from settling velocities; and (4) the cold, dry conditions in Antarctica result in excellent tephra preservation compared to tropical and even many temperate localities. The project provides new tools for assessing volcanic hazards, facilitates collaboration involving researchers from three different institutions (WHOI, U Wyoming, and U Oregon), supports the researchers\u0027 involvement in teaching, advising, and outreach, and provides an educational opportunity for a promising young postdoctoral researcher. Understanding the interrelationships among magma volatile contents, reservoir depths, and ascent rates is vital for assessing volcanic hazards associated with alkaline volcanism across the globe.", "east": 169.6, "geometry": "POINT(166.85 -77.775)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Tephra; Turtle Rock; USA/NSF; Amd/Us; LABORATORY; AMD; Ross Island; Turks Head; Hut Point Peninsula; LAVA SPEED/FLOW; USAP-DC; Mt. Morning; Mt. Terror; ROCKS/MINERALS/CRYSTALS; Mt. Bird; FIELD INVESTIGATION", "locations": "Ross Island; Mt. Morning; Mt. Bird; Mt. Terror; Hut Point Peninsula; Turtle Rock; Turks Head", "north": -77.1, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences; Antarctic Earth Sciences; Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Gaetani, Glenn; Le Roux, Veronique; Sims, Kenneth; Wallace, Paul", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION; OTHER \u003e PHYSICAL MODELS \u003e LABORATORY", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -78.45, "title": "Collaborative Research: Determining Magma Storage Depths and Ascent Rates for the Erebus Volcanic Province, Antarctica Using Diffusive Water Loss from Olivine-hosted Melt Inclusion", "uid": "p0010081", "west": 164.1}, {"awards": "1246463 Burns, Jennifer", "bounds_geometry": "POINT(149 -80)", "dataset_titles": "1970s - 1980s Kooyman-Billups TDR Dive Records from Weddell Seals in McMurdo Sound; Cortisol levels in Weddell seal fur; Seasonal Dive Data ; Specimen logs and observations from Weddell Seal colonies in Erebus Bay, 2013-2017; Weddell Seal Heat Flux Dataset; Weddell seal iron dynamics and oxygen stores across lactation; Weddell seal metabolic hormone data; Weddell Seal Molt Phenology Dataset; Weddell Seal Molt Survey Data; Weddell seal summer diving behavior", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601560", "doi": "10.15784/601560", "keywords": "Antarctica; Biota; Diving Behavior; McMurdo Sound; Weddell Seal", "people": "Tsai, EmmaLi", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "1970s - 1980s Kooyman-Billups TDR Dive Records from Weddell Seals in McMurdo Sound", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601560"}, {"dataset_uid": "601587", "doi": "10.15784/601587", "keywords": "Aerobic; Antarctica; Dive Capacity; Iron; McMurdo Sound; Weddell Seal", "people": "Shero, Michelle", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Weddell seal iron dynamics and oxygen stores across lactation", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601587"}, {"dataset_uid": "601840", "doi": "10.15784/601840", "keywords": "Antarctica; Cryosphere; Hormones; McMurdo Sound; Ross Sea; Weddell Seal", "people": "Kirkham, Amy", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Weddell seal metabolic hormone data", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601840"}, {"dataset_uid": "601338", "doi": "10.15784/601338", "keywords": "Animal Behavior Observation; Antarctica; Biota; McMurdo Sound; Ross Sea; Seal Dive Data; Weddell Seal", "people": "Burns, Jennifer", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Seasonal Dive Data ", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601338"}, {"dataset_uid": "601027", "doi": "10.15784/601027", "keywords": "Antarctica; Biota; McMurdo Sound; Oceans; Ross Sea; Sample/collection Description; Sample/Collection Description; Seals", "people": "Burns, Jennifer", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Specimen logs and observations from Weddell Seal colonies in Erebus Bay, 2013-2017", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601027"}, {"dataset_uid": "601271", "doi": "10.15784/601271", "keywords": "Antarctica; Heat Flux; Infrared Thermography; Physiological Conditions; Surface Temperatures; Thermoregulation; Weddell Seal", "people": "Walcott, Skyla", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Weddell Seal Heat Flux Dataset", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601271"}, {"dataset_uid": "601131", "doi": "10.15784/601131", "keywords": "Antarctica; B-292-M; Biota; Ross Sea; Seals; Southern Ocean; Weddell Seal", "people": "Burns, Jennifer", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Weddell Seal Molt Phenology Dataset", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601131"}, {"dataset_uid": "601137", "doi": "10.15784/601137", "keywords": "Antarctica; Biota; Ross Sea; Seals; Southern Ocean; Weddell Seal", "people": "Burns, Jennifer; Beltran, Roxanne", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Weddell seal summer diving behavior", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601137"}, {"dataset_uid": "601134", "doi": "10.15784/601134", "keywords": "Antarctica; Biota; Cortisol; Fur; Ross Sea; Seals; Southern Ocean; Visual Observations; Weddell Seal", "people": "Burns, Jennifer", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Cortisol levels in Weddell seal fur", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601134"}, {"dataset_uid": "601133", "doi": "10.15784/601133", "keywords": "Antarctica; Biota; Ross Sea; Seals; Visual Observations; Weddell Seal", "people": "Burns, Jennifer", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Weddell Seal Molt Survey Data", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601133"}], "date_created": "Wed, 24 May 2017 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Marine mammals that inhabit high latitude environments have evolved unique mechanisms to execute a suite of energetically-costly life history events (CLHEs) within a relatively short timeframe when conditions are most favorable. Understanding the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that regulate CLHEs is particularly important in species such as Weddell seals, as both reproduction and molt are associated with large reductions in foraging effort, and the timing and outcome of each appears linked with the other. The long-term mark recapture program on Erebus Bay\u0027s Weddell seals provides a unique opportunity to examine CLHEs in a known-history population. The proposed work will monitor physiological condition, pregnancy status, and behavior at various times throughout the year to determine if molt timing is influenced by prior reproductive outcome, and if it, in turn, influences future reproductive success. These data will then be used to address the demographic consequences of trade-offs between CLHEs in Weddell seals. The impact of environmental conditions and CLHE timing on population health will also be modeled so that results can be extended to other climates and species. An improved understanding of the interactions between CLHEs and the environment is important in predicting the response of organisms from higher trophic levels to climate change. Results will be widely disseminated through publications as well as through presentations at national and international meetings. In addition, raw data will be made available through open-access databases. This project will support the research and training of graduate students and a post-doctoral researcher and will further foster an extensive public outreach collaboration.", "east": 165.0, "geometry": "POINT(165 -77)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "FIELD INVESTIGATION; USAP-DC; Seal Dive Data; Weddell Seal", "locations": null, "north": -77.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Burns, Jennifer", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -77.0, "title": "The Cost of A New Fur Coat: Interactions between Molt and Reproduction in Weddell Seals", "uid": "p0000229", "west": 165.0}, {"awards": "0838817 Kyle, Philip", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((167 -77.3,167.05 -77.3,167.1 -77.3,167.15 -77.3,167.2 -77.3,167.25 -77.3,167.3 -77.3,167.35 -77.3,167.4 -77.3,167.45 -77.3,167.5 -77.3,167.5 -77.34,167.5 -77.38,167.5 -77.42,167.5 -77.46,167.5 -77.5,167.5 -77.54,167.5 -77.58,167.5 -77.62,167.5 -77.66,167.5 -77.7,167.45 -77.7,167.4 -77.7,167.35 -77.7,167.3 -77.7,167.25 -77.7,167.2 -77.7,167.15 -77.7,167.1 -77.7,167.05 -77.7,167 -77.7,167 -77.66,167 -77.62,167 -77.58,167 -77.54,167 -77.5,167 -77.46,167 -77.42,167 -77.38,167 -77.34,167 -77.3))", "dataset_titles": "Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory III (MEVO III): Conduit Processes and Surveillance", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "600153", "doi": "10.15784/600153", "keywords": "Antarctica; Cable Observatory; Intracontinental Magmatism; IntraContinental Magmatism; MEVO; Mount Erebus; Photo/video; Photo/Video; Ross Sea; Solid Earth; Volcano", "people": "Kyle, Philip", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": "MEVO", "title": "Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory III (MEVO III): Conduit Processes and Surveillance", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/600153"}], "date_created": "Thu, 23 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Mount Erebus is Antarctica?s most active volcano that has been in a persistent state of activity for at least the last 35 years. It has a unique geochemistry among the Earth\u0027s active volcanoes and is also unique in hosting a persistent convecting lake(s) of anorthclase phonolite magma in its summit crater. The relative simplicity of the magmatic system, consistency of activity, and accessibility of close-range observation make Erebus attractive as a target for extensive studies. Although the Erebus\u0027 seismicity and eruptive activity and processes are becoming increasingly well understood over years of research, there is a near total lack of understanding its deeper magmatic system. The primary goal of this proposal is to continue supporting the Mt. Erebus Volcano Observatory (MEVO III) improving our current understanding of the Erebus eruptive and non-eruptive magmatic system using an integrated approach from geophysical, geochemical and remote sensing observations. This goal can be grouped into the following fundamental research objectives: (a) to sustain year-round surveillance of on-going volcanic activity primarily using geophysical observatories; (b) to understand processes within the convecting conduit which feeds the persistent lava lakes; and (c) to understand the impact of Erebus eruptive activity upon the Antarctic environment. Continued reliance on students provides a broader impact to this proposed research and firmly grounds this effort in its educational mission.", "east": 167.5, "geometry": "POINT(167.25 -77.5)", "instruments": "IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e TEMPERATURE/HUMIDITY SENSORS \u003e TEMPERATURE SENSORS", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Ice Caves; USAP-DC; Amd/Us; Distributed Temperature Sensing; FIELD SURVEYS; Not provided; AMD; Optical Fiber", "locations": null, "north": -77.3, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Kyle, Philip; Curtis, Aaron; Rotman, Holly", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD SURVEYS; Not provided", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": "MEVO", "south": -77.7, "title": "Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory III (MEVO III): Conduit Processes and Surveillance", "uid": "p0000488", "west": 167.0}, {"awards": "1141326 Rotella, Jay", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((163.1 -70.3,163.59 -70.3,164.08 -70.3,164.57 -70.3,165.06 -70.3,165.55 -70.3,166.04 -70.3,166.53 -70.3,167.02 -70.3,167.51 -70.3,168 -70.3,168 -70.98,168 -71.66,168 -72.34,168 -73.02,168 -73.7,168 -74.38,168 -75.06,168 -75.74,168 -76.42,168 -77.1,167.51 -77.1,167.02 -77.1,166.53 -77.1,166.04 -77.1,165.55 -77.1,165.06 -77.1,164.57 -77.1,164.08 -77.1,163.59 -77.1,163.1 -77.1,163.1 -76.42,163.1 -75.74,163.1 -75.06,163.1 -74.38,163.1 -73.7,163.1 -73.02,163.1 -72.34,163.1 -71.66,163.1 -70.98,163.1 -70.3))", "dataset_titles": "Demographic data for Weddell Seal colonies in Erebus Bay through the 2017 Antarctic field season", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601125", "doi": "10.15784/601125", "keywords": "Antarctica; Biota; Sea Ice", "people": "Rotella, Jay", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Demographic data for Weddell Seal colonies in Erebus Bay through the 2017 Antarctic field season", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601125"}], "date_created": "Mon, 08 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Abstract The Erebus Bay population of Weddell seals in Antarctica?s Ross Sea is the most southerly breeding population of mammal in the world, closely associated with persistent shore-fast ice, and one that has been intensively studied since 1968. The resulting long-term database, which includes data for 20,586 marked individuals, contains detailed population information that provides an excellent opportunity to study linkages between environmental conditions and demographic processes in the Antarctic. The population?s location is of special interest as the Ross Sea is one of the most productive areas of the Southern Ocean, one of the few pristine marine environments remaining on the planet, and, in contrast to the Antarctic Peninsula and Arctic, is undergoing a gradual lengthening of the sea-ice season. The work to be continued here capitalizes on (1) long-term data for individual seals and their polar environment; (2) experience collecting and analyzing data from the extensive study population; and (3) recent statistical advances in hierarchical modeling that allow for rigorous treatment of individual heterogeneity (in mark-recapture and body mass data) and inclusion of diverse covariates hypothesized to explain variation in fitness components. Covariates to be considered include traits of individuals and their mothers and environmental conditions throughout life. The study will continue to (1) provide detailed data on known-age individuals to other science projects and (2) educate and mentor the next generation of ecologists through academic and professional training and research experiences.", "east": 168.0, "geometry": "POINT(165.55 -73.7)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Not provided", "locations": null, "north": -70.3, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Rotella, Jay; Garrott, Robert", "platforms": "Not provided", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -77.1, "title": "The Demographic Consequences of Environmental Variability and Individual Heterogeneity in Life-history Tactics of a Long-lived Antarctic Marine Predator", "uid": "p0000299", "west": 163.1}, {"awards": "1043700 Harry, Dennis", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-180 -70,-176.5 -70,-173 -70,-169.5 -70,-166 -70,-162.5 -70,-159 -70,-155.5 -70,-152 -70,-148.5 -70,-145 -70,-145 -71,-145 -72,-145 -73,-145 -74,-145 -75,-145 -76,-145 -77,-145 -78,-145 -79,-145 -80,-148.5 -80,-152 -80,-155.5 -80,-159 -80,-162.5 -80,-166 -80,-169.5 -80,-173 -80,-176.5 -80,180 -80,177.5 -80,175 -80,172.5 -80,170 -80,167.5 -80,165 -80,162.5 -80,160 -80,157.5 -80,155 -80,155 -79,155 -78,155 -77,155 -76,155 -75,155 -74,155 -73,155 -72,155 -71,155 -70,157.5 -70,160 -70,162.5 -70,165 -70,167.5 -70,170 -70,172.5 -70,175 -70,177.5 -70,-180 -70))", "dataset_titles": "Geodynamic Models of Subsidence and Lithospheric Flexure at the ANDRILL Drill Sites: Implications for Cenozoic Tectonics and Ice Sheet History; Ross Sea post-middle Miocene seismic interpretation", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "600128", "doi": "10.15784/600128", "keywords": "Andrill; Antarctica; Continental Rift; Geology/Geophysics - Other; Lithosphere; Model; Ross Sea; Solid Earth; Tectonic; Transantarctic Mountains", "people": "Harry, Dennis L.", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": "ANDRILL", "title": "Geodynamic Models of Subsidence and Lithospheric Flexure at the ANDRILL Drill Sites: Implications for Cenozoic Tectonics and Ice Sheet History", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/600128"}, {"dataset_uid": "601227", "doi": "10.15784/601227", "keywords": "Andrill; Antarctica; Marine Geoscience; Ross Sea; Seismic Interpretation; Seismic Reflection; Stratigraphy; Subsidence; Victoria Land Basin", "people": "Harry, Dennis L.", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": "ANDRILL", "title": "Ross Sea post-middle Miocene seismic interpretation", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601227"}], "date_created": "Sun, 31 Aug 2014 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Intellectual Merit: This research will place the subsidence history of the southern Victoria Land Basin into a quantitative geodynamic context and will assess the influence of flexure associated with late Neogene volcanic loading of the crust by the Erebus Volcanic Group. This will be done by extending geodynamic models of extension in the West Antarctic Rift System to include extensional hiatuses hypothesized to have occurred during the Late Paleogene and Miocene, and by developing a new geodynamic model of volcanic loading and associated lithosphere flexure. Finite element and finite difference modeling methods will be used. In the first phase of the project, a series of extensional geodynamic models will be developed to examine the effect that proposed extensional hiatuses have on the style of extension, with emphasis placed on developing a process based understanding of the change in rift style from diffuse during the Late Cretaceous to more focused during the Cenozoic. The models will test the hypotheses that extensional hiatuses led to the change in rifting style, and will place constraints on the timing and duration of the hiatuses. The second phase of the project will use the thermal and rheological properties of the previous models to constrain the flexural rigidity of the lithosphere in order to model the flexural response to volcanic loading to test the hypotheses that flexural subsidence contributed to cyclic changes between grounded and floating ice at the ANDRILL AND-1A site, complicating interpretations of the climatic record from this core, and that flexure contributes to the stress orientation at the AND-2B site, which is inconsistent with the expected regional extensional stress orientation. Broader impacts: The project will train an undergraduate student and an M.S. student. Outreach activities include a planned series of talks at regional high schools, junior colleges, and 4-year colleges that have geology programs.", "east": -145.0, "geometry": "POINT(-175 -75)", "instruments": "NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "USAP-DC; MARINE GEOPHYSICS; Antarctica; NOT APPLICABLE", "locations": "Antarctica", "north": -70.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Harry, Dennis L.", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": "ANDRILL", "south": -80.0, "title": "Geodynamic Models of Subsidence and Lithospheric Flexure at the ANDRILL Drill Sites: Implications for Cenozoic Tectonics and Ice Sheet History", "uid": "p0000467", "west": 155.0}, {"awards": "1142083 Kyle, Philip", "bounds_geometry": "POINT(167.15334 -77.529724)", "dataset_titles": "Database of Erebus cave field seasons; Icequakes at Erebus volcano, Antarctica; Mount Erebus Observatory GPS data; Mount Erebus Seismic Data; Mount Erebus Thermodynamic model code; Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory: Operations, Science and Outreach (MEVO-OSO); Seismic data used for high-resolution active-source seismic tomography", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200032", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "IRIS", "science_program": null, "title": "Mount Erebus Seismic Data", "url": "http://ds.iris.edu/mda/ER/"}, {"dataset_uid": "200030", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "GitHub", "science_program": null, "title": "Database of Erebus cave field seasons", "url": "https://github.com/foobarbecue/troggle"}, {"dataset_uid": "200034", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "IRIS", "science_program": null, "title": "Seismic data used for high-resolution active-source seismic tomography", "url": "http://ds.iris.edu/mda/ZW/?timewindow=2007-2009http://ds.iris.edu/mda/Y4?timewindow=2008-2009http://ds.iris.edu/ds/nodes/dmc/forms/assembled-data/?dataset_report_number=09-015"}, {"dataset_uid": "200031", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "GitHub", "science_program": null, "title": "Mount Erebus Thermodynamic model code", "url": "https://github.com/kaylai/Iacovino2015_thermodynamic_model"}, {"dataset_uid": "600381", "doi": "10.15784/600381", "keywords": "Antarctica; Cable Observatory; Geology/Geophysics - Other; Infrared Imagery; Intracontinental Magmatism; IntraContinental Magmatism; MEVO; Mount Erebus; Photo/video; Photo/Video; Ross Island; Solid Earth; Thermal Camera; Volcano", "people": "Oppenheimer, Clive; Kyle, Philip", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": "MEVO", "title": "Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory: Operations, Science and Outreach (MEVO-OSO)", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/600381"}, {"dataset_uid": "200027", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "UNAVCO", "science_program": null, "title": "Mount Erebus Observatory GPS data", "url": "https://www.unavco.org/data/gps-gnss/data-access-methods/dai1/monument.php?mid=22083\u0026parent_link=Permanent\u0026pview=original"}, {"dataset_uid": "200033", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "IRIS", "science_program": null, "title": "Icequakes at Erebus volcano, Antarctica", "url": "http://ds.iris.edu/mda/ZW/?timewindow=2007-2009http://ds.iris.edu/mda/Y4?timewindow=2008-2009http://ds.iris.edu/mda/ZO?timewindow=2011-2012"}], "date_created": "Tue, 03 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Intellectual Merit: Mt. Erebus is one of only a handful of volcanoes worldwide that have lava lakes with readily observable and nearly continuous Strombolian explosive activity. Erebus is also unique in having a permanent convecting lava lake of anorthoclase phonolite magma. Over the years significant infrastructure has been established at the summit of Mt. Erebus as part of the Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory (MEVO), which serves as a natural laboratory to study a wide range of volcanic processes, especially magma degassing associated with an open convecting magma conduit. The PI proposes to continue operating MEVO for a further five years. The fundamental fundamental research objectives are: to understand diffuse flank degassing by using distributed temperature sensing and gas measurements in ice caves, to understand conduit processes, and to examine the environmental impact of volcanic emissions from Erebus on atmospheric and cryospheric environments. To examine conduit processes the PI will make simultaneous observations with video records, thermal imaging, measurements of gas emission rates and gas compositions, seismic, and infrasound data. Broader impacts: An important aspect of Erebus research is the education and training of students. Both graduate and undergraduate students will have the opportunity to work on MEVO data and deploy to the field site. In addition, this proposal will support a middle or high school science teacher for two field seasons. The PI will also continue working with various media organizations and filmmakers.", "east": 167.15334, "geometry": "POINT(167.15334 -77.529724)", "instruments": "EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e SPECTROMETERS/RADIOMETERS \u003e IMAGING SPECTROMETERS/RADIOMETERS \u003e TIRS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e SPECTROMETERS/RADIOMETERS \u003e SPECTROMETERS \u003e FTIR SPECTROMETER; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e SPECTROMETERS/RADIOMETERS \u003e SPECTROMETERS \u003e DOAS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e ACTIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e POSITIONING/NAVIGATION \u003e LASER RANGING \u003e MOBLAS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROBES \u003e ELECTRON MICROPROBES; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PHOTON/OPTICAL DETECTORS \u003e PETROGRAPHIC MICROSCOPES; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e MAGNETIC/MOTION SENSORS \u003e SEISMOMETERS \u003e SEISMOMETERS; NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e SPECTROMETERS/RADIOMETERS \u003e IMAGING SPECTROMETERS/RADIOMETERS \u003e HRDI; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e SPECTROMETERS/RADIOMETERS \u003e IMAGING SPECTROMETERS/RADIOMETERS \u003e TIRS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e ACOUSTIC SOUNDERS \u003e INFRASONIC MICROPHONES; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e SPECTROMETERS/RADIOMETERS \u003e AMS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e SPECTROMETERS/RADIOMETERS \u003e XRF; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e SPECTROMETERS/RADIOMETERS \u003e ICP-MS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e SPECTROMETERS/RADIOMETERS \u003e ICP-ES; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e ACTIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e POSITIONING/NAVIGATION \u003e LASER RANGING \u003e MOBLAS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e CHEMICAL METERS/ANALYZERS \u003e IRGA; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PHOTON/OPTICAL DETECTORS \u003e SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPES; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PRESSURE/HEIGHT METERS \u003e PRESSURE CHAMBERS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e SPECTROMETERS/RADIOMETERS \u003e SPECTROMETERS \u003e FTIR SPECTROMETER; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e PHOTON/OPTICAL DETECTORS \u003e MICROTOMOGRAPHY; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e SPECTROMETERS/RADIOMETERS \u003e SIMS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e CHEMICAL METERS/ANALYZERS \u003e GAS CHROMATOGRAPHS", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Earthquakes; Vesuvius; Cosmogenic Radionuclides; Infrasonic Signals; Icequakes; Magma Shells; Phase Equilibria; Passcal; Correlation; Backscattering; Eruptive History; Degassing; Volatiles; Magma Convection; Thermodynamics; Tremors; Optech; Uv Doas; Energy Partitioning; Erebus; Cronus; Holocene; Lava Lake; Phonolite; Vagrant; Thermal Infrared Camera; Flir; USA/NSF; Mount Erebus; Active Source Seismic; GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS; Interferometry; Volatile Solubility; Redox State; Viscosity; Hydrogen Emission; Seismicity; Eruptions; Explosion Energy; FIELD SURVEYS; Radar Spectra; OBSERVATION BASED; Seismic Events; Strombolian Eruptions; Anorthoclase; Ice Caves; Iris; VOLCANO OBSERVATORY; Melt Inclusions; Ftir; Alkaline Volcanism; Tomography; TLS; Volcanic Gases; ANALYTICAL LAB", "locations": "Vesuvius; Cronus; Vagrant; Mount Erebus; Passcal", "north": -77.529724, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": "PHANEROZOIC \u003e CENOZOIC \u003e QUATERNARY \u003e HOLOCENE", "persons": "Kyle, Philip; Oppenheimer, Clive; Chaput, Julien; Jones, Laura; Fischer, Tobias", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD SURVEYS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e PERMANENT LAND SITES \u003e GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e PERMANENT LAND SITES \u003e VOLCANO OBSERVATORY; OTHER \u003e MODELS \u003e OBSERVATION BASED; OTHER \u003e PHYSICAL MODELS \u003e ANALYTICAL LAB", "repo": "IRIS", "repositories": "GitHub; IRIS; UNAVCO; USAP-DC", "science_programs": "MEVO", "south": -77.529724, "title": "Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory: Operations, Science and Outreach (MEVO-OSO)", "uid": "p0000383", "west": 167.15334}, {"awards": "0229403 Tauxe, Lisa", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-180 -60,-144 -60,-108 -60,-72 -60,-36 -60,0 -60,36 -60,72 -60,108 -60,144 -60,180 -60,180 -63,180 -66,180 -69,180 -72,180 -75,180 -78,180 -81,180 -84,180 -87,180 -90,144 -90,108 -90,72 -90,36 -90,0 -90,-36 -90,-72 -90,-108 -90,-144 -90,-180 -90,-180 -87,-180 -84,-180 -81,-180 -78,-180 -75,-180 -72,-180 -69,-180 -66,-180 -63,-180 -60))", "dataset_titles": "Paleomagnetism and40Ar/39Ar ages from volcanics extruded during the Matuyama and Brunhes Chrons near McMurdo Sound, Antarctica", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "000116", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "EarthRef", "science_program": null, "title": "Paleomagnetism and40Ar/39Ar ages from volcanics extruded during the Matuyama and Brunhes Chrons near McMurdo Sound, Antarctica", "url": "http://dx.doi.org/10.7288/V4/MAGIC/12395"}], "date_created": "Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "This award, provided by the Antarctic Geology and Geophysics Program of the Office of Polar Programs, supports a project to investigate Earth\u0027s magnetic field over the past 5 million years in order to test models of Earth\u0027s geomagnetic dynamo. Paleomagnetic data (directions of ancient geomagnetic fields obtained from rocks) play an important role in a variety of geophysical studies of the Earth, including plate tectonic reconstructions, magnetostratigraphy, and studies of the behavior of the ancient geomagnetic field (which is called paleo-geomagnetism). Over the past four decades the key assumption in many paleomagnetic studies has been that the average direction of the paleomagnetic field corresponds to one that would have been produced by a geocentric axial dipole (GAD) (analogous to a bar magnet at the center of the Earth), and that paleoinclinations (the dip of magnetic directions from rocks) provide data of sufficient accuracy to enable their use in plate reconstructions. A recent re-examination of the fundamental data underlying models of the time averaged field has shown that the most glaring deficiency in the existing data base is a dearth of high quality data, including paleointensity information, from high latitudes. This project will undertake a sampling and laboratory program on suitable sites from the Mt. Erebus Volcanic Province (Antarctica) that will produce the quality data from high southern latitudes that are essential to an enhanced understanding of the time averaged field and its long term variations.", "east": 180.0, "geometry": "POINT(0 -89.999)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Not provided", "locations": null, "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Tauxe, Lisa; Staudigel, Hubertus; Constable, Catherine; Koppers, Anthony", "platforms": "Not provided", "repo": "EarthRef", "repositories": "EarthRef", "science_programs": null, "south": -90.0, "title": "Collaborative Research: Geomagnetic Field as Recorded in the Mt Erebus Volcanic Province: Key to Field Structure at High Southern Latitudes", "uid": "p0000228", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "0225110 Garrott, Robert", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((163.1 -70.3,163.59 -70.3,164.08 -70.3,164.57 -70.3,165.06 -70.3,165.55 -70.3,166.04 -70.3,166.53 -70.3,167.02 -70.3,167.51 -70.3,168 -70.3,168 -70.98,168 -71.66,168 -72.34,168 -73.02,168 -73.7,168 -74.38,168 -75.06,168 -75.74,168 -76.42,168 -77.1,167.51 -77.1,167.02 -77.1,166.53 -77.1,166.04 -77.1,165.55 -77.1,165.06 -77.1,164.57 -77.1,164.08 -77.1,163.59 -77.1,163.1 -77.1,163.1 -76.42,163.1 -75.74,163.1 -75.06,163.1 -74.38,163.1 -73.7,163.1 -73.02,163.1 -72.34,163.1 -71.66,163.1 -70.98,163.1 -70.3))", "dataset_titles": "Weddell Seal data", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "000120", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "PI website", "science_program": null, "title": "Weddell Seal data", "url": "http://www.montana.edu/weddellseals/"}], "date_created": "Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The Erebus Bay Weddell seal population study in eastern McMurdo Sound, Antarctica was initiated in 1968 and represents one of the longest intensive field investigations of a long-lived mammal in existence. Over the thirty-four year period of this study a total of 15,636 animals have been tagged with 144,927 re-sighting records logged in the current database. As such, this study is an extremely valuable resource for understanding population dynamics of not only Weddell seals, but also other species of both terrestrial and marine mammals with similar life-history characteristics. With the retirement of the original investigator, Dr. Donald Siniff, this proposal represents an effort to transition the long-term studies to a new team of investigators. Dr. Robert Garrott and Dr. Jay Rotella propose building upon the foundation with two lines of investigation that combine use of the long-term database with new field initiatives. The continuity of the demographic data will be maintained by annually marking all pups born, replace lost or broken tags, and perform multiple mark-recapture censuses of the Erebus Bay seal colonies. The new data will be combined with the existing database and a progressively complex series of analyses will be performed using recently developed mark-recapture methods to decompose, evaluate, and integrate the demographic characteristics of the Erebus Bay Weddell seal population. These analyses will allow the testing of specific hypotheses about population regulation as well as temporal and spatial patterns of variation in vital rates among colonies within the population that have been posed by previous investigators, but have not been adequately evaluated due to data and analytical limitations. The primary new field initiative will involve an intensive study of mass dynamics of both pups and adult females as a surrogate measure for assessing annual variation in marine resources and their potential role in limiting and/or regulating the population. In conjunction with the collection of data on body mass dynamics the investigators will use satellite imagery to develop an extended time series of sea ice extent in McMurdo Sound. Regional extent of sea ice affects both regional primary productivity and availability of haul out areas for Weddell seals. Increased primary productivity may increase marine resources which would be expected to have a positive affect on Weddell seal foraging efficiency, leading to increased body mass. These data combined with the large proportion of known-aged seals in the current study population (\u003e60%) will allow the investigators to develop a powerful database to test specific hypotheses about ecological processes affecting Weddell seals. Knowledge of the mechanisms that limit and/or regulate Weddell seal populations and the specific bio-physical linkages between climate, oceans, ice, and Antarctic food webs can provide important contributions to understanding of pinniped population dynamics, as well as contribute more generally to theoretical understanding of population, community, and ecosystem patterns and processes. Such knowledge can be readily applied elsewhere to enhance the ability of natural resource managers to effectively maintain assemblages of other large-mammal species and the ecological processes that they facilitate. Continuation of this long-term study may also contribute to understanding the potential impacts of human activities such as global climate warming and the commercial exploitation of Antarctic marine resources. And finally, the study can contribute significantly to the development and testing of new research and analytical methodologies that will almost certainly have many other applications.", "east": 168.0, "geometry": "POINT(165.55 -73.7)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Not provided", "locations": null, "north": -70.3, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Garrott, Robert; Siniff, Donald; Rotella, Jay", "platforms": "Not provided", "repo": "PI website", "repositories": "PI website", "science_programs": null, "south": -77.1, "title": "Patterns and Processes: Dynamics of the Erebus Bay Weddell Seal Population", "uid": "p0000109", "west": 163.1}, {"awards": "9977306 Ryan, Jeffrey", "bounds_geometry": "POINT(167.16 -77.5)", "dataset_titles": "B-Be-Li Abundance and Isotope Data: Mt. Erebus-McMurdo Volcanics", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "600020", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": "Ryan, Jeffrey", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "B-Be-Li Abundance and Isotope Data: Mt. Erebus-McMurdo Volcanics", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/600020"}], "date_created": "Thu, 19 Jun 2003 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Subduction zones are the one place on Earth where materials from the surface (water, sediments and crustal rocks) can be carried into our planet\u0027s deep interior. To quantify this process of subduction-zone recycling, we need to understand both the input of sediments and crust to trenches, and all geochemical outputs related to the subduction process. While the chemical outputs represented by magmatism at volcanic arcs and in back-arc settings have been widely studied, little is known about possible subduction-related outfluxes through the shallow forearc, between the arc and the trench. We are attempting to characterize the \"forearc flux\" by examining serpentinites which are rising diapirically through the forearc mantle and crust in the Mariana arc-trench system. Our work will complete efforts begun (with NSF support) several years ago, and will characterize these samples (and the slab-derived fluids which helped to create them) for radiogenic isotopes, lithium and oxygen isotopes, and the \"fluid-mobile\" elements Cs, Rb, U, As, Pb, and Sb. Our work will allow us to characterize both the chemical inventories of species that are released from subducting slabs beneath forearcs, and the magnitude of this flux, for comparison with results for trench inputs (being collected as part of ODP Leg 125), and existing data for arc volcanic outputs in the Mariana system.", "east": 167.16, "geometry": "POINT(167.16 -77.5)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": false, "keywords": "Mount Erebus; Mcmurdo Volcanic Group; Not provided; Crary Mountains", "locations": "Crary Mountains; Mount Erebus", "north": -77.5, "nsf_funding_programs": "Marine Geology and Geophysics", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Ryan, Jeffrey", "platforms": "Not provided", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -77.5, "title": "The Role of the Forearc in Subduction Zone Chemical Cycles: Elemental and Isotopic Signatures of Forearc Serpentinites, ODP Leg 125", "uid": "p0000244", "west": 167.16}]
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General Description: This project is intended to reveal the magma source regions, staging areas, and eruptive pathways within the active volcano Mount Erebus. This volcano is an end-member type known as phonolitic, which refers to the lava composition, and is almost purely carbon-dioxide-bearing and occurs in continental rift settings. It is in contrast to the better known water-bearing volcanoes which occur at plate boundary settings (such as Mount St Helens or Mount Fuji). Phonolitic volcanic eruptions elsewhere such as Tamboro or Vesuvius have caused more than 50,000 eruption related fatalities. Phonolites are also associated with rare earth element deposits, giving them economic interest. To illuminate the inner workings of Mount Erebus, we will cover the volcano with a dense network of geophysical probes based on magnetotelluric (MT) measurements. MT makes use of naturally occurring electromagnetic (EM) waves generated mainly by the sun as sources to provide images of the electrical conductivity structure of the Earth's interior. Conductivity is sensitive to the presence of fluids and melts in the Earth and so is well suited to understanding volcanic processes. The project is a cooperative effort between scientists from the United States, New Zealand, Japan and Canada. It implements new technology developed by the lead investigator and associates that allows such measurements to be taken on snow-covered terrains. This has applicability for frozen environments generally, such as resource exploration in the Arctic. The project supports a new post-doctoral researcher, and leverages imaging and measurement methods developed through support by other agencies and interfaced with commercial platforms. Technical Description: The investigators propose to test magmatic evolution models for Mount Erebus volcano, Antarctica, using the magnetotelluric (MT) method. The phonolite lava flow compositions on Mount Erebus are uncommon, but provide a window into the range of upper mantle source compositions and melt differentiation paths. Explosive phonolite eruptions have been known worldwide for devastating eruptions such as Tambora and Vesuvius, and commonly host rare earth element deposits. In the MT method, temporal variations in the Earth's natural electromagnetic (EM) field are used as source fields to probe the electrical resistivity structure in the depth range of 1 to 100 kilometers. This effort will consist of approximately 100 MT sites, with some concentration in the summit area. Field acquisition will take place over two field seasons. The main goals are to 1) confirm the existence and the geometry of the uppermost magma chamber thought to reside at 5-10 kilometer depths; 2) attempt to identify, in the deeper resistivity structure, the magma staging area near the crust-mantle boundary; 3) image the steep, crustal-scale, near-vertical conduit carrying magma from the mantle; 4) infer the physical and chemical state from geophysical properties of a CO2-dominated mafic shield volcano; and 5) constrain the relationships between structural and magmatic/ hydrothermal activity related to the Terror Rift. Tomographic imaging of the interior resistivity will be performed using a new inversion platform developed at Utah, based on the deformable edge finite element method, that is the best available for accommodating the steep topography of the study area. The project is an international cooperation between University of Utah, GNS Science Wellington New Zealand (G. Hill, Co-I), and Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan (Y. Ogawa, Co-I), plus participation by University of Alberta (M. Unsworth) and Missouri State University (K. Mickus). Instrument deployments will be made exclusively by helicopter. The project implements new technology that allows MT measurements to be taken on snow-covered terrains. The project supports a new post-doctoral researcher, and leverages imaging and measurement methods developed through support by other agencies and interfaced with commercial platforms.
Nontechnical Description: The age of rocks and soils at the surface of the Earth can help answer multiple questions that are important for human welfare, including: when did volcanoes erupt and are they likely to erupt again? when did glaciers advance and what do they tell us about climate? what is the frequency of hazards such as landslides, floods, and debris flows? how long does it take soils to form and is erosion of soils going to make farming unsustainable? One method that is used thousands of times every year to address these questions is called 'cosmogenic surface-exposure dating'. This method takes advantage of cosmic rays, which are powerful protons and neutrons produced by supernova that constantly bombard the Earth's atmosphere. Some cosmic rays reach Earth's surface and produce nuclear reactions that result in rare isotopes. Measuring the quantity of the rare isotopes enables the length of time that the rock or soil has been exposed to the atmosphere to be calculated. The distribution of cosmic rays around the globe depends on Earth's magnetic field, and this distribution must be accurately known if useful exposure ages are to be obtained. Currently there are two remaining theories, narrowed down from many, of how to calculate this distribution. Measurements from a site that is at both high altitude and high latitude (close to the poles) are needed to test the two theories. This study involves both field and lab research and includes a Ph.D. student and an undergraduate student. The research team will collect rocks from lava flows on an active volcano in Antarctica named Mount Erebus and measure the amounts of two rare isotopes: 36Cl and 3He. The age of eruption of the samples will be determined using a highly accurate method that does not depend on cosmic rays, called 40Ar/39Ar dating. The two cosmic-ray theories will be used to calculate the ages of the samples using the 36Cl and 3He concentrations and will then be compared to the ages calculated from the 40Ar/39Ar dating. The accurate cosmic-ray theory will be the one that gives the same ages as the 40Ar/39Ar dating. Identification of the accurate theory will enable use of the cosmogenic surface dating methods anywhere on earth. Technical Description: Nuclides produced by cosmic rays in rocks at the surface of the earth are widely used for Quaternary geochronology and geomorphic studies and their use is increasing every year. The recently completed CRONUS-Earth Project (Cosmic-Ray Produced Nuclides on Earth) has systematically evaluated the production rates and theoretical underpinnings of cosmogenic nuclides. However, the CRONUS-Earth Project was not able to discriminate between the two leading theoretical approaches: the original Lal model (St) and the new Lifton-Sato-Dunai model (LSD). Mathematical models used to scale the production of the nuclides as a function of location on the earth, elevation, and magnetic field configuration are an essential component of this dating method. The inability to distinguish between the two models was because the predicted production rates did not differ sufficiently at the location of the calibration sites. The cosmogenic-nuclide production rates that are predicted by the two models differ significantly from each other at Erebus volcano, Antarctica. Mount Erebus is therefore an excellent site for testing which production model best describes actual cosmogenic-nuclide production variations over the globe. The research team recently measured 3He and 36Cl in mineral separates extracted from Erebus lava flows. The exposure ages for each nuclide were reproducible within each flow (~2% standard deviation) and in very good agreement between the 3He and the 36Cl ages. However, the ages calculated by the St and LSD scaling methods differ by ~15-25% due to the sensitivity of the production rate to the scaling at this latitude and elevation. These results lend confidence that Erebus qualifies as a suitable high- latitude/high-elevation calibration site. The remaining component that is still lacking is accurate and reliable independent (i.e., non-cosmogenic) ages, however, published 40Ar/39Ar ages are too imprecise and typically biased to older ages due to excess argon contained in melt inclusions. The research team's new 40Ar/39Ar data show that previous problems with Erebus anorthoclase geochronology are now overcome with modern mass spectrometry and better sample preparation. This indicates a high likelihood of success for this proposal in defining an accurate global scaling model. Although encouraging, much remains to be accomplished. This project will sample lava flows over 3 km in elevation and determine their 40Ar/39Ar and exposure ages. These combined data will discriminate between the two scaling methods, resulting in a preferred scaling model for global cosmogenic geochronology. The LSD method contains two sub-methods, the 'plain' LSD scales all nuclides the same, whereas LSDn scales each nuclide individually. The project can discriminate between these models using 3He and 36Cl data from lava flows at different elevations, because the first model predicts that the production ratio for these two nuclides will be invariant with elevation and the second that there should be ~10% difference over the range of elevations to be sampled. Finally, the project will provide a local, finite-age calibration site for cosmogenic-nuclide investigations in Antarctica.
Within any population, some individuals perform better than others. These individuals may survive longer or produce more offspring. Weddell seals in Erebus Bay, Antarctica, provide an unparalleled opportunity to investigate how an animal's physiology, behavior, and genetic make-up contribute to lifetime reproductive success because they have been the subject of a long-term population monitoring study and are easily accessible during their reproductive season. This project will distinguish key differences in energy allocation, reproductive timing, and dive capacities between female Weddell seals with a history of frequently producing pups ("high-quality" group), versus females that have produced pups only infrequently ("low-quality" group). For each group of females, physiology and behavior during the nursing period will be analyzed to assess whether investments influence their probability of reproducing the following year. Whole genomes will be compared between groups to identify underlying genes that govern reproductive success and population stability in a long-lived mammal. This collaborative project will provide research opportunities and training to several undergraduate and graduate students at the three participating institutions. Results will be broadly disseminated through presentations and peer-reviewed publications, and to students via an extensive public outreach collaboration with museum programming, curriculum-aligned science lessons, and pedagogy training. Within any wild animal population there is substantial heterogeneity in reproductive rates and animal fitness. Not all individuals contribute to the population equally; some are able to produce more offspring than others and thus are considered to be of higher quality. This study aims to distinguish which physiological mechanisms (energy dynamics, aerobic capacity, and fertility) and underlying genetic factors make some Weddell seal females particularly successful at producing pups year after year, while others produce far fewer pups than the population average. In this project, an Organismal Energetics approach will identify key differences between high- and low-quality females in how they balance current and future reproductive success by tracking lactation costs, midsummer foraging success and pregnancy rates, and overwinter foraging patterns and live births the next year. Repeated sampling of individuals' physiological status (body composition, endocrinology, ovulation and pregnancy timing), will be paired with a whole-genome sequencing study. The second component of this study uses a Genome to Phenome approach to better understand how genetic differences between high- and low-quality females directly correspond to functional differences in transcription, translation, and ultimately phenotype. This component will contribute to the functional analysis and annotation of the Weddell seal genome. In combination, this project will make strides towards distinguishing the roles that plastic (physiological, behavioral) and fixed (genetic) factors play in complex, multifaceted traits such as fitness in a long-lived wild mammal. The project partners with established programs to implement extensive educational and outreach activities that will ensure wide dissemination to educators, students, and the public. It will contribute to a marine mammal exhibit at the Pink Palace Museum, and a PolarTREC science educator will participate in field work in Antarctica. This award is co-funded by the GEO-OPP-Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems Program, BIO-IOS-Physiological Mechanisms and Biomechanics Program, and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
Part 1: Non-technical description This is a continuation of a long-term population dynamics study (1978-present) using an intensive mark-recapture tagging of Weddell seals in Erebus Bay, Antarctica. Past work has become a global model for population studies of large animals. Results have documented strong annual variation in reproduction, abundance, and population composition. This program will add components to evaluate the demographic role of immigrant mothers, evaluate possible drivers of annual variation in overall population dynamics, assess genetic differences between immigrant and locally born mothers, and document patterns of gene flow among seal colonies in the Ross Sea region. These new aspects will focus on understanding of population structure, function, and genetics and provide key information for predicting how the seal population will respond to environmental change. The addition of genetic approaches will advance available data for multiple groups in multiple countries working on Weddell Seals. This work includes an early career scientists training program for faculty university graduate and undergraduate students and well as a defined program for data sharing. The research is paired with active education and outreach programs, social media, websites, educational resources, videos and high-profile public lecture activities. The informal science education program will expand on the project’s successful efforts at producing and delivering short-form videos that have been viewed over 1.6 million times to date. In addition, the education program will add new topics such as learning about seals using genomics and how seals respond to a changing world to a multimedia-enhanced electronic book about the project’s long-term research on Weddell seals, which will be freely available to the public early in the project. Part 2: Technical description Reliable predictions are needed for how populations of wild species, especially those at high latitudes, will respond to future environmental conditions. This study will use a strategic extension of the long-term demographic research program that has been conducted annually on the Erebus Bay population of Weddell seals since 1978 to help meet that need. Recent analyses of the study population indicate strong annual variation in reproduction, abundance, and population composition. The number of new immigrant mothers that join the population each year has recently grown such that most new mothers are now immigrants. Despite the growing number of immigrants, the demographic importance and geographic origins of immigrants are unknown. The research will (1) add new information on drivers of annual variation in immigrant numbers, (2) compare and combine information on the vital rates and demographic role of immigrant females and their offspring with that of locally born females, and (3) add genomic analyses that will quantify levels of genetic variation in and gene flow among the study population and other populations in the Ross Sea. The project will continue the long-term monitoring of the population at Erebus Bay and characterize population dynamics and the role of immigration using a combination of mark-recapture analyses, stochastic population modeling, and genomic analyses. The study will continue to provide detailed data on individual seals to other science teams, educate and mentor individuals in the next generation of ecologists, introduce two early-career, female scientists to Antarctic research, and add genomics approaches to the long-term population study of Erebus Bay Weddell seals. The research will be complemented with a robust program of training and an informal science education program. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
Nontechnical Abstract Mount Erebus volcano on Ross Island, Antarctica, is the southernmost active volcano on the planet. It provides a natural laboratory to study a volcanic system that has been in a continuous state of activity with a persistent lava lake over at least the last 40 years. Worldwide only four other volcanoes with such long-lived lava lakes exist: Erta Ale, Ethiopia; Kilauea, Hawaii; Nyiragongo, Congo; and Ambrym, Vanuatu. These volcanoes are a rare anomaly that provide a window into the underlying magmatic system and behavior. Erebus is of particular interest as it cycles through phases of very explosive activity every 20 thousand years. This project will investigate interactions between the magmatic system, the rift it is located in, and the impact of the gravitational load the volcano imposes on the underlying crust and its own magmatic system. Possible interactions between these factors may explain the changes in activity. The project will analyze geophysical data that have been collected at Erebus over at least the last two decades. The results of this work will be available to the public and scientific community and inform geodynamic models in this region. The project funds an early-career scientist and a graduate student at New Mexico Tech and contributes to the development of the next generation of scientists. Technical Abstract The proposed work targets scientific questions recently formulated by the community during the 2016 NSF-sponsored Scientific Drivers and Future of Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory workshop. The location and geometry of the magmatic plumbing from vent to lower crust system remain poorly constrained, particularly below 1 km depth. The style and causes for changes in volcanic and magmatic activity over the short term (minutes to hours) and on the decadal scale remains enigmatic. Two decades of campaign and continuous GPS data on Ross Island will inform about the longer term dynamics of both, Ross Island growing within the Terror Rift, and Erebus? deeper magmatic system. This project will organize and analyze all existing GPS data for Ross Island, and interpret any anomalies in the resulting time series. These activities require organization, consistent processing and interpretation/modeling of the existing ~20 years of GPS data, which include campaign, continuous, and high-rate GPS observations. We will generate these position time series in a consistent local reference frame and make the results, including models of transient deformation available to the community. Volcanic, tectonic and isostatic adjustment related deformation will be modeled to place Erebus in a broad volcano-tectonic framework of West Antarctica. During the data analysis phase, the utility of existing GPS data for reflection studies of snow and sea-level dynamics will also be evaluated.
The consequences of variation in maternal effects on the ability of offspring to survive, reproduce, and contribute to future generations has rarely been evaluated in polar marine mammals. This is due to the challenges of having adequate data on the survival and reproductive outcomes for numerous offspring born in diverse environmental conditions to mothers with known and diverse sets of traits. This research project will evaluate the survival and reproductive consequences of early-life environmental conditions and variation in offspring traits that are related to maternal attributes (e.g. birth date, birth mass, weaning mass, and swimming behavior) in a population of individually marked Weddell seals in the Ross Sea. Results will allow an evaluation of the importance of different types of individuals to the Weddell Seal's population sustenance and better assessments of factors contributing to the population dynamics in the past and into the future. The project allows for documentation of specific individual seal's unique histories and provisioning of such information to the broader science community that seeks to study these seals, educating graduate and undergraduate ecology students, producing science-outreach videos, and developing a multi-media iBook regarding the project's science activities, goals and outcomes. The research has the broad objective of evaluating the importance of diverse sources of variation in pup characteristics to survival and reproduction. The study will (1) record birth dates, body mass metrics, and time spent in the water for multiple cohorts of pups (born to known-age mothers) in years with different environmental conditions; (2) mark all pups born in the greater Erebus Bay study area and conduct repeated surveys to monitor fates of these pups through the age of first reproduction; and (3) use analyses specifically designed for data on animals that are individually marked and resighted each year to evaluate hypotheses about how variation in birth dates, pup mass, time spent in the water by pups, and environmental conditions relate to variation in early-life survival and recruitment for those pups. The research will also allow the documentation of the population status that will contribute to the unique long-term database for the local population that dates back to 1978.
The geomagnetic field is decreasing rapidly, leading some to propose that it will undergo collapse followed by a return to its usual strength but in the opposite direction, a phenomenon known as a "polarity reversal" which happened last approximately 800,000 years ago. Such a collapse would have a potentially devastating effect on the ability of the magnetic field to shield us from cosmic ray bombardment, placing our electrical grid at grave risk, among other things. The probability of such a drastic event happening depends on the average strength of the magnetic field. If the average is approximately equal to the present field (as many researchers assume), then the fact that the field is dropping rapidly would be more alarming than if the magnetic field is quite a bit higher than average, as implied by the current data for the ancient magnetic field from Antarctica. The argument over the average field strength stems from the difficulty of its estimation. The new approach advocated for in this proposal will allow researchers to obtain a robust data set for high southerly latitudes which will greatly enhance confidence in estimates of the average ancient field strength, contributing to our ability to assess the likelihood of catastrophic collapse of the geomagnetic field. The difficulty in estimating the average magnetic field strength over the past five million years is apparent when one examines data for ancient field strength as a function of latitude. Directions of the geomagnetic field have been well approximated by an axial dipole (bar magnetic) at the center of the Earth that is aligned with the spin axis. But the signal of such an axial geomagnetic dipole, whereby the field strength doubles from the equator to the poles, is not readily apparent in the database of field strength estimates from the last five million years. There are several possible explanations for this troubling failure: 1) combining data from different ages with possibly different average intensities leads to an inappropriate comparison of field states, 2) there is a depression of field strength at high latitude, perhaps reflecting the role of the `tangent cylinder?, or 3) there is noise and/or bias introduced by poor selection criteria or poor experimental design. The latter is a likely explanation as published data from the 1960 lava flow on Hawaii display the entire range of intensity values observed on the Earth's surface today, yet samples from this lava flow should all have one distinct value. This proposal benefits from the development of new experimental methods, better field strategies and a new approach to data selection that will allow accurate estimation of the ancient field strength through a comprehensive field campaign to collect lava flow samples from previously studied outcrops targeting the most promising material. These will be analyzed using the most robust experimental protocol and subjected to rigorous selection criteria proven to reject inaccurate results, leading to both accurate and precise estimates of ancient field strength.
Nontechnical project description Globally, 500 million people live near and are threatened by active volcanoes. An important step in mitigating volcanic hazards is understanding the variables that influence the explosivity of eruptions. The rate at which a magma ascends from the reservoir within the Earth to the surface is one such variable. However, magma ascent rates are particularly difficult to determine because of the lack of reliable methods for investigating the process. This research applies a new approach to study magma storage depths and ascent rates at the Erebus volcanic province of Antarctica, one of Earth's largest alkaline volcanic centers. Small pockets of magma that become trapped within growing olivine crystals are called melt inclusions. The concentrations of water and carbon dioxide in these melt inclusions preserve information on the depth of magma reservoirs. Changes to the concentration and isotopic composition of water in the inclusions provide information on how long it took for the host magma to rise to the surface. In combination, these data from samples of olivine-rich volcanic deposits in the Erebus volcanic province will be used to determine the depths at which magmas are stored and their ascent rates. The project results will provide a framework for understanding volcanic hazards associated with alkaline volcanism worldwide. In addition, this project facilitates collaboration among three institutions, and provides an important educational opportunity for a postdoctoral researcher. Technical project description The depths at which magmas are stored, their pre-eruptive volatile contents, and the rates at which they ascend to the Earth's surface are important controls on the dynamics of volcanic eruptions. Basaltic magmas are likely to be vapor undersaturated as they begin their ascent from the mantle through the crust, but volatile solubility drops with decreasing pressure. Once vapor saturation is achieved and the magma begins to degas, its pre-eruptive volatile content is determined largely by the depth at which it resides within the crust. Magma stored in deeper reservoirs tend to experience less pre-eruptive degassing and to be richer in volatiles than magma shallower reservoirs. Eruptive style is influenced by the rate at which a magma ascends from the reservoir to the surface through its effect on the efficiency of vapor bubble nucleation, growth, and coalescence. The proposed work will advance our understanding of pre-eruptive storage conditions and syn-eruptive ascent rates through a combined field and analytical research program. Volatile measurements from olivine-hosted melt inclusions will be used to systematically investigate magma storage depths and ascent rates associated with alkaline volcanism in the Erebus volcanic province. A central goal of the project is to provide a spatial and temporal framework for interpreting results from studies of present-day volcanic processes at Mt Erebus volcano. The Erebus volcanic province of Antarctica is especially well suited to this type of investigation because: (1) there are many exposed mafic scoria cones, fissure vents, and hyaloclastites (exposed in sea cliffs) that produced rapidly quenched, olivine-rich tephra; (2) existing volatile data for Ross Island MIs show that magma storage was relatively deep compared to many mafic volcanic systems; (3) some of the eruptive centers ejected mantle xenoliths, allowing for comparison of ascent rates for xenolith-bearing and xenolith-free eruptions, and comparison of ascent rates for those bearing xenoliths with times estimated from settling velocities; and (4) the cold, dry conditions in Antarctica result in excellent tephra preservation compared to tropical and even many temperate localities. The project provides new tools for assessing volcanic hazards, facilitates collaboration involving researchers from three different institutions (WHOI, U Wyoming, and U Oregon), supports the researchers' involvement in teaching, advising, and outreach, and provides an educational opportunity for a promising young postdoctoral researcher. Understanding the interrelationships among magma volatile contents, reservoir depths, and ascent rates is vital for assessing volcanic hazards associated with alkaline volcanism across the globe.
Marine mammals that inhabit high latitude environments have evolved unique mechanisms to execute a suite of energetically-costly life history events (CLHEs) within a relatively short timeframe when conditions are most favorable. Understanding the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that regulate CLHEs is particularly important in species such as Weddell seals, as both reproduction and molt are associated with large reductions in foraging effort, and the timing and outcome of each appears linked with the other. The long-term mark recapture program on Erebus Bay's Weddell seals provides a unique opportunity to examine CLHEs in a known-history population. The proposed work will monitor physiological condition, pregnancy status, and behavior at various times throughout the year to determine if molt timing is influenced by prior reproductive outcome, and if it, in turn, influences future reproductive success. These data will then be used to address the demographic consequences of trade-offs between CLHEs in Weddell seals. The impact of environmental conditions and CLHE timing on population health will also be modeled so that results can be extended to other climates and species. An improved understanding of the interactions between CLHEs and the environment is important in predicting the response of organisms from higher trophic levels to climate change. Results will be widely disseminated through publications as well as through presentations at national and international meetings. In addition, raw data will be made available through open-access databases. This project will support the research and training of graduate students and a post-doctoral researcher and will further foster an extensive public outreach collaboration.
This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Mount Erebus is Antarctica?s most active volcano that has been in a persistent state of activity for at least the last 35 years. It has a unique geochemistry among the Earth's active volcanoes and is also unique in hosting a persistent convecting lake(s) of anorthclase phonolite magma in its summit crater. The relative simplicity of the magmatic system, consistency of activity, and accessibility of close-range observation make Erebus attractive as a target for extensive studies. Although the Erebus' seismicity and eruptive activity and processes are becoming increasingly well understood over years of research, there is a near total lack of understanding its deeper magmatic system. The primary goal of this proposal is to continue supporting the Mt. Erebus Volcano Observatory (MEVO III) improving our current understanding of the Erebus eruptive and non-eruptive magmatic system using an integrated approach from geophysical, geochemical and remote sensing observations. This goal can be grouped into the following fundamental research objectives: (a) to sustain year-round surveillance of on-going volcanic activity primarily using geophysical observatories; (b) to understand processes within the convecting conduit which feeds the persistent lava lakes; and (c) to understand the impact of Erebus eruptive activity upon the Antarctic environment. Continued reliance on students provides a broader impact to this proposed research and firmly grounds this effort in its educational mission.
Abstract The Erebus Bay population of Weddell seals in Antarctica?s Ross Sea is the most southerly breeding population of mammal in the world, closely associated with persistent shore-fast ice, and one that has been intensively studied since 1968. The resulting long-term database, which includes data for 20,586 marked individuals, contains detailed population information that provides an excellent opportunity to study linkages between environmental conditions and demographic processes in the Antarctic. The population?s location is of special interest as the Ross Sea is one of the most productive areas of the Southern Ocean, one of the few pristine marine environments remaining on the planet, and, in contrast to the Antarctic Peninsula and Arctic, is undergoing a gradual lengthening of the sea-ice season. The work to be continued here capitalizes on (1) long-term data for individual seals and their polar environment; (2) experience collecting and analyzing data from the extensive study population; and (3) recent statistical advances in hierarchical modeling that allow for rigorous treatment of individual heterogeneity (in mark-recapture and body mass data) and inclusion of diverse covariates hypothesized to explain variation in fitness components. Covariates to be considered include traits of individuals and their mothers and environmental conditions throughout life. The study will continue to (1) provide detailed data on known-age individuals to other science projects and (2) educate and mentor the next generation of ecologists through academic and professional training and research experiences.
Intellectual Merit: This research will place the subsidence history of the southern Victoria Land Basin into a quantitative geodynamic context and will assess the influence of flexure associated with late Neogene volcanic loading of the crust by the Erebus Volcanic Group. This will be done by extending geodynamic models of extension in the West Antarctic Rift System to include extensional hiatuses hypothesized to have occurred during the Late Paleogene and Miocene, and by developing a new geodynamic model of volcanic loading and associated lithosphere flexure. Finite element and finite difference modeling methods will be used. In the first phase of the project, a series of extensional geodynamic models will be developed to examine the effect that proposed extensional hiatuses have on the style of extension, with emphasis placed on developing a process based understanding of the change in rift style from diffuse during the Late Cretaceous to more focused during the Cenozoic. The models will test the hypotheses that extensional hiatuses led to the change in rifting style, and will place constraints on the timing and duration of the hiatuses. The second phase of the project will use the thermal and rheological properties of the previous models to constrain the flexural rigidity of the lithosphere in order to model the flexural response to volcanic loading to test the hypotheses that flexural subsidence contributed to cyclic changes between grounded and floating ice at the ANDRILL AND-1A site, complicating interpretations of the climatic record from this core, and that flexure contributes to the stress orientation at the AND-2B site, which is inconsistent with the expected regional extensional stress orientation. Broader impacts: The project will train an undergraduate student and an M.S. student. Outreach activities include a planned series of talks at regional high schools, junior colleges, and 4-year colleges that have geology programs.
Intellectual Merit: Mt. Erebus is one of only a handful of volcanoes worldwide that have lava lakes with readily observable and nearly continuous Strombolian explosive activity. Erebus is also unique in having a permanent convecting lava lake of anorthoclase phonolite magma. Over the years significant infrastructure has been established at the summit of Mt. Erebus as part of the Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory (MEVO), which serves as a natural laboratory to study a wide range of volcanic processes, especially magma degassing associated with an open convecting magma conduit. The PI proposes to continue operating MEVO for a further five years. The fundamental fundamental research objectives are: to understand diffuse flank degassing by using distributed temperature sensing and gas measurements in ice caves, to understand conduit processes, and to examine the environmental impact of volcanic emissions from Erebus on atmospheric and cryospheric environments. To examine conduit processes the PI will make simultaneous observations with video records, thermal imaging, measurements of gas emission rates and gas compositions, seismic, and infrasound data. Broader impacts: An important aspect of Erebus research is the education and training of students. Both graduate and undergraduate students will have the opportunity to work on MEVO data and deploy to the field site. In addition, this proposal will support a middle or high school science teacher for two field seasons. The PI will also continue working with various media organizations and filmmakers.
This award, provided by the Antarctic Geology and Geophysics Program of the Office of Polar Programs, supports a project to investigate Earth's magnetic field over the past 5 million years in order to test models of Earth's geomagnetic dynamo. Paleomagnetic data (directions of ancient geomagnetic fields obtained from rocks) play an important role in a variety of geophysical studies of the Earth, including plate tectonic reconstructions, magnetostratigraphy, and studies of the behavior of the ancient geomagnetic field (which is called paleo-geomagnetism). Over the past four decades the key assumption in many paleomagnetic studies has been that the average direction of the paleomagnetic field corresponds to one that would have been produced by a geocentric axial dipole (GAD) (analogous to a bar magnet at the center of the Earth), and that paleoinclinations (the dip of magnetic directions from rocks) provide data of sufficient accuracy to enable their use in plate reconstructions. A recent re-examination of the fundamental data underlying models of the time averaged field has shown that the most glaring deficiency in the existing data base is a dearth of high quality data, including paleointensity information, from high latitudes. This project will undertake a sampling and laboratory program on suitable sites from the Mt. Erebus Volcanic Province (Antarctica) that will produce the quality data from high southern latitudes that are essential to an enhanced understanding of the time averaged field and its long term variations.
The Erebus Bay Weddell seal population study in eastern McMurdo Sound, Antarctica was initiated in 1968 and represents one of the longest intensive field investigations of a long-lived mammal in existence. Over the thirty-four year period of this study a total of 15,636 animals have been tagged with 144,927 re-sighting records logged in the current database. As such, this study is an extremely valuable resource for understanding population dynamics of not only Weddell seals, but also other species of both terrestrial and marine mammals with similar life-history characteristics. With the retirement of the original investigator, Dr. Donald Siniff, this proposal represents an effort to transition the long-term studies to a new team of investigators. Dr. Robert Garrott and Dr. Jay Rotella propose building upon the foundation with two lines of investigation that combine use of the long-term database with new field initiatives. The continuity of the demographic data will be maintained by annually marking all pups born, replace lost or broken tags, and perform multiple mark-recapture censuses of the Erebus Bay seal colonies. The new data will be combined with the existing database and a progressively complex series of analyses will be performed using recently developed mark-recapture methods to decompose, evaluate, and integrate the demographic characteristics of the Erebus Bay Weddell seal population. These analyses will allow the testing of specific hypotheses about population regulation as well as temporal and spatial patterns of variation in vital rates among colonies within the population that have been posed by previous investigators, but have not been adequately evaluated due to data and analytical limitations. The primary new field initiative will involve an intensive study of mass dynamics of both pups and adult females as a surrogate measure for assessing annual variation in marine resources and their potential role in limiting and/or regulating the population. In conjunction with the collection of data on body mass dynamics the investigators will use satellite imagery to develop an extended time series of sea ice extent in McMurdo Sound. Regional extent of sea ice affects both regional primary productivity and availability of haul out areas for Weddell seals. Increased primary productivity may increase marine resources which would be expected to have a positive affect on Weddell seal foraging efficiency, leading to increased body mass. These data combined with the large proportion of known-aged seals in the current study population (>60%) will allow the investigators to develop a powerful database to test specific hypotheses about ecological processes affecting Weddell seals. Knowledge of the mechanisms that limit and/or regulate Weddell seal populations and the specific bio-physical linkages between climate, oceans, ice, and Antarctic food webs can provide important contributions to understanding of pinniped population dynamics, as well as contribute more generally to theoretical understanding of population, community, and ecosystem patterns and processes. Such knowledge can be readily applied elsewhere to enhance the ability of natural resource managers to effectively maintain assemblages of other large-mammal species and the ecological processes that they facilitate. Continuation of this long-term study may also contribute to understanding the potential impacts of human activities such as global climate warming and the commercial exploitation of Antarctic marine resources. And finally, the study can contribute significantly to the development and testing of new research and analytical methodologies that will almost certainly have many other applications.
Subduction zones are the one place on Earth where materials from the surface (water, sediments and crustal rocks) can be carried into our planet's deep interior. To quantify this process of subduction-zone recycling, we need to understand both the input of sediments and crust to trenches, and all geochemical outputs related to the subduction process. While the chemical outputs represented by magmatism at volcanic arcs and in back-arc settings have been widely studied, little is known about possible subduction-related outfluxes through the shallow forearc, between the arc and the trench. We are attempting to characterize the "forearc flux" by examining serpentinites which are rising diapirically through the forearc mantle and crust in the Mariana arc-trench system. Our work will complete efforts begun (with NSF support) several years ago, and will characterize these samples (and the slab-derived fluids which helped to create them) for radiogenic isotopes, lithium and oxygen isotopes, and the "fluid-mobile" elements Cs, Rb, U, As, Pb, and Sb. Our work will allow us to characterize both the chemical inventories of species that are released from subducting slabs beneath forearcs, and the magnitude of this flux, for comparison with results for trench inputs (being collected as part of ODP Leg 125), and existing data for arc volcanic outputs in the Mariana system.