{"dp_type": "Project", "free_text": "ICEBERGS"}
[{"awards": "1939139 Scherer, Reed; 1939146 Siddoway, Christine", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-120 -66,-117.5 -66,-115 -66,-112.5 -66,-110 -66,-107.5 -66,-105 -66,-102.5 -66,-100 -66,-97.5 -66,-95 -66,-95 -67.1,-95 -68.2,-95 -69.3,-95 -70.4,-95 -71.5,-95 -72.6,-95 -73.7,-95 -74.8,-95 -75.9,-95 -77,-97.5 -77,-100 -77,-102.5 -77,-105 -77,-107.5 -77,-110 -77,-112.5 -77,-115 -77,-117.5 -77,-120 -77,-120 -75.9,-120 -74.8,-120 -73.7,-120 -72.6,-120 -71.5,-120 -70.4,-120 -69.3,-120 -68.2,-120 -67.1,-120 -66))", "dataset_titles": "Pliocene diatom abundance, IODP 379-U1532; Population morphometrics of the Southern Ocean diatom Fragilariopsis kerguelensis related to Sea Surface Temperature; U-Pb zircon and apatite fission track dates for IRD (ice-rafted cobbles and mineral grains) from IODP379 drill sites", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601769", "doi": null, "keywords": "Antarctica; Biogenic Silica; Diatom", "people": "Scherer, Reed Paul; Furlong, Heather", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Pliocene diatom abundance, IODP 379-U1532", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601769"}, {"dataset_uid": "601828", "doi": null, "keywords": "Amundsen Sea; Antarctica; Cryosphere; Geochronology; Marie Byrd Land; Subglacial Bedrock; Thermochronology", "people": "Siddoway, Christine", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "U-Pb zircon and apatite fission track dates for IRD (ice-rafted cobbles and mineral grains) from IODP379 drill sites", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601828"}, {"dataset_uid": "601804", "doi": "10.15784/601804", "keywords": "Amundsen Sea; Antarctica; Cryosphere; Oceanography; Sabrina Coast; Sea Surface Temperature; Southern Ocean", "people": "Ruggiero, Joseph", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Population morphometrics of the Southern Ocean diatom Fragilariopsis kerguelensis related to Sea Surface Temperature", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601804"}], "date_created": "Tue, 20 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Part I, Non-technical Abstract \u003cbr/\u003eConcerns that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) might be susceptible to releasing its ice as giant icebergs into the Southern Ocean due to a warming climate, raising global sea level, were first expressed more than 40 years ago. To best-assess this threat, scientists need to know whether such events occurred in the geologically recent past, during warm intervals of past glacial-interglacial cycles. Ocean drilling near the most vulnerable sector of the WAIS, in 2019, yielded seafloor geologic records demonstrating times when icebergs dropped large volumes of sands and pebbles, called ice-rafted detritus (IRD) in deep water of the Amundsen Sea. Occurring together with IRD that was eroded from bedrock beneath the ice sheets, there are abundant microfossils of diatoms (algal plankton), which indicate high biological productivity in the open ocean. The new sediment cores provide a complete, uninterrupted record of a time of dramatic fluctuations of ice sheet extent that occurred over the last 3 million years. Therefore, they provide the means to obtain clear answers to the question whether ice sheet collapse occurred in the past and offering clues to its potential future. This project will investigate sediment intervals where IRD coincides with evidence of high diatom production, to test whether these two criteria indicate rapid ice sheet collapse. Geochemical analysis of IRD pebbles will help trace the source of the icebergs to likely on-land sites. By analyzing conditions of high diatom and IRD accumulation in deep ocean sediment, where local coastal influences can be avoided, we will assess oceanographic and climatic conditions associated with past ice sheet collapse events. Diatoms provide powerful evidence of temperature and ocean productivity changes in the past, that, when linked to time, can translate into rates of ice sheet drawdown. These results will provide critical data for designing, constraining and testing the next suite computer models that can determine the likelihood and timing of future ice sheet collapse in a warming world. The project will include training of undergraduate and graduate students from diverse backgrounds, and the public will be introduced to Antarctic science and engaged through several different outreach efforts.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003ePart 2, Technical Abstract\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eNew drillcores from the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica (IODP Expedition 379) contain a continuous record of oceanographic changes and iceberg rafted debris (IRD) spanning the last 5 million years. This study aims to identify the signature of retreat/collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) in these continental margin, deep-sea sediments by quantitatively analyzing, in detail, diatom and IRD records across glacial-interglacial lithostratigraphic transitions to establish the timing and frequency of Late Pliocene and Pleistocene WAIS collapse events. The investigators will secure age constraints and diagnostic observations of marine paleoenvironmental conditions for selected interglacial intervals of cores from sites U1532 and U1533, using high resolution micropaleontology of diatom assemblages coupled with microstratigraphic analysis of IRD depositional events, while petrography, geochronology and thermochronology of iceberg rafted clasts will provide evidence of iceberg sources and pathways. Depositional paleotemperatures will be assessed via a new paleotemperature proxy based on quantitative assessment of morphologic changes in the dominant Southern Ocean diatom Fragilariopsis kerguelensis. Their results will contribute to parameterization of new ice sheet models that seek to reconstruct and forecast West Antarctic Ice Sheet behavior. This project will directly contribute to undergraduate education at an undergraduate-only college and at a public university that serves a demographic typified by first generation university students and underrepresented groups. Spanning geology, geochemistry, sedimentology, paleontology and paleoceanography, the proposed work will allow undergraduate students to develop diverse skills through hands-on research within a collaborative team that is dedicated to societally relevant research. The two graduate students will conduct original research and work alongside/mentor undergraduates, making for a well-rounded research experience that prepares them for success in future academic or employment sectors. The discoveries that come from this deep-sea record from West Antarctica will be communicated by students and investigators at national and international conferences and an array of public science outreach events.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThis 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": -95.0, "geometry": "POINT(-107.5 -71.5)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "ICEBERGS; SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE; Amundsen Sea; MICROFOSSILS", "locations": "Amundsen Sea", "north": -66.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences; Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": "PHANEROZOIC \u003e CENOZOIC \u003e QUATERNARY; PHANEROZOIC \u003e CENOZOIC \u003e NEOGENE \u003e PLIOCENE", "persons": "Scherer, Reed Paul; Siddoway, Christine", "platforms": null, "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -77.0, "title": "Collaborative Research: Testing the Linchpin of WAIS Collapse with Diatoms and IRD in Pleistocene and Late Pliocene Strata of the Resolution Drift, Amundsen Sea, Antarctica", "uid": "p0010451", "west": -120.0}, {"awards": "2053169 Kingslake, Jonathan", "bounds_geometry": null, "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Fri, 15 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "When ice sheets and glaciers lose ice faster than it accumulates from snowfall, they shrink and contribute to sea-level rise. This has consequences for coastal communities around the globe by, for example, increasing the frequency of damaging storm surges. Sea-level rise is already underway and a major challenge for the geoscience community is improving predictions of how this will evolve. The Antarctic Ice Sheet is the largest potential contributor to sea-level rise and its future is highly uncertain. It loses ice through two main mechanisms: the formation of icebergs and melting at the base of floating ice shelves on its periphery. Ice flows under gravity towards the ocean and the rate of ice flow controls how fast ice sheets and glaciers shrink. In Greenland and Antarctica, ice flow is focused into outlet glaciers and ice streams, which flow much faster than surrounding areas. Moreover, parts of the Greenland Ice Sheet speed up and slow down substantially on hourly to seasonal time scales, particularly where meltwater from the surface reaches the base of the ice. Meltwater reaching the base changes ice flow by altering basal water pressure and consequently the friction exerted on the ice by the rock and sediment beneath. This phenomenon has been observed frequently in Greenland but not in Antarctica. Recent satellite observations suggest this phenomenon also occurs on outlet glaciers in the Antarctic Peninsula. Meltwater reaching the base of the Antarctic Ice Sheet is likely to become more common as air temperature and surface melting are predicted to increase around Antarctica this century. This project aims to confirm the recent satellite observations, establish a baseline against which to compare future changes, and improve understanding of the direct influence of meltwater on Antarctic Ice Sheet dynamics. This is a project jointly funded by the National Science Foundation?s Directorate for Geosciences (NSF/GEO) and the National Environment Research Council (NERC) of the United Kingdom (UK) via the NSF/GEO-NERC Lead Agency Agreement. This Agreement allows a single joint US/UK proposal to be submitted and peer-reviewed by the Agency whose investigator has the largest proportion of the budget. Upon successful joint determination of an award recommendation, each Agency funds the proportion of the budget that supports scientists at institutions in their respective countries.\r\n\r\nThis project will include a field campaign on Flask Glacier, an Antarctic Peninsula outlet glacier, and a continent-wide remote sensing survey. These activities will allow the team to test three hypotheses related to the Antarctic Ice Sheet?s dynamic response to surface meltwater: (1) short-term changes in ice velocity indicated by satellite data result from surface meltwater reaching the bed, (2) this is widespread in Antarctica today, and (3) this results in a measurable increase in mean annual ice discharge. The project is a collaboration between US- and UK-based researchers and will be supported logistically by the British Antarctic Survey. The project aims to provide insights into both the drivers and implications of short-term changes in ice flow velocity caused by surface melting. For example, showing conclusively that meltwater directly influences Antarctic ice dynamics would have significant implications for understanding the response of Antarctica to atmospheric warming, as it did in Greenland when the phenomenon was first detected there twenty years ago. This work will also potentially influence other fields, as surface meltwater reaching the bed of the Antarctic Ice Sheet may affect ice rheology, subglacial hydrology, submarine melting, calving, ocean circulation, and ocean biogeochemistry. The project aims to have broader impacts on science and society by supporting early-career scientists, UK-US collaboration, education and outreach, and adoption of open data science approaches within the glaciological community.", "east": null, "geometry": null, "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "ICE SHEETS; GLACIER MOTION/ICE SHEET MOTION; Antarctic Peninsula; BASAL SHEAR STRESS", "locations": "Antarctic Peninsula", "north": null, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Glaciology", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Kingslake, Jonathan; Sole, Andrew; Livingstone, Stephen; Winter, Kate; Ely, Jeremy", "platforms": null, "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": null, "title": "NSFGEO-NERC: Investigating the Direct Influence of Meltwater on Antarctic Ice Sheet Dynamics", "uid": "p0010436", "west": null}, {"awards": "2302832 Reilly, Brendan", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-70 -55,-67 -55,-64 -55,-61 -55,-58 -55,-55 -55,-52 -55,-49 -55,-46 -55,-43 -55,-40 -55,-40 -56.1,-40 -57.2,-40 -58.3,-40 -59.4,-40 -60.5,-40 -61.6,-40 -62.7,-40 -63.8,-40 -64.9,-40 -66,-43 -66,-46 -66,-49 -66,-52 -66,-55 -66,-58 -66,-61 -66,-64 -66,-67 -66,-70 -66,-70 -64.9,-70 -63.8,-70 -62.7,-70 -61.6,-70 -60.5,-70 -59.4,-70 -58.3,-70 -57.2,-70 -56.1,-70 -55))", "dataset_titles": "NRM, ARM, IRM, and magnetic susceptibility investigations on U1537 and U1538 cube samples; Rock magnetic data from IODP Exp. 382 Sites U1537 and U1538 to support Reilly et al. \"A geochemical mechanism for \u003e10 m offsets of magnetic reversals inferred from the comparison of two Scotia Sea drill sites\"", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200411", "doi": "10.5281/zenodo.10035106", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Zenodo", "science_program": null, "title": "Rock magnetic data from IODP Exp. 382 Sites U1537 and U1538 to support Reilly et al. \"A geochemical mechanism for \u003e10 m offsets of magnetic reversals inferred from the comparison of two Scotia Sea drill sites\"", "url": "https://zenodo.org/records/10035107"}, {"dataset_uid": "200412", "doi": "10.7288/V4/MAGIC/19778", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "MagIC (EarthRef)", "science_program": null, "title": "NRM, ARM, IRM, and magnetic susceptibility investigations on U1537 and U1538 cube samples", "url": "http://dx.doi.org/10.7288/V4/MAGIC/19778"}], "date_created": "Wed, 12 Jul 2023 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The potential for future sea level rise from melting and collapse of Antarctic ice sheets and glaciers is concerning. We can improve our understanding of how water is exchanged between Antarctic ice sheets and the ocean by studying how ice sheets behaved in past climates, especially conditions that were similar to or warmer than those at present. For this project, the research team will document Antarctica\u0027s response across an interval when Earth transitioned from the warm Pliocene into the Pleistocene ice ages by combining marine and land evidence for glacier variations from sites near the Antarctic Peninsula, complimented by detailed work on timescales and fossil evidence for environmental change. An important goal is to test whether Antarctica\u0027s glaciers changed at the same time as glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere as Earth\u0027s most recent Ice Age intensified, or alternatively responded to regional climate forcing in the Southern Hemisphere. Eleven investigators from seven US institutions, as well as Argentine collaborators, will study new sediment cores from the International Ocean Discovery Program, as well as legacy cores from that program and on-land outcrops on James Ross Island. The group embraces a vertically integrated research program that allows high school, undergraduate, graduate, post-docs and faculty to work together on the same projects. This structure leverages the benefits of near-peer mentoring and the development of a robust collaborative research network while allowing all participants to take ownership of different parts of the project. All members of the team are firmly committed to attracting researchers from under-represented groups and will do this through existing channels as well as via co-creating programming that centers the perspectives of diverse students in conversations about sea-level rise and climate change.\r\n\r\nThe proposed research seeks to understand phasing between Northern and Southern Hemisphere glacier and climate changes, as a means to understand drivers and teleconnections. The dynamics of past Antarctic glaciation can be studied using the unique isotope geochemical and mineralogic fingerprints from glacial sectors tied to a well-constrained time model for the stratigraphic successions. The proposed work would further refine the stratigraphic context through coupled biostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic work. The magnitude of iceberg calving and paths of icebergs will be revealed using the flux, geochemical and mineralogic signatures, and 40Ar/39Ar and U-Pb geochronology of ice-rafted detritus. These provenance tracers will establish which sectors of Antarctica\u0027s ice sheets are more vulnerable to collapse, and the timing and pacing of these events will be revealed by their stratigraphic context. Additionally, the team will work with Argentine collaborators to connect the marine and terrestrial records by studying glacier records intercalated with volcanic flows on James Ross Island. These new constraints will be integrated with a state of the art ice-sheet model to link changes in ice dynamics with their underlying causes. Together, these tight stratigraphic constraints, geochemical signatures, and ice-sheet model simulations will provide a means to compare to the global records of climate change, understand their primary drivers, and elucidate the role of the Antarctic ice sheet in a major, global climatic shift from the Pliocene into the Pleistocene.", "east": -40.0, "geometry": "POINT(-55 -60.5)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "PALEOMAGNETISM; SEDIMENTS; Scotia Sea", "locations": "Scotia Sea", "north": -55.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": "PHANEROZOIC \u003e CENOZOIC \u003e NEOGENE \u003e PLIOCENE; PHANEROZOIC \u003e CENOZOIC \u003e QUATERNARY; PHANEROZOIC \u003e CENOZOIC \u003e QUATERNARY \u003e PLEISTOCENE; PHANEROZOIC \u003e CENOZOIC \u003e QUATERNARY \u003e HOLOCENE; PHANEROZOIC \u003e CENOZOIC \u003e NEOGENE; PHANEROZOIC \u003e CENOZOIC", "persons": "Reilly, Brendan", "platforms": null, "repo": "Zenodo", "repositories": "MagIC (EarthRef); Zenodo", "science_programs": null, "south": -66.0, "title": "Collaborative Research: Linking Marine and Terrestrial Sedimentary Evidence for Plio-pleistocene Variability of Weddell Embayment and Antarctic Peninsula Glaciation", "uid": "p0010424", "west": -70.0}, {"awards": "1744800 Adcroft, Alistair; 1744835 Wagner, Till", "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": "Model of iceberg drift and decay including breakup", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601510", "doi": "10.15784/601510", "keywords": "Antarctica; Footloose Mechanism; Iceberg Breakup; Iceberg Decay; Model; Southern Ocean", "people": "England, Mark; Wagner, Till", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Model of iceberg drift and decay including breakup", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601510"}], "date_created": "Tue, 18 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Nearly half of the freshwater flux from the Antarctic Ice Sheet into the Southern Ocean occurs in the form of large tabular icebergs that calve off the continent\u2019s ice shelves. However, because of difficulties in adequately simulating their breakup, large Antarctic icebergs to date have either not been represented in models or represented but with no breakup scheme such that they consistently survive too long and travel too far compared with observations. Here, we introduce a representation of iceberg fracturing using a breakup scheme based on the \u201cfootloose mechanism.\u201d We optimize the parameters of this breakup scheme by forcing the iceberg model with an ocean state estimate and comparing the modeled iceberg trajectories and areas with the Antarctic Iceberg Tracking Database. We show that including large icebergs and a representation of their breakup substantially affects the iceberg meltwater distribution, with implications for the circulation and stratification of the Southern Ocean.", "east": 180.0, "geometry": "POINT(0 -89.999)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Amd/Us; ICEBERGS; USA/NSF; Southern Ocean; AMD; USAP-DC; COMPUTERS", "locations": "Southern Ocean", "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences; Antarctic Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Wagner, Till; Eisenman, Ian", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e MODELS \u003e COMPUTERS", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -90.0, "title": "Modeling Giant Icebergs and Their Decay", "uid": "p0010290", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "2139002 Huth, Alexander", "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": "Simulations of ice-shelf rifting on Larsen C Ice Shelf", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601718", "doi": "10.15784/601718", "keywords": "Antarctica; Glaciology; Iceberg; Ice Shelf Dynamics; Larsen C Ice Shelf; Model Data; Modeling", "people": "Huth, Alexander", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Simulations of ice-shelf rifting on Larsen C Ice Shelf", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601718"}], "date_created": "Fri, 05 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Icebergs influence climate by controlling how freshwater from ice sheets is distributed into the ocean, where roughly half of ice sheet mass loss is attributed to iceberg calving in the current climate. The freshwater deposited by icebergs as they drift and melt can affect ocean circulation, sea-ice formation, and biological primary productivity. Furthermore, calving of icebergs from ice shelves, the floating extensions of ice sheets, can influence ice sheet evolution and sea-level rise by reducing the resistive stresses provided by ice shelves on the seaward flow of upstream grounded ice. The majority of mass calved from ice shelves occurs in the form of tabular icebergs, which are typically hundreds of meters thick and on the order of tens to hundreds of kilometers in length and width. Tabular calving occurs when full-thickness ice shelf fractures known as rifts propagate to the edges of the ice shelf. These calving events are infrequent, often with decades between events on an individual ice shelf. Changes in tabular calving behavior, i.e., the size and frequency of calving events, can strongly influence climate and ice sheet evolution. However, tabular calving behavior, and how it responds to changes in climate, is neither well understood nor accurately represented in climate models.\r\n\r\nIn this project, a tabular calving parameterization for climate models will be developed. The parameterization will be derived according to data generated from a series of realistic and idealized century-scale tabular calving simulations, which will be performed with a novel ice flow and damage framework that can be applied at the scale of individual ice sheet-ice shelf systems: the CD-MPM-SSA (Continuum Damage Material Point Method for Shelfy-Stream Approximation). During these simulations, the geometry of the ice shelf, mechanical/rheological properties of the ice, and climate forcings such as ocean temperature will be varied to determine the rifting and calving response. The calving parameterization derived from these experiments will be implemented in a Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) climate model, where it will be coupled with a bonded-particle iceberg model. Then, experiments will be run to study the feedback between changes in iceberg calving behavior and climate. Success of this project will improve our understanding and representation of the ice mass budget, ice sheet evolution, and ocean freshwater fluxes, and will improve projections of climate change and sea-level rise.", "east": 180.0, "geometry": "POINT(0 -89.999)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "USAP-DC; ICEBERGS; AMD; Antarctic Ice Sheet; USA/NSF; GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS; Amd/Us; MODELS", "locations": "Antarctic Ice Sheet", "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Post Doc/Travel", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Huth, Alex", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e MODELS \u003e MODELS", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -90.0, "title": "OPP-PRF Calving, Icebergs, and Climate", "uid": "p0010276", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "2103032 Schmittner, Andreas", "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": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Thu, 09 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The Antarctic ice sheet is an important component of Earth\u2019s climate system, as it interacts with the atmosphere, the surrounding Southern Ocean, and the underlaying solid Earth. It is also the largest potential contributor to future sea level rise and a major uncertainty in climate projections. Climate change may trigger instabilities, which may lead to fast and irreversible collapse of parts of the ice sheet. However, very little is known about how interactions between the Antarctic ice sheet and the rest of the climate system affect its behavior, climate, and sea level, partly because most climate models currently do not have fully-interactive ice sheet components. This project investigates Antarctic ice-ocean interactions of the last 20,000 years. A novel numerical climate model will be constructed that includes an interactive Antarctic ice sheet, improving computational infrastructure for research. The model code will be made freely available to the public on a code-sharing site. Paleoclimate data will be synthesized and compared with simulations of the model. The model-data comparison will address three scientific hypotheses regarding past changes in deep ocean circulation, ice sheet, carbon, and sea level. The project will contribute to a better understanding of ice-ocean interactions and past climate variability.\r\n\r\nThis project will test suggestions that ice-ocean interactions have been important for setting deep ocean circulation and carbon storage during the Last Glacial Maximum and subsequent deglaciation. The new model will consist of three existing and well-tested components: (1) an isotope-enabled climate-carbon cycle model of intermediate complexity, (2) a model of the combined Antarctic ice sheet, solid Earth and sea level, and (3) an iceberg model. The coupling will include ocean temperature effects on basal melting of ice shelves, freshwater fluxes from the ice sheet to the ocean, and calving, transport and melting of icebergs. Once constructed and optimized, the model will be applied to simulate the Last Glacial Maximum and subsequent deglaciation. Differences between model versions with full, partial or no coupling will be used to investigate the effects of ice-ocean interactions on the Meridional Overturning Circulation, deep ocean carbon storage and ice sheet fluctuations. Paleoclimate data synthesis will include temperature, carbon and nitrogen isotopes, radiocarbon ages, protactinium-thorium ratios, neodymium isotopes, carbonate ion, dissolved oxygen, relative sea level and terrestrial cosmogenic ages into one multi-proxy database with a consistent updated chronology. The project will support an early-career scientist, one graduate student, undergraduate students, and new and ongoing national and international collaborations. Outreach activities in collaboration with a local science museum will benefit rural communities in Oregon by improving their climate literacy.", "east": 180.0, "geometry": "POINT(0 -89.999)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "ICE CORE RECORDS; Amd/Us; USA/NSF; OCEAN TEMPERATURE; GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS; BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES; MODELS; AMD; United States Of America; OCEAN CURRENTS; ICEBERGS; PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTIONS", "locations": "United States Of America", "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Glaciology", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Schmittner, Andreas; Haight, Andrew ; Clark, Peter", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e MODELS \u003e MODELS", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -90.0, "title": "Investigating Antarctic Ice Sheet-Ocean-Carbon Cycle Interactions During the Last Deglaciation", "uid": "p0010256", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "2114786 Warnock, Jonathan", "bounds_geometry": null, "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Thu, 09 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The potential for future sea level rise from melting and collapse of Antarctic ice sheets and glaciers is concerning. We can improve our understanding of how water is exchanged between Antarctic ice sheets and the ocean by studying how ice sheets behaved in past climates, especially conditions that were similar to or warmer than those at present. For this project, the research team will document Antarctica\u2019s response across an interval when Earth transitioned from the warm Pliocene into the Pleistocene ice ages by combining marine and land evidence for glacier variations from sites near the Antarctic Peninsula, complimented by detailed work on timescales and fossil evidence for environmental change. An important goal is to test whether Antarctica\u2019s glaciers changed at the same time as glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere as Earth\u0027s most recent Ice Age intensified, or alternatively responded to regional climate forcing in the Southern Hemisphere. Eleven investigators from seven US institutions, as well as Argentine collaborators, will study new sediment cores from the International Ocean Discovery Program, as well as legacy cores from that program and on-land outcrops on James Ross Island. The group embraces a vertically integrated research program that allows high school, undergraduate, graduate, post-docs and faculty to work together on the same projects. This structure leverages the benefits of near-peer mentoring and the development of a robust collaborative research network while allowing all participants to take ownership of different parts of the project. All members of the team are firmly committed to attracting researchers from under-represented groups and will do this through existing channels as well as via co-creating programming that centers the perspectives of diverse students in conversations about sea-level rise and climate change.\r\nThe proposed research seeks to understand phasing between Northern and Southern Hemisphere glacier and climate changes, as a means to understand drivers and teleconnections. The dynamics of past Antarctic glaciation can be studied using the unique isotope geochemical and mineralogic fingerprints from glacial sectors tied to a well-constrained time model for the stratigraphic successions. The proposed work would further refine the stratigraphic context through coupled biostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic work. The magnitude of iceberg calving and paths of icebergs will be revealed using the flux, geochemical and mineralogic signatures, and 40Ar/39Ar and U-Pb geochronology of ice-rafted detritus. These provenance tracers will establish which sectors of Antarctica\u2019s ice sheets are more vulnerable to collapse, and the timing and pacing of these events will be revealed by their stratigraphic context. Additionally, the team will work with Argentine collaborators to connect the marine and terrestrial records by studying glacier records intercalated with volcanic flows on James Ross Island. These new constraints will be integrated with a state of the art ice-sheet model to link changes in ice dynamics with their underlying causes. Together, these tight stratigraphic constraints, geochemical signatures, and ice-sheet model simulations will provide a means to compare to the global records of climate change, understand their primary drivers, and elucidate the role of the Antarctic ice sheet in a major, global climatic shift from the Pliocene into the Pleistocene.", "east": null, "geometry": null, "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "MICROFOSSILS; FIELD SURVEYS; Weddell Sea Embayment; USA/NSF; SEA ICE; USAP-DC; PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTIONS; SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE; AMD; Amd/Us", "locations": "Weddell Sea Embayment", "north": null, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Warnock, Jonathan", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD SURVEYS", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": null, "title": "Collaborative Research: Linking Marine and Terrestrial Sedimentary Evidence for Plio-pleistocene Variability of Weddell Embayment and Antarctic Peninsula Glaciation", "uid": "p0010260", "west": null}, {"awards": "1643455 Enderlin, Ellyn; 1933764 Enderlin, Ellyn", "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": "Crane Glacier centerline observations and modeling results ; Remotely-sensed iceberg geometries and meltwater fluxes", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601617", "doi": "10.15784/601617", "keywords": "Antarctica; Antarctic Peninsula; Crane Glacier; Glacier Dynamics; Glacier Mass Discharge; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; Modeling; Model Output", "people": "Enderlin, Ellyn; Meehan, Tate; Aberle, Rainey; Kopera, Michal; Marshall, Hans-Peter", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Crane Glacier centerline observations and modeling results ", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601617"}, {"dataset_uid": "601679", "doi": "10.15784/601679", "keywords": "Antarctica; Elevation; Glaciology; Iceberg; Meltwater; Submarine Melt", "people": "Enderlin, Ellyn; Aberle, Rainey; Oliver, Caitlin; Dryak, Mariama; Miller, Emily; Dickson, Adam", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Remotely-sensed iceberg geometries and meltwater fluxes", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601679"}], "date_created": "Mon, 28 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The project uses repeat, very high-resolution (~0.5 m pixel width and length) satellite images acquired by the WorldView satellites, to estimate rates of iceberg melting in key coastal regions around Antarctica. The satellite images are used to construct maps of iceberg surface elevation change over time, which are converted to estimates of area-averaged submarine melt rates. Where ocean temperature observations are available, the melt rates are compared to these data to determine if variations in ocean temperature can explain observed iceberg melt variability. The iceberg melt rates are also compared to glacier frontal ablation rates (flow towards the terminus minus changes in terminus position over time) and integrated into a numerical ice flow model in order to assess the importance of submarine melting on recent changes in terminus position, ice flow, and dynamic mass loss. Overall, the analysis will yield insights into the effects of changes in ocean forcing on the submarine melting of Antarctic ice shelves and icebergs. The project does not require field work in Antarctica.", "east": 180.0, "geometry": "POINT(0 -89.999)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Amery Ice Shelf; FIELD SURVEYS; Totten Glacier; GLACIER MASS BALANCE/ICE SHEET MASS BALANCE; USAP-DC; Antarctic Peninsula; ICEBERGS; Mertz Glacier; OCEAN TEMPERATURE; USA/NSF; Amd/Us; Amundsen Sea; Ronne Ice Shelf; Filchner Ice Shelf; AMD", "locations": "Antarctic Peninsula; Totten Glacier; Ronne Ice Shelf; Filchner Ice Shelf; Amery Ice Shelf; Mertz Glacier; Amundsen Sea", "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Glaciology; Antarctic Glaciology", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Enderlin, Ellyn", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD SURVEYS", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -90.0, "title": "Antarctic Submarine Melt Variability from Remote Sensing of Icebergs", "uid": "p0010210", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "1443525 Schwartz, Susan", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-165 -83.8,-163 -83.8,-161 -83.8,-159 -83.8,-157 -83.8,-155 -83.8,-153 -83.8,-151 -83.8,-149 -83.8,-147 -83.8,-145 -83.8,-145 -83.92,-145 -84.04,-145 -84.16,-145 -84.28,-145 -84.4,-145 -84.52,-145 -84.64,-145 -84.76,-145 -84.88,-145 -85,-147 -85,-149 -85,-151 -85,-153 -85,-155 -85,-157 -85,-159 -85,-161 -85,-163 -85,-165 -85,-165 -84.88,-165 -84.76,-165 -84.64,-165 -84.52,-165 -84.4,-165 -84.28,-165 -84.16,-165 -84.04,-165 -83.92,-165 -83.8))", "dataset_titles": "YD (2012-2017): Whillians Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200201", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.7914/SN/YD_2012", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "IRIS", "science_program": null, "title": "YD (2012-2017): Whillians Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling", "url": "http://www.fdsn.org/networks/detail/YD_2012/"}], "date_created": "Fri, 12 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Ice fracturing plays a crucial role in mechanical processes that influence the contribution of glaciers and ice sheets to the global sea-level rise. Such processes include, among others, ice shelf disintegration, iceberg calving, and fast ice sliding. Over the last century, seismology developed highly sensitive instrumentation and sophisticated data processing techniques to study earthquakes. This interdisciplinary project used seismological research methods to investigate fracturing beneath and within ice on a fast-moving ice stream in West Antarctica that is experiencing rapid sliding and flexure driven by ocean tides. Data were collected from two strategically located clusters of seismometers. One was located in the epicenter zone where tidally triggered rapid sliding events of the ice stream start. The other was placed in the grounding zone, where the ice stream flexes with tides where it goes afloat and becomes an ice shelf.\r\n\r\n Seismometers in the epicenter cluster recorded many thousands of microearthquakes coming from beneath ice during ice stream sliding events. Analyses of these microearthquakes suggest that the geologic materials beneath the ice stream are fracturing. The spatial pattern of fracturing is not random but forms elongated stripes that resemble well-known glacial landforms called megascale glacial lineations. These findings indicate that the frictional resistance to ice sliding may change through time due to these landforms changing as a result of erosion and sedimentation beneath ice. This may have implications for the rate of ice loss from Antarctic ice streams that drain about 90% of all ice discharged into the Southern Ocean. In addition to microearthquakes, the epicenter cluster of seismometers also recorded vibrations (tremors) from beneath the ice stream. These may be caused by the rapid repetition of many microearthquakes coming from the same source.\r\n\r\n The grounding zone cluster of seismometers recorded many thousands of microearthquakes as well. However, they are caused by ice fracturing near the ice stream\u0027s surface rather than at its base. These microearthquakes originate when the grounding zone experiences strong tension caused by ice flexure during dropping ocean tide. This tension causes the opening of near-surface fractures (crevasses) just before the lowest tide, rather than at the lowest tide as expected from elasticity of solids. This unexpected timing of ice fracturing indicates that ice in the grounding zone behaves like a viscoelastic material, i.e., partly like a solid and partly like a fluid. This is an important general finding that will be useful to other scientists who are modeling interactions of ice with ocean water in the Antarctic grounding zones. Overall, the observed pervasive fracturing in the grounding zone, where an ice stream becomes an ice shelf, may make ice shelves potentially vulnerable to catastrophic collapses. It also may weaken ice shelves and make it easier for large icebergs to break off at their fronts.\r\n\r\n In addition to Antarctic research, this award supported education and outreach activities, including presentations and field trips during several summer schools at UCSC for talented and diverse high school students. The students were exposed to glaciological and seismological concepts and performed hands-on scientific exercises. The field trips focused on the marine terrace landscape around Santa Cruz. This landscape resulted from interactions between the uplift of rocks along the San Andreas fault with global-sea level changes caused by the waxing and waning of polar ice sheets in response to Ice Age climate cycles.\r\n\r\n", "east": -145.0, "geometry": "POINT(-155 -84.4)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Whillans Ice Stream; GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS; FIELD INVESTIGATION", "locations": "Whillans Ice Stream", "north": -83.8, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Integrated System Science", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Tulaczyk, Slawek; Schwartz, Susan", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION", "repo": "IRIS", "repositories": "IRIS", "science_programs": "WISSARD", "south": -85.0, "title": "High Resolution Heterogeneity at the Base of Whillans Ice Stream and its Control on Ice Dynamics", "uid": "p0010159", "west": -165.0}, {"awards": "1724670 Williams, Trevor", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-70 -60,-65 -60,-60 -60,-55 -60,-50 -60,-45 -60,-40 -60,-35 -60,-30 -60,-25 -60,-20 -60,-20 -62.5,-20 -65,-20 -67.5,-20 -70,-20 -72.5,-20 -75,-20 -77.5,-20 -80,-20 -82.5,-20 -85,-25 -85,-30 -85,-35 -85,-40 -85,-45 -85,-50 -85,-55 -85,-60 -85,-65 -85,-70 -85,-70 -82.5,-70 -80,-70 -77.5,-70 -75,-70 -72.5,-70 -70,-70 -67.5,-70 -65,-70 -62.5,-70 -60))", "dataset_titles": "Argon thermochronological data on detrital mineral grains from the Weddell Sea embayment", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601378", "doi": "10.15784/601378", "keywords": "40Ar/39Ar Thermochronology; Antarctica; Argon; Chemistry:sediment; Chemistry:Sediment; Detrital Minerals; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Marine Sediments; Mass Spectrometer; Provenance; R/v Polarstern; Sediment Core Data; Subglacial Till; Till; Weddell Sea", "people": "Williams, Trevor", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Argon thermochronological data on detrital mineral grains from the Weddell Sea embayment", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601378"}, {"dataset_uid": "601377", "doi": "10.15784/601377", "keywords": "40Ar/39Ar Thermochronology; Antarctica; Argon; Chemistry:sediment; Chemistry:Sediment; Detrital Minerals; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Marine Sediments; Mass Spectrometer; Provenance; R/v Polarstern; Sediment Core Data; Subglacial Till; Till; Weddell Sea", "people": "Williams, Trevor", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Argon thermochronological data on detrital mineral grains from the Weddell Sea embayment", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601377"}, {"dataset_uid": "601379", "doi": "10.15784/601379", "keywords": "40Ar/39Ar Thermochronology; Antarctica; Argon; Chemistry:sediment; Chemistry:Sediment; Detrital Minerals; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Marine Geoscience; Mass Spectrometer; Provenance; R/v Polarstern; Sediment Core Data; Subglacial Till; Till; Weddell Sea", "people": "Williams, Trevor", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Argon thermochronological data on detrital mineral grains from the Weddell Sea embayment", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601379"}], "date_created": "Thu, 10 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Abstract for the general public:\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThe margins of the Antarctic ice sheet have advanced and retreated repeatedly over the past few million years. Melting ice from the last retreat, from 19,000 to 9,000 years ago, raised sea levels by 8 meters or more, but the extents of previous retreats are less well known. The main goal of this project is to understand how Antarctic ice retreats: fast or slow, stepped or steady, and which parts of the ice sheet are most prone to retreat. Antarctica loses ice by two main processes: melting of the underside of floating ice shelves and calving of icebergs. Icebergs themselves are ephemeral, but they carry mineral grains and rock fragments that have been scoured from Antarctic bedrock. As the icebergs drift and melt, this \u0027iceberg-rafted debris\u0027 falls to the sea-bed and is steadily buried in marine sediments to form a record of iceberg activity and ice sheet retreat. The investigators will read this record of iceberg-rafted debris to find when and where Antarctic ice destabilized in the past. This information can help to predict how Antarctic ice will behave in a warming climate. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThe study area is the Weddell Sea embayment, in the Atlantic sector of Antarctica. Principal sources of icebergs are the nearby Antarctic Peninsula and Weddell Sea embayment, where ice streams drain about a quarter of Antarctic ice. The provenance of the iceberg-rafted debris (IRD), and the icebergs that carried it, will be found by matching the geochemical fingerprint (such as characteristic argon isotope ages) of individual mineral grains in the IRD to that of the corresponding source area. In more detail, the project will: \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e1. Define the geochemical fingerprints of the source areas of the glacially-eroded material using samples from each major ice stream entering the Weddell Sea. Existing data indicates that the hinterland of the Weddell embayment is made up of geochemically distinguishable source areas, making it possible to apply geochemical provenance techniques to determine the origin of Antarctica icebergs. Few samples of onshore tills are available from this area, so this project includes fieldwork to collect till samples to characterize detritus supplied by the Recovery and Foundation ice streams. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e2. Document the stratigraphic changes in provenance of iceberg-rafted debris (IRD) and glacially-eroded material in two deep water sediment cores in the NW Weddell Sea. Icebergs calved from ice streams in the embayment are carried by the Weddell Gyre and deposit IRD as they pass over the core sites. The provenance information identifies which groups of ice streams were actively eroding and exporting detritus to the ocean (via iceberg rafting and bottom currents), and the stratigraphy of the cores shows the relative sequence of ice stream activity through time. A further dimension is added by determining the time lag between fine sediment erosion and deposition, using a new method of uranium-series isotope measurements in fine grained material. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eTechnical abstract:\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e The behavior of the Antarctic ice sheets and ice streams is a critical topic for climate change and future sea level rise. The goal of this proposal is to constrain ice sheet response to changing climate in the Weddell Sea during the three most recent glacial terminations, as analogues for potential future warming. The project will also examine possible contributions to Meltwater Pulse 1A, and test the relative stability of the ice streams draining East and West Antarctica. Much of the West Antarctic ice may have melted during the Eemian (130 to 114 Ka), so it may be an analogue for predicting future ice drawdown over the coming centuries. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eGeochemical provenance fingerprinting of glacially eroded detritus provides a novel way to reconstruct the location and relative timing of glacial retreat during these terminations in the Weddell Sea embayment. The two major objectives of the project are to: \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e1. Define the provenance source areas by characterizing Ar, U-Pb, and Nd isotopic signatures, and heavy mineral and Fe-Ti oxide compositions of detrital minerals from each major ice stream entering the Weddell Sea, using onshore tills and existing sediment cores from the Ronne and Filchner Ice Shelves. Pilot data demonstrate that detritus originating from the east and west sides of the Weddell Sea embayment can be clearly distinguished, and published data indicates that the hinterland of the embayment is made up of geochemically distinguishable source areas. Few samples of onshore tills are available from this area, so this project includes fieldwork to collect till to characterize detritus supplied by the Recovery and Foundation ice streams. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e2. Document the stratigraphic changes in provenance of iceberg-rafted debris (IRD) and glacially-eroded material in two deep water sediment cores in the NW Weddell Sea. Icebergs calved from ice streams in the embayment are carried by the Weddell Gyre and deposit IRD as they pass over the core sites. The provenance information will identify which ice streams were actively eroding and exporting detritus to the ocean (via iceberg rafting and bottom currents). The stratigraphy of the cores will show the relative sequence of ice stream activity through time. A further time dimension is added by determining the time lag between fine sediment erosion and deposition, using U-series comminution ages.", "east": -20.0, "geometry": "POINT(-45 -72.5)", "instruments": "IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e CORERS \u003e SEDIMENT CORERS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e SPECTROMETERS/RADIOMETERS \u003e MASS SPECTROMETERS", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "TERRIGENOUS SEDIMENTS; Subglacial Till; USAP-DC; ICEBERGS; AMD; USA/NSF; ISOTOPES; AGE DETERMINATIONS; Argon; Provenance; Till; Amd/Us; R/V POLARSTERN; FIELD INVESTIGATION; SEDIMENT CHEMISTRY; Weddell Sea; Antarctica; LABORATORY", "locations": "Weddell Sea; Antarctica", "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Williams, Trevor; Hemming, Sidney R.", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION; OTHER \u003e PHYSICAL MODELS \u003e LABORATORY; WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e VESSELS \u003e SURFACE \u003e R/V POLARSTERN", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -85.0, "title": "Collaborative Research: Deglacial Ice Dynamics in the Weddell Sea Embayment using Sediment Provenance", "uid": "p0010128", "west": -70.0}, {"awards": "1822256 Smith, Craig; 1822289 Vernet, Maria", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-59.5 -62,-59.05 -62,-58.6 -62,-58.15 -62,-57.7 -62,-57.25 -62,-56.8 -62,-56.35 -62,-55.9 -62,-55.45 -62,-55 -62,-55 -62.27,-55 -62.54,-55 -62.81,-55 -63.08,-55 -63.35,-55 -63.62,-55 -63.89,-55 -64.16,-55 -64.43,-55 -64.7,-55.45 -64.7,-55.9 -64.7,-56.35 -64.7,-56.8 -64.7,-57.25 -64.7,-57.7 -64.7,-58.15 -64.7,-58.6 -64.7,-59.05 -64.7,-59.5 -64.7,-59.5 -64.43,-59.5 -64.16,-59.5 -63.89,-59.5 -63.62,-59.5 -63.35,-59.5 -63.08,-59.5 -62.81,-59.5 -62.54,-59.5 -62.27,-59.5 -62))", "dataset_titles": "CTD stations and logs for Araon 2018 ANA08D expedition to Larson C; Yoyo camera survey transects, King George Island and Bransfield Strait", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601178", "doi": "10.15784/601178", "keywords": "Antarctica; Biota; Chlorophyll; CTD; Glacier; Iceberg; Ice Shelf; Larsen C Ice Shelf; Oceans; Physical Oceanography; Phytoplankton; Sample Location; Sea Ice; Southern Ocean; Station List", "people": "Pan, B. Jack; Vernet, Maria", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "CTD stations and logs for Araon 2018 ANA08D expedition to Larson C", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601178"}, {"dataset_uid": "601199", "doi": "10.15784/601199", "keywords": "Antarctica; Araon; Araon Ana08d; Benthic Images; Benthos; Photo/video; Photo/Video; Southern Ocean; Station List; Yoyo Camera", "people": "Ziegler, Amanda; Smith, Craig", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Yoyo camera survey transects, King George Island and Bransfield Strait", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601199"}], "date_created": "Wed, 15 May 2019 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Marine ecosystems under large ice shelves are thought to contain sparse, low-diversity plankton and seafloor communities due the low supply of food from productive sunlight waters. Past studies have shown sub-ice shelf ecosystems to change in response to altered oceanographic processes resulting from ice-shelve retreat. However, information on community changes and ecosystem structure under ice shelves are limited because sub-ice-shelf ecosystems have either been sampled many years after ice-shelf breakout, or have been sampled through small boreholes, yielding extremely limited spatial information. The recent breakout of the A-68 iceberg from the Larsen C ice shelf in the western Weddell Sea provides an opportunity to use a ship-based study to evaluate benthic communities and water column characteristics in an area recently vacated by a large overlying ice shelf. The opportunity will allow spatial assessments at the time of transition from an under ice-shelf environment to one initially exposed to conditions more typical of a coastal Antarctic marine setting. \\r\\n\\r\\n\\r\\n\\r\\nThis RAPID project will help determine the state of a coastal Antarctic ecosystem newly exposed from ice-shelf cover and will aid in understanding of rates of community change during transition. The project will conduct a 10-day field program, allowing contrasts to be made of phytoplankton and seafloor megafaunal communities in areas recently exposed by ice-shelf loss to areas exposed for many decades. The project will be undertaken in a collaborative manner with the South Korean Antarctic Agency, KOPRI, by participating in a cruise in March/May 2018. Combining new information in the area of Larsen C with existing observations after the Larsen A and B ice shelf breakups further to the north, the project is expected to generate a dataset that can elucidate fundamental processes of planktonic and benthic community development in transition from food-poor to food-rich ecosystems. The project will provide field experience to two graduate students, a post-doctoral associate and an undergraduate student. Material from the project will be incorporated into graduate courses and the project will communicate daily work and unfolding events through social media and blogs while they explore this area of the world that is largely underexplored.", "east": -55.0, "geometry": "POINT(-57.25 -63.35)", "instruments": "NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Antarctica; R/V NBP; Sea Floor; ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES; ICEBERGS; USAP-DC", "locations": "Antarctica; Sea Floor", "north": -62.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Vernet, Maria; Smith, Craig", "platforms": "WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e VESSELS \u003e SURFACE \u003e R/V NBP", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -64.7, "title": "RAPID: Collaborative Research: Marine Ecosystem Response to the Larsen C Ice-Shelf Breakout: \"Time zero\"", "uid": "p0010029", "west": -59.5}, {"awards": "1443394 Pollard, David; 1443347 Condron, Alan", "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": "Antarctic Ice Sheet simulations for role of freshwater in future warming scenarios; Future climate response to Antarctic Ice Sheet melt caused by anthropogenic warming; Simulated changes in Southern Ocean salinity", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601449", "doi": "10.15784/601449", "keywords": "Antarctica; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Meltwater", "people": "Condron, Alan", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Future climate response to Antarctic Ice Sheet melt caused by anthropogenic warming", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601449"}, {"dataset_uid": "601154", "doi": "10.15784/601154 ", "keywords": "Antarctic; Antarctica; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; Ice Sheet; Ice Sheet Model; Meltwater; Model Data; Modeling; Model Output", "people": "Pollard, David", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Antarctic Ice Sheet simulations for role of freshwater in future warming scenarios", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601154"}, {"dataset_uid": "601442", "doi": "10.15784/601442", "keywords": "Antarctica; Computer Model; Freshwater; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Model Data; Ocean Model; Oceans; Salinity", "people": "Condron, Alan", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Simulated changes in Southern Ocean salinity", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601442"}], "date_created": "Mon, 04 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "A great deal of uncertainty remains over how changes in high-latitude freshwater forcing will impact the stability of global ocean circulation, and in particular the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in the next 100-300 years, especially in realistic models. Indeed, it is still not understood whether increased Southern Ocean freshwater forcing will act to intensify the AMOC and warm the Northern Hemisphere or weaken it and trigger a cooling. The requirement to accurately assess climate sensitivity to freshwater forcing is heightened by increasing evidence that the marine-based West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is vulnerable to rapid retreat and collapse on multidecadal-to-centennial timescales. Observations collected over the last 30 years indicate that WAIS is losing ice at an accelerated rate and may signal that the ice sheet has already begun a rapid and irreversible collapse. In addition, future simulations of the Antarctic ice sheet by members of our Project Team show the potential for far more rapid Antarctic ice sheet retreat in the future than previously simulated, suggesting that the discharge of enormous fluxes of icebergs and freshwater to the Southern Ocean should be considered a possibility in the near-future. Here, we performed a suite of coupled numerical climate model simulations to more accurately determine the sensitivity of global ocean circulation to freshwater and iceberg discharge from the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) in the future under IPCC RCP scenarios 4.5 and 8.5. In our model, the input of freshwater and ice was provided by a dynamic ice sheet-shelf model that predicts a full collapse of the WAIS in the next ~100 years. Significantly, we find that accounting for Antarctic discharge raises subsurface ocean temperatures by \u003e1\u00b0C at the ice sheet grounding line, relative to model simulations that are unable to capture this discharge. In contrast, we find that the increased meltwater causes a dramatic expansion of sea ice and a 2\u00b0 - 10\u00b0C cooling of the surface air and surface ocean temperatures over the Southern Ocean that would have the potential to stabilize/reduce projected future ice sheet melt rates. Our work thus highlights that the future stability of the Antarctic ice sheet will likely be governed by whether any surface cooling can counteract any increased rates of subsurface melt.", "east": 180.0, "geometry": "POINT(0 -89.999)", "instruments": "IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e DATA ANALYSIS \u003e ENVIRONMENTAL MODELING \u003e COMPUTER", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "USAP-DC; USA/NSF; AMD; MODELS; Amd/Us; Antarctica; GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS", "locations": "Antarctica", "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Integrated System Science", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Pollard, David; Condron, Alan; DeConto, Robert", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e MODELS \u003e MODELS", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -90.0, "title": "Collaborative Research: Assessing the Global Climate Response to Melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet", "uid": "p0010007", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "1443126 MacAyeal, Douglas", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((166.1631 -77.9007,166.19736 -77.9007,166.23162 -77.9007,166.26588 -77.9007,166.30014 -77.9007,166.3344 -77.9007,166.36866 -77.9007,166.40292 -77.9007,166.43718 -77.9007,166.47144 -77.9007,166.5057 -77.9007,166.5057 -77.90423,166.5057 -77.90776,166.5057 -77.91129,166.5057 -77.91482,166.5057 -77.91835,166.5057 -77.92188,166.5057 -77.92541,166.5057 -77.92894,166.5057 -77.93247,166.5057 -77.936,166.47144 -77.936,166.43718 -77.936,166.40292 -77.936,166.36866 -77.936,166.3344 -77.936,166.30014 -77.936,166.26588 -77.936,166.23162 -77.936,166.19736 -77.936,166.1631 -77.936,166.1631 -77.93247,166.1631 -77.92894,166.1631 -77.92541,166.1631 -77.92188,166.1631 -77.91835,166.1631 -77.91482,166.1631 -77.91129,166.1631 -77.90776,166.1631 -77.90423,166.1631 -77.9007))", "dataset_titles": "McMurdo Ice Shelf AWS data; McMurdo Ice Shelf GPS survey of vertical motion; Supraglacial Lake Depths on McMurdo Ice Shelf, Antarctica; Time-lapse video of McMurdo Ice Shelf surface melting and hydrology", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601113", "doi": "10.15784/601113", "keywords": "Antarctica; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; Ice Shelf; Photo/video; Photo/Video; Supraglacial Meltwater", "people": "MacAyeal, Douglas; Banwell, Alison", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Time-lapse video of McMurdo Ice Shelf surface melting and hydrology", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601113"}, {"dataset_uid": "601116", "doi": "10.15784/601116", "keywords": "Antarctica; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; Ice Shelf; Snow/ice; Snow/Ice; Subglacial And Supraglacial Water Depth; Supraglacial Lake; Supraglacial Meltwater; Water Depth", "people": "MacAyeal, Douglas; Banwell, Alison", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Supraglacial Lake Depths on McMurdo Ice Shelf, Antarctica", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601116"}, {"dataset_uid": "601106", "doi": "10.15784/601106", "keywords": "Antarctica; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; Hydrology; Ice Shelf; Snow/ice; Snow/Ice; Surface Hydrology; Surface Mass Balance; Weather Station Data", "people": "MacAyeal, Douglas; Banwell, Alison", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "McMurdo Ice Shelf AWS data", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601106"}, {"dataset_uid": "601107", "doi": "10.15784/601107", "keywords": "Antarctica; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; GPS; Ice Flow Velocity; Ice Shelf; Ice-Shelf Flexure; Snow/ice; Snow/Ice; Surface Melt", "people": "Banwell, Alison; MacAyeal, Douglas", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "McMurdo Ice Shelf GPS survey of vertical motion", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601107"}], "date_created": "Tue, 24 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Meltwater lakes that sit on top of Antarctica\u0027s floating ice shelves have likely contributed to the dramatic changes seen in Antarctica\u0027s glacial ice cover over the past two decades. In 2002, the 1,600-square-kilometer Larsen B Ice Shelf located on the Eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula, for example, broke into thousands of small icebergs, which subsequently floated away as a result of the formation of more than 2,000 meltwater lakes on its surface over the prior decade. Our research project addresses the reasons why surface lakes form on Antarctic ice shelves and how these surface lakes subsequently contribute to the forces that may contribute to ice-shelf breakup like that of the Larsen B. Our project focuses primarily on making precise global positioning system (GPS) measurements of ice-shelf bending in response to the filling and draining of a surface lake on the McMurdo Ice Shelf. The observed vertical displacements (on the order of tens of centimeters) in response to lake filling will be used to calibrate and test computer simulation models that predict the response of ice shelves to surface lakes more generally and in a variety of future climate conditions. Our project will make hourly measurements of both vertical ice-shelf movements (using GPS surveying instruments) and of temperature and sunlight conditions (that drive melting) around a surface lake located close to the McMurdo Station airfield. Following this initial data-gathering effort, computer simulations and other more theoretical analysis will be undertaken to determine the suitability of the chosen McMurdo Ice Shelf surface lake as a field-laboratory for continued study. Ultimately, the research will contribute to understanding of the glaciological processes that link climate change to rising sea level. A successful outcome of the research will allow glaciologists to better assess the processes that promote or erode the influence Antarctic ice shelves have in controlling the transfer of ice from the interior of Antarctica into the ocean. The project will undertake two outreach activities: (1) web-posting of a field-activity journal and (2) establishing an open-access glaciological teaching and outreach web-sharing site for the International Glaciological Society.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThe proposed project seeks to experimentally verify a theory of ice-shelf instability proposed to explain the explosive break-up of Larsen B Ice Shelf in 2002. This theory holds that the filling and draining of supraglacial lakes on floating ice shelves induces sufficient flexure stress within the ice to (a) induce upward/downward propagating fractures originating at the base/surface of the ice shelf that (b) dissect the ice shelf into fragments that tend to have widths less than about half the ice thickness. The significance of narrow widths is that they promote capsize of the ice-shelf fragments during the break-up process. This capsize releases large amounts of gravitational potential energy (comparable to thousands of kilotons of TNT for the Larsen B Ice Shelf) thereby promoting explosiveness of the Larsen B event. The observational motivation for experimentally verifying the surface-lake mechanism for ice-shelf breakup is based on the fact that \u003e2,000 surface lakes developed on the Larsen B Ice Shelf in the decade prior to its break up, and that these lakes were observed (via satellite imagery) to drain in a coordinated fashion during the day prior to the initiation of the break up.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThe field-observation component of the project will focus on a supraglacial lake on the McMurdo Ice Shelf where there is persistent summer season surface melting. The lake will be studied during a single provisional field season to determine whether grooming of surrounding surface streams and shorelines with heavy construction equipment will allow surface water to be manually encouraged to fill the lake. If successfully encouraged to develop, the McMurdo Ice Shelf surface lake will allow measurements of key ice-shelf flexure and stress variables needed to develop the theory of ice-shelf surface lakes without having to access the much more logistically demanding surface lakes of ice-shelves located elsewhere in Antarctica. Data to be gathered during the 6-week provisional field season include: energy- and water-balance parameters determining how the surface lake grows and fills, and various global positioning system measurements of the vertical bending of the ice sheet in response to the changing meltwater load contained within the surface lake. These data will be used to (1) constrain a computer model of viscoelastic flexure and possible fracture of the ice shelf in response to the increasing load of meltwater in the lake, and (2) determine whether continued study of the incipient surface-meltwater lake features on the McMurdo Ice Shelf provides a promising avenue for constraining the more-general behavior of surface meltwater lakes on other ice shelves located in warmer parts of Antarctica. Computer models constrained by the observational data obtained from the field project will inform energy- and water-balance models of ice shelves in general, and allow more accurate forecasts of changing ice-shelf conditions surrounding the inland ice of Antarctica. The project will create the first-ever ground-based observations useful for spawning the development of models capable of predicting viscoelastic and fracture behavior of ice shelves in response to supraglacial lake evolution, including slow changes due to energy balance effects, as well as fast changes due to filling and draining.", "east": 166.5057, "geometry": "POINT(166.3344 -77.91835)", "instruments": "IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e RECORDERS/LOGGERS \u003e AWS", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "USAP-DC; AWOS", "locations": null, "north": -77.9007, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Glaciology", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "MacAyeal, Douglas", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e PERMANENT LAND SITES \u003e AWOS", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -77.936, "title": "Impact of Supraglacial Lakes on Ice-Shelf Stability", "uid": "p0000138", "west": 166.1631}, {"awards": "0944193 MacAyeal, Douglas", "bounds_geometry": null, "dataset_titles": "Iceberg Capsize Kinematics and Energetics", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "609590", "doi": "10.7265/N56H4FCJ", "keywords": "Antarctica; Glaciology; Iceberg; Kinetics", "people": "MacAyeal, Douglas", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Iceberg Capsize Kinematics and Energetics", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/609590"}], "date_created": "Mon, 25 Aug 2014 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "This award supports a project to examine and test a 3-step process model for explosive ice-shelf disintegration that emerged in the wake of the recent 2008 and 2009 events of the Wilkins Ice Shelf. The model is conditioned on Summer melt-driven increase in free-surface water coupled with surface and basal crevasse density growth necessary to satisfy an \"enabling condition\". Once met, the collapse proceeds through three steps: (Step 1), calving of a \"leading phalanx\" of tabular icebergs from the seaward ice front of the ice shelf which creates in its wake a region, called a \"mosh pit\" (located between the phalanx and the edge of the intact ice shelf), where ocean surface-gravity waves are trapped by reflection (a fast mechanically enabled process), (Step 2), and a rapid, runaway conversion of gravitational potential energy into ocean-wave energy by iceberg capsize and fragmentation within the \"mosh pit\" which leads to further wave-induced calving, capsize and fragmentation (Step 3). The project will be conducted by a multidisciplinary team and will focus on theoretical model development, numerical method development and application and new observations. The project will participate in both the Research Experience for Undergraduates program in the Physics Department and the Summer Research Early Identification Program (SR-EIP) that fosters participation in research by underrepresented minorities. The PIs, postdoctoral scholar, graduate students and unfunded participants will develop a graduate-level seminar/tutorial to introduce advanced computational methods to glaciology. A postdoctoral scholar and graduate student will be trained in new research techniques during the project.", "east": null, "geometry": null, "instruments": "EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e PHOTON/OPTICAL DETECTORS \u003e CAMERAS \u003e VIDEO CAMERA", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "LABORATORY; Iceberg Kinetic Energy; Iceberg Velocity", "locations": null, "north": null, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Glaciology", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "MacAyeal, Douglas", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e PHYSICAL MODELS \u003e LABORATORY", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": null, "title": "Collaborative Research: Explosive Ice-Shelf Disintegration", "uid": "p0000005", "west": null}, {"awards": "0944489 Williams, Trevor", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-55 -58,-33.2 -58,-11.4 -58,10.4 -58,32.2 -58,54 -58,75.8 -58,97.6 -58,119.4 -58,141.2 -58,163 -58,163 -60,163 -62,163 -64,163 -66,163 -68,163 -70,163 -72,163 -74,163 -76,163 -78,141.2 -78,119.4 -78,97.6 -78,75.8 -78,54 -78,32.2 -78,10.4 -78,-11.4 -78,-33.2 -78,-55 -78,-55 -76,-55 -74,-55 -72,-55 -70,-55 -68,-55 -66,-55 -64,-55 -62,-55 -60,-55 -58))", "dataset_titles": "History of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet since the mid-Miocene: New Evidence from Provenance of Ice-rafted Debris", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "600116", "doi": "10.15784/600116", "keywords": "Geochronology; George V Land; IODP U1356; IODP U1361; Marine Sediments; ODP1165; Prydz Bay; Solid Earth; Southern Ocean; Wilkes Land", "people": "Williams, Trevor; Hemming, Sidney R.", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "History of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet since the mid-Miocene: New Evidence from Provenance of Ice-rafted Debris", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/600116"}], "date_created": "Wed, 13 Aug 2014 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Intellectual Merit: \u003cbr/\u003eThe PIs propose to study the stability and dynamics of the East Antarctic ice sheet during the Pliocene in the area of the Wilkes and Aurora subglacial basins. Models indicate the ice sheet is most sensitive to warming in these low-lying areas. This study is important as there is very little direct evidence about which parts of the East Antarctic ice sheet became unstable under warm conditions. In a pilot study the PIs have shown that the isotopic geochemical signature of downcore ice-rafted debris (IRD) can be linked to continental source areas indicating which parts of the ice sheet reached the coast and calved IRD-bearing icebergs. Their initial results suggest rapid iceberg discharge from the Wilkes Land and Ad\u00e9lie Land coastal areas at times in the late Miocene and early Pliocene. In this study the PIs will analyze IRD from IODP sediment cores collected on the continental rise off East Antarctica. By analyzing 40Ar/39Ar ages of hornblende IRD grains, U-Pb ages of zircons, and Sm-Nd isotopes of the fine fraction of several IRD-rich layers for each core, they will be able to fingerprint continental source areas that will indicated ice extent and dynamics on East Antarctica. The PIs will also carry out detailed studies across a few of these layers to characterize the anatomy of the ice-rafting event and better understand the mechanism of ice destabilization.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eBroader impacts: \u003cbr/\u003eThe data collected will be important for scientists in a broad variety of fields. The project will involve one undergraduate student and one summer intern at LDEO, and a graduate student at Imperial College London. The project will expose to cutting edge methodologies as well as an international research team. Data from the project will be deposited in the online databases (SedDB) and all results and methods will be made available to the scientific community through publications in peer-reviewed journals and attendance at international conferences.", "east": 163.0, "geometry": "POINT(54 -68)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Not provided", "locations": null, "north": -58.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Williams, Trevor; Hemming, Sidney R.", "platforms": "Not provided", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -78.0, "title": "History of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet since the mid-Miocene: New Evidence from Provenance of Ice-rafted Debris", "uid": "p0000353", "west": -55.0}, {"awards": "0838937 Costa, Daniel; 0838911 Hofmann, Eileen; 0838892 Burns, Jennifer", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((160 -68,162 -68,164 -68,166 -68,168 -68,170 -68,172 -68,174 -68,176 -68,178 -68,180 -68,180 -68.8,180 -69.6,180 -70.4,180 -71.2,180 -72,180 -72.8,180 -73.6,180 -74.4,180 -75.2,180 -76,178 -76,176 -76,174 -76,172 -76,170 -76,168 -76,166 -76,164 -76,162 -76,160 -76,160 -75.2,160 -74.4,160 -73.6,160 -72.8,160 -72,160 -71.2,160 -70.4,160 -69.6,160 -68.8,160 -68))", "dataset_titles": "Weddell seal dive behavior and rhythmicity from 2010-2012 in the Ross Sea; Weddell seals as autonomous sensors of the winter oceanography of the Ross Sea", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "600025", "doi": "10.15784/600025", "keywords": "Antarctica; Biota; Oceans; Ross Sea; Southern Ocean", "people": "Costa, Daniel", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Weddell seals as autonomous sensors of the winter oceanography of the Ross Sea", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/600025"}, {"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": "600101", "doi": "10.15784/600101", "keywords": "Biota; Oceans; Ross Sea; Seals; Southern Ocean", "people": "Burns, Jennifer", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Weddell seals as autonomous sensors of the winter oceanography of the Ross Sea", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/600101"}], "date_created": "Mon, 11 Nov 2013 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Abstract \u003cbr/\u003eThis award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eMarine mammals of the Southern Ocean have evolved diverse life history patterns and foraging strategies to accommodate extreme fluctuations in the physical and biological environment. In light of ongoing climate change and the dramatic shifts in the extent and persistence of sea ice in the Ross Sea, it is critical to understand how Weddell seals, Leptonychotes weddellii, a key apex predator, select and utilize foraging habitats. Recent advances in satellite-linked animal-borne conductivity, temperature and depth (CTD) tags make it possible to simultaneously collect data on seal locations, their diving patterns, and the temperature and salinity profiles of the water columns they utilize. In other ecosystems, such data have revealed that marine predators selectively forage in areas where currents and fronts serve to locally concentrate prey resources, and that these conditions are required to sustain populations. Weddell seals will be studied in McMurdo Sound and at Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea and will provide the first new data on Weddell seal winter diving behavior and habitat use in almost two decades. The relationship between an animal\u0027s diving behavior and physical habitat has enormous potential to enhance monitoring studies and to provide insight into how changes in ice conditions (due either to warming or the impact of large icebergs, such as B15) might impact individual time budgets and foraging success. The second thrust of this project is to use the profiles obtained from CTD seal tags to model the physical oceanography of this region. Current mathematical models of physical oceanographic processes in the Southern Ocean are directed at better understanding the role that it plays in global climate processes, and the linkages between physical and biological oceanographic processes. However, these efforts are limited by the scarcity of oceanographic data at high latitudes in the winter months; CTD tags deployed on animals will collect data at sufficient spatial and temporal resolution to improve data density. The project will contribute to two IPY endorsed initiatives: MEOP (Marine Mammals as Explorers of the Ocean Pole to Pole) and CAML (Census of Antarctic Marine Life). In addition, the highly visual nature of the data and analysis lends itself to public and educational display and outreach, particularly as they relate to global climate change, and we have collaborations with undergraduate and graduate training programs, the Seymour Marine Discovery Center, and the ARMADA program to foster these broader impacts.", "east": 180.0, "geometry": "POINT(170 -72)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Not provided", "locations": null, "north": -68.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Burns, Jennifer; Hofmann, Eileen; Costa, Daniel", "platforms": "Not provided", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -76.0, "title": "Collaborative Research: Weddell seals as autonomous sensors of the winter oceanography of the Ross Sea", "uid": "p0000661", "west": 160.0}, {"awards": "0636543 Murray, Alison; 0636319 Shaw, Timothy; 0636440 Long, David; 0636723 Helly, John", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-55 -52,-53.5 -52,-52 -52,-50.5 -52,-49 -52,-47.5 -52,-46 -52,-44.5 -52,-43 -52,-41.5 -52,-40 -52,-40 -53.3,-40 -54.6,-40 -55.9,-40 -57.2,-40 -58.5,-40 -59.8,-40 -61.1,-40 -62.4,-40 -63.7,-40 -65,-41.5 -65,-43 -65,-44.5 -65,-46 -65,-47.5 -65,-49 -65,-50.5 -65,-52 -65,-53.5 -65,-55 -65,-55 -63.7,-55 -62.4,-55 -61.1,-55 -59.8,-55 -58.5,-55 -57.2,-55 -55.9,-55 -54.6,-55 -53.3,-55 -52))", "dataset_titles": "Antarctic Iceberg Tracking Database; Free-Drifting Icebergs as Proliferating Dispersion Sites of Iron Enrichment, Organic Carbon Production and Export in the Southern Ocean; Free Drifting Icebergs as Proliferation Sites of Iron Enrichment, Organic Carbon Production and Export in the Southern Ocean", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "000134", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "PI website", "science_program": null, "title": "Antarctic Iceberg Tracking Database", "url": "http://www.scp.byu.edu/data/iceberg/database1.html"}, {"dataset_uid": "600067", "doi": "10.15784/600067", "keywords": "Antarctica; NBP0902; Oceans; Physical Oceanography; Southern Ocean; Weddell Sea", "people": "Helly, John", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Free-Drifting Icebergs as Proliferating Dispersion Sites of Iron Enrichment, Organic Carbon Production and Export in the Southern Ocean", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/600067"}, {"dataset_uid": "600065", "doi": "10.15784/600065", "keywords": "Biota; Geochemistry; NBP0902; Oceans; Physical Oceanography; Sea Ice; Southern Ocean; Weddell Sea", "people": "Murray, Alison", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Free-Drifting Icebergs as Proliferating Dispersion Sites of Iron Enrichment, Organic Carbon Production and Export in the Southern Ocean", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/600065"}, {"dataset_uid": "600064", "doi": "10.15784/600064", "keywords": "Biota; Chemistry:fluid; Chemistry:Fluid; Geochemistry; Oceans; Sea Ice; Sea Surface; Southern Ocean; Weddell Sea", "people": "Shaw, Tim; Twining, Benjamin", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Free Drifting Icebergs as Proliferation Sites of Iron Enrichment, Organic Carbon Production and Export in the Southern Ocean", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/600064"}], "date_created": "Mon, 22 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Atmospheric warming has been associated with retreating glaciers, disintegrating ice shelves, and the increasing prevalence of icebergs in the Southern Ocean over the last decade. Our preliminary study of two icebergs in the NW Weddell Sea, an area of high iceberg concentration, showed significant delivery of terrestrial material accompanied by significant enhancement of phytoplankton and zooplankton/micronekton abundance, and primary production surrounding the icebergs. We hypothesize that nutrient enrichment by free-drifting icebergs will increase primary production and sedimentation of organic carbon, thus increasing the draw-down and sequestration of CO2 in the Southern Ocean and impacting the global carbon cycle. Our research addresses the following questions:1) What is the relationship between the physical dynamics of free-drifting icebergs and the Fe and nutrient distributions of the surrounding water column? 2) What is the relationship between Fe and nutrient distributions associated with free-drifting icebergs and the organic carbon dynamics of the ice-attached and surrounding pelagic communities (microbes, zooplankton, micronekton)? 3) What is impact on the export flux of particulate organic carbon from the mixed layer? An interdisciplinary approach is proposed to examine iceberg structure and dynamics, biogeochemical processes, and carbon cycling that includes measurement of trace element, nutrient and radionuclide distributions; organic carbon dynamics mediated by microbial, ice-attached and zooplankton communities; and particulate organic carbon export fluxes. Results from this project will further our understanding of the relationship between climate change and carbon sequestration in the Southern Ocean. Our findings will be incorporated into the Antarctic Research division of the Ocean Exploration Center (OEC) as part of the SIOExplorer: Digital Library Project. The OEC allows users to access content, which is classified to one of four levels: entry (grade K-6), student (grade 6-12), college, and research. Graduate students, undergraduates, teachers, and volunteers are important participants in the proposed field and laboratory work. For the K-12 level, a professional writer of children\u0027s books will participate in cruises to produce an account of the expedition and a daily interactive website.", "east": -40.0, "geometry": "POINT(-47.5 -58.5)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Not provided", "locations": null, "north": -52.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Twining, Benjamin; Shaw, Tim; Long, David; Murray, Alison; Helly, John", "platforms": "Not provided", "repo": "PI website", "repositories": "PI website; USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -65.0, "title": "Collaborative Research: Free Drifting Icebergs as Proliferation Sites of Iron Enrichment, Organic Carbon Production and Export in the Southern Ocean", "uid": "p0000511", "west": -55.0}, {"awards": "0636730 Vernet, Maria", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-55 -52,-53.5 -52,-52 -52,-50.5 -52,-49 -52,-47.5 -52,-46 -52,-44.5 -52,-43 -52,-41.5 -52,-40 -52,-40 -53.3,-40 -54.6,-40 -55.9,-40 -57.2,-40 -58.5,-40 -59.8,-40 -61.1,-40 -62.4,-40 -63.7,-40 -65,-41.5 -65,-43 -65,-44.5 -65,-46 -65,-47.5 -65,-49 -65,-50.5 -65,-52 -65,-53.5 -65,-55 -65,-55 -63.7,-55 -62.4,-55 -61.1,-55 -59.8,-55 -58.5,-55 -57.2,-55 -55.9,-55 -54.6,-55 -53.3,-55 -52))", "dataset_titles": "Free-drifting Icebergs as Proliferating Dispersion Sites of Iron Enrichment, Organic Carbon Production and Export in the Southern Ocean", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "600068", "doi": "10.15784/600068", "keywords": "Antarctica; Biota; Chemistry:fluid; Chemistry:Fluid; Geochemistry; NBP0902; Oceans; Physical Oceanography; Sea Surface; Southern Ocean; Weddell Sea", "people": "Vernet, Maria", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Free-drifting Icebergs as Proliferating Dispersion Sites of Iron Enrichment, Organic Carbon Production and Export in the Southern Ocean", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/600068"}], "date_created": "Mon, 22 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Atmospheric warming has been associated with retreating glaciers, disintegrating ice shelves, and the increasing prevalence of icebergs in the Southern Ocean over the last decade. Our preliminary study of two icebergs in the NW Weddell Sea, an area of high iceberg concentration, showed significant delivery of terrestrial material accompanied by significant enhancement of phytoplankton and zooplankton/micronekton abundance, and primary production surrounding the icebergs. We hypothesize that nutrient enrichment by free-drifting icebergs will increase primary production and sedimentation of organic carbon, thus increasing the draw-down and sequestration of CO2 in the Southern Ocean and impacting the global carbon cycle. Our research addresses the following questions:1) What is the relationship between the physical dynamics of free-drifting icebergs and the Fe and nutrient distributions of the surrounding water column? 2) What is the relationship between Fe and nutrient distributions associated with free-drifting icebergs and the organic carbon dynamics of the ice-attached and surrounding pelagic communities (microbes, zooplankton, micronekton)? 3) What is impact on the export flux of particulate organic carbon from the mixed layer? An interdisciplinary approach is proposed to examine iceberg structure and dynamics, biogeochemical processes, and carbon cycling that includes measurement of trace element, nutrient and radionuclide distributions; organic carbon dynamics mediated by microbial, ice-attached and zooplankton communities; and particulate organic carbon export fluxes. Results from this project will further our understanding of the relationship between climate change and carbon sequestration in the Southern Ocean. Our findings will be incorporated into the Antarctic Research division of the Ocean Exploration Center (OEC) as part of the SIOExplorer: Digital Library Project. The OEC allows users to access content, which is classified to one of four levels: entry (grade K-6), student (grade 6-12), college, and research. Graduate students, undergraduates, teachers, and volunteers are important participants in the proposed field and laboratory work. For the K-12 level, a professional writer of children\u0027s books will participate in cruises to produce an account of the expedition and a daily interactive website.", "east": -40.0, "geometry": "POINT(-47.5 -58.5)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Not provided", "locations": null, "north": -52.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Vernet, Maria", "platforms": "Not provided", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -65.0, "title": "Collaborative Reseach: Free-drifting Icebergs as Proliferating Dispersion Sites of Iron Enrichment, Organic Carbon Production and Export in the Southern Ocean.", "uid": "p0000532", "west": -55.0}, {"awards": "0650034 Smith, Kenneth", "bounds_geometry": null, "dataset_titles": "Expedition Data; Expedition data of NBP0806; Expedition data of NBP0902", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "002650", "doi": null, "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "R2R", "science_program": null, "title": "Expedition data of NBP0902", "url": "https://www.rvdata.us/search/cruise/NBP0902"}, {"dataset_uid": "001484", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "R2R", "science_program": null, "title": "Expedition Data", "url": "https://www.rvdata.us/search/cruise/NBP0902"}, {"dataset_uid": "002649", "doi": null, "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "R2R", "science_program": null, "title": "Expedition data of NBP0806", "url": "https://www.rvdata.us/search/cruise/NBP0806"}], "date_created": "Tue, 04 May 2010 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "This project seeks to examine the importance of icebergs to the pelagic ecosystem of the North-West Weddell Sea. Atmospheric warming has been associated with retreating glaciers and the increasing prevalence of icebergs in the Southern Ocean over the last decade. The highest concentration of icebergs occurs in the NW Weddell Sea, where they drift in a clockwise pattern to the northeast, following the contours of the Antarctic Peninsula through an area dubbed \"Iceberg Alley\". Little is known about the impact of free-drifting icebergs on the pelagic ecosystem of the Weddell Sea or on the Southern Ocean as a whole. It is hypothesized that as drifting islands, icebergs of small to intermediate size (\u003c 10 km in largest dimension) impart unique physical, chemical and biological characteristics to the surrounding water. Three general questions will be asked to address this hypothesis: 1) What are the dynamics (approximate size, abundance and spatial distribution) of free-drifting icebergs on temporal scales of days to months, based on correlation of field measurements with imagery derived from satellite sensors? 2) What is the relationship between the size of free-drifting icebergs and the structure of the associated pelagic communities? 3) What is the estimated combined impact of free-drifting icebergs in the NW Weddell Sea on the biological characteristics of the pelagic zone? This interdisciplinary study will use standard oceanographic sampling coupled with unique methodology for staging shipboard data from all types of sensors and survey methods to determine the sphere of influence for a diverse set of biological factors as a function of iceberg size. The exploratory research proposed here will provide critical data on the effects of atmospheric warming in the Antarctic Peninsula region. The recent prevalence of free drifting icebergs in the Southern Ocean should have a pronounced enrichment effect on the surrounding pelagic ecosystem, altering community dynamics. Enhanced primary production associated with these icebergs could influence the global carbon cycle since the Southern Ocean is considered a major sink for excess CO2 from the atmosphere. \u003cbr/\u003eThe proposed research will include an innovative education component through the Ocean Exploration Center (OEC), whose focus is to provide a comprehensive view of the oceans, intelligible to non-scientists and researchers alike, with direct access to state-of-the-art databases and selected websites. The OEC will allow users to access content which has been classified to one of four levels: entry (grade K-6), student (grade 6-12), college, and research. The results from this iceberg project will be incorporated into the Antarctic Research division of the OEC, providing databases documenting the impact of free-drifting icebergs on the surrounding pelagic ecosystem. These data then will be extrapolated to evaluate the impact of icebergs on the ecosystem of the Weddell Sea. Graduate students, undergraduates, teachers and volunteers are an important part of the proposed field and laboratory work.", "east": null, "geometry": null, "instruments": "IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e CTD; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e MAGNETIC/MOTION SENSORS \u003e GRAVIMETERS \u003e GRAVIMETERS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e POSITIONING/NAVIGATION \u003e GPS \u003e GPS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e ACOUSTIC SOUNDERS \u003e ADCP", "is_usap_dc": false, "keywords": "R/V NBP", "locations": null, "north": null, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Smith, Ken", "platforms": "WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e VESSELS \u003e SURFACE \u003e R/V NBP", "repo": "R2R", "repositories": "R2R", "science_programs": null, "south": null, "title": "Free Drifting Icebergs: Influence of Floating Islands on Pelagic Ecosystems in the Weddell Sea.", "uid": "p0000840", "west": null}, {"awards": "0529815 Smith, Kenneth", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-68.12004 -52.65918,-65.348168 -52.65918,-62.576296 -52.65918,-59.804424 -52.65918,-57.032552 -52.65918,-54.26068 -52.65918,-51.488808 -52.65918,-48.716936 -52.65918,-45.945064 -52.65918,-43.173192 -52.65918,-40.40132 -52.65918,-40.40132 -53.972709,-40.40132 -55.286238,-40.40132 -56.599767,-40.40132 -57.913296,-40.40132 -59.226825,-40.40132 -60.540354,-40.40132 -61.853883,-40.40132 -63.167412,-40.40132 -64.480941,-40.40132 -65.79447,-43.173192 -65.79447,-45.945064 -65.79447,-48.716936 -65.79447,-51.488808 -65.79447,-54.26068 -65.79447,-57.032552 -65.79447,-59.804424 -65.79447,-62.576296 -65.79447,-65.348168 -65.79447,-68.12004 -65.79447,-68.12004 -64.480941,-68.12004 -63.167412,-68.12004 -61.853883,-68.12004 -60.540354,-68.12004 -59.226825,-68.12004 -57.913296,-68.12004 -56.599767,-68.12004 -55.286238,-68.12004 -53.972709,-68.12004 -52.65918))", "dataset_titles": "Expedition Data; Expedition data of LMG0514A", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "001484", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "R2R", "science_program": null, "title": "Expedition Data", "url": "https://www.rvdata.us/search/cruise/NBP0902"}, {"dataset_uid": "002668", "doi": null, "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "R2R", "science_program": null, "title": "Expedition data of LMG0514A", "url": "https://www.rvdata.us/search/cruise/LMG0514A"}], "date_created": "Tue, 04 May 2010 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "This project seeks to examine the importance of icebergs to the pelagic ecosystem of the North-West Weddell Sea. Atmospheric warming has been associated with retreating glaciers and the increasing prevalence of icebergs in the Southern Ocean over the last decade. The highest concentration of icebergs occurs in the NW Weddell Sea, where they drift in a clockwise pattern to the northeast, following the contours of the Antarctic Peninsula through an area dubbed \"Iceberg Alley\". Little is known about the impact of free-drifting icebergs on the pelagic ecosystem of the Weddell Sea or on the Southern Ocean as a whole. It is hypothesized that as drifting islands, icebergs of small to intermediate size (\u003c 10 km in largest dimension) impart unique physical, chemical and biological characteristics to the surrounding water. Three general questions will be asked to address this hypothesis: 1) What are the dynamics (approximate size, abundance and spatial distribution) of free-drifting icebergs on temporal scales of days to months, based on correlation of field measurements with imagery derived from satellite sensors? 2) What is the relationship between the size of free-drifting icebergs and the structure of the associated pelagic communities? 3) What is the estimated combined impact of free-drifting icebergs in the NW Weddell Sea on the biological characteristics of the pelagic zone? This interdisciplinary study will use standard oceanographic sampling coupled with unique methodology for staging shipboard data from all types of sensors and survey methods to determine the sphere of influence for a diverse set of biological factors as a function of iceberg size. The exploratory research proposed here will provide critical data on the effects of atmospheric warming in the Antarctic Peninsula region. The recent prevalence of free drifting icebergs in the Southern Ocean should have a pronounced enrichment effect on the surrounding pelagic ecosystem, altering community dynamics. Enhanced primary production associated with these icebergs could influence the global carbon cycle since the Southern Ocean is considered a major sink for excess CO2 from the atmosphere. \u003cbr/\u003eThe proposed research will include an innovative education component through the Ocean Exploration Center (OEC), whose focus is to provide a comprehensive view of the oceans, intelligible to non-scientists and researchers alike, with direct access to state-of-the-art databases and selected websites. The OEC will allow users to access content which has been classified to one of four levels: entry (grade K-6), student (grade 6-12), college, and research. The results from this iceberg project will be incorporated into the Antarctic Research division of the OEC, providing databases documenting the impact of free-drifting icebergs on the surrounding pelagic ecosystem. These data then will be extrapolated to evaluate the impact of icebergs on the ecosystem of the Weddell Sea. Graduate students, undergraduates, teachers and volunteers are an important part of the proposed field and laboratory work.", "east": -40.40132, "geometry": "POINT(-54.26068 -59.226825)", "instruments": "IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e CTD; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PRESSURE/HEIGHT METERS \u003e PRESSURE SENSORS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e POSITIONING/NAVIGATION \u003e GPS \u003e GPS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e ACOUSTIC SOUNDERS \u003e ADCP; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e CTD; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e MAGNETIC/MOTION SENSORS \u003e GRAVIMETERS \u003e GRAVIMETERS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e POSITIONING/NAVIGATION \u003e GPS \u003e GPS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e ACOUSTIC SOUNDERS \u003e ADCP", "is_usap_dc": false, "keywords": "R/V LMG; R/V NBP", "locations": null, "north": -52.65918, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Smith, Ken", "platforms": "WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e VESSELS \u003e SURFACE \u003e R/V LMG; WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e VESSELS \u003e SURFACE \u003e R/V NBP", "repo": "R2R", "repositories": "R2R", "science_programs": null, "south": -65.79447, "title": "Free Drifting Icebergs: Influence of Floating Islands on Pelagic Ecosystems in the Weddell Sea.", "uid": "p0000551", "west": -68.12004}, {"awards": "0439759 Ballard, Grant", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-180 -60,-177.5 -60,-175 -60,-172.5 -60,-170 -60,-167.5 -60,-165 -60,-162.5 -60,-160 -60,-157.5 -60,-155 -60,-155 -61.76,-155 -63.52,-155 -65.28,-155 -67.04,-155 -68.8,-155 -70.56,-155 -72.32,-155 -74.08,-155 -75.84,-155 -77.6,-157.5 -77.6,-160 -77.6,-162.5 -77.6,-165 -77.6,-167.5 -77.6,-170 -77.6,-172.5 -77.6,-175 -77.6,-177.5 -77.6,180 -77.6,178.5 -77.6,177 -77.6,175.5 -77.6,174 -77.6,172.5 -77.6,171 -77.6,169.5 -77.6,168 -77.6,166.5 -77.6,165 -77.6,165 -75.84,165 -74.08,165 -72.32,165 -70.56,165 -68.8,165 -67.04,165 -65.28,165 -63.52,165 -61.76,165 -60,166.5 -60,168 -60,169.5 -60,171 -60,172.5 -60,174 -60,175.5 -60,177 -60,178.5 -60,-180 -60))", "dataset_titles": "Access to data; Adelie penguin banding data 1994-2021 from the California Avian Data Center hosted by Point Reyes Bird Observatory Conservation Science; Adelie penguin resighting data 1997-2021 from the California Avian Data Center hosted by Point Reyes Bird Observatory Conservation Science", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601443", "doi": "10.15784/601443", "keywords": "Adelie Penguin; Antarctica; Biota; Demography; Penguin; Ross Sea; Seabirds", "people": "Ballard, Grant", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Adelie penguin banding data 1994-2021 from the California Avian Data Center hosted by Point Reyes Bird Observatory Conservation Science", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601443"}, {"dataset_uid": "001368", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "CADC", "science_program": null, "title": "Access to data", "url": "http://data.prbo.org/apps/penguinscience/AllData/mammals"}, {"dataset_uid": "601444", "doi": "10.15784/601444", "keywords": "Adelie Penguin; Antarctica; Biota; Demography; Mark-Recapture; Monitoring; Penguin; Ross Island", "people": "Ballard, Grant", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Adelie penguin resighting data 1997-2021 from the California Avian Data Center hosted by Point Reyes Bird Observatory Conservation Science", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601444"}], "date_created": "Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "This project is an international collaborative investigation of geographic structuring, founding of new colonies, and population change of Adelie penguins (Pygoscelis adelia) nesting on Ross and Beaufort islands, Antarctica. The long-term changes occurring at these colonies are representative of changes throughout the Ross Sea, where 30% of all Adelie penguins reside, and are in some way related to changing climate. The recent grounding of two very large icebergs against Ross and Beaufort islands, with associated increased variability in sea-ice extent, has provided an unparalleled natural experiment affecting wild, interannual swings in colony productivity, foraging effort, philopatry and recruitment. Results of this natural experiment can provide insights into the demography and geographic population structuring of this species, having relevance Antarctic-wide in understanding its future responses to climate change as well as interpreting its amazingly well known Holocene history. This ongoing study will continue to consider the relative importance of resources that constrain or enhance colony growth (nesting habitat, access to food); the aspects of natural history that are affected by exploitative or interference competition among neighboring colonies (breeding success, foraging effort); climatic factors that influence the latter, especially sea ice patterns; and behavioral mechanisms that influence colony growth as a function of initial size and location (emigration, immigration). An increased effort will focus on understanding factors that affect over-winter survival. The hypothesis is that the age structure of Cape Crozier has changed over the past thirty years and no longer reflects the smaller colonies nearby. Based on recent analyses, it appears that the Ross Island penguins winter in a narrow band of sea ice north of the Antarctic Circle (where daylight persists) and south of the southern boundary of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (where food abounds). More extensive winter ice takes the penguins north of that boundary where they incur higher mortality. Thus, where a penguin winters may be due to the timing of its post-breeding departure (which differs among colonies), which affects where it first encounters sea ice on which to molt and where it will be transported by the growing ice field. Foraging effort and interference competition for food suggested as factors driving the geographic structuring of colonies. The research includes a census of known-age penguins, studies of foraging effort and overlap among colonies; and identification of the location of molting and wintering areas. Information will be related to sea-ice conditions as quantified by satellite images. Demographic and foraging-effort models will be used to synthesize results. The iceberg natural experiment is an unparalleled opportunity to investigate the demographics of a polar seabird and its response to climate change. The marked, interannual variability in apparent philopatry, with concrete data being collected on its causes, is a condition rarely encountered among studies of vertebrates. Broader impacts include collaborating with New Zealand and Italian researchers, involving high school teachers and students in the fieldwork and continuing a website to highlight results to both scientists and the general public.", "east": -155.0, "geometry": "POINT(-175 -68.8)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": false, "keywords": "Not provided", "locations": null, "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Ballard, Grant", "platforms": "Not provided", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "CADC; USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -77.6, "title": "COLLABORATIVE: Geographic Structure of Adelie Penguin Colonies - Demography of Population Change", "uid": "p0000068", "west": 165.0}, {"awards": "0229546 MacAyeal, Douglas", "bounds_geometry": "POINT(-178 -78)", "dataset_titles": "collection of nascent rift images and description of station deployment; Continuous GPS (static) Data from the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica; Giant Icebergs of the Ross Sea, in situ Drift and Weather Measurements, Antarctica; Iceberg Firn Temperatures, Antarctica; Iceberg Harmonic Tremor, Seismometer Data, Antarctica; Iceberg Satellite imagery from stations and ice shelves (full data link not provided); Iceberg Tiltmeter Measurements, Antarctica; Ice Shelf Rift Time-Lapse Photography, Antarctica; Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology; Nascent Iceberg Webcam Images available during the deployment period; Ross Ice Shelf Firn Temperature, Antarctica; The files contain a short header (number of data samples, sample rate, start time, stop time, channel title)The time series data then follow the header above.; This site mirrors the NSIDC website archive.", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "001684", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "AMRDC", "science_program": null, "title": "This site mirrors the NSIDC website archive.", "url": "http://uwamrc.ssec.wisc.edu/"}, {"dataset_uid": "001639", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Project website", "science_program": null, "title": "collection of nascent rift images and description of station deployment", "url": "http://thistle.org/nascent/index.shtml"}, {"dataset_uid": "001685", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "IRIS", "science_program": null, "title": "Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology", "url": "http://www.iris.edu/data/sources.htm"}, {"dataset_uid": "609350", "doi": "10.7265/N5VM496K", "keywords": "AWS; Glaciology; GPS; Iceberg; Meteorology; Oceans; Ross Sea; Sea Ice; Southern Ocean; Weatherstation", "people": "Okal, Emile; Aster, Richard; Bassis, Jeremy; MacAyeal, Douglas", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Giant Icebergs of the Ross Sea, in situ Drift and Weather Measurements, Antarctica", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/609350"}, {"dataset_uid": "002568", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Project website", "science_program": null, "title": "Iceberg Satellite imagery from stations and ice shelves (full data link not provided)", "url": "http://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/"}, {"dataset_uid": "609347", "doi": "10.7265/N57W694M", "keywords": "Antarctica; Geodesy; Geology/Geophysics - Other; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; GPS; Ross Ice Shelf; Southern Ocean", "people": "Brunt, Kelly; King, Matthew; MacAyeal, Douglas", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Continuous GPS (static) Data from the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/609347"}, {"dataset_uid": "609349", "doi": "10.7265/N5445JD6", "keywords": "Geology/Geophysics - Other; Glaciology; Iceberg; Oceans; Ross Sea; Sea Ice; Seismometer; Southern Ocean", "people": "Bassis, Jeremy; Aster, Richard; MacAyeal, Douglas; Okal, Emile", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Iceberg Harmonic Tremor, Seismometer Data, Antarctica", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/609349"}, {"dataset_uid": "609354", "doi": "10.7265/N5BP00Q3", "keywords": "Antarctica; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; Ross Ice Shelf; Snow/ice; Snow/Ice; Temperature", "people": "Sergienko, Olga; MacAyeal, Douglas; Scambos, Ted; Muto, Atsu", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Ross Ice Shelf Firn Temperature, Antarctica", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/609354"}, {"dataset_uid": "609353", "doi": "10.7265/N5GF0RFF", "keywords": "Glaciology; Iceberg; Oceans; Ross Ice Shelf; Sea Ice; Southern Ocean; Tiltmeter", "people": "Bliss, Andrew; MacAyeal, Douglas; Kim, Young-Jin", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Iceberg Tiltmeter Measurements, Antarctica", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/609353"}, {"dataset_uid": "609352", "doi": "10.7265/N5M61H55", "keywords": "Glaciology; Iceberg; Oceans; Ross Ice Shelf; Sea Ice; Snow/ice; Snow/Ice; Southern Ocean; Temperature", "people": "Sergienko, Olga; MacAyeal, Douglas; Thom, Jonathan", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Iceberg Firn Temperatures, Antarctica", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/609352"}, {"dataset_uid": "001598", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NSIDC", "science_program": null, "title": "The files contain a short header (number of data samples, sample rate, start time, stop time, channel title)The time series data then follow the header above.", "url": "http://nsidc.org"}, {"dataset_uid": "002504", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Project website", "science_program": null, "title": "Nascent Iceberg Webcam Images available during the deployment period", "url": "https://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/data/iceberg.html"}, {"dataset_uid": "609351", "doi": "10.7265/N5QV3JGV", "keywords": "Antarctica; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; Photo/video; Photo/Video; Ross Ice Shelf", "people": "MacAyeal, Douglas; Brunt, Kelly", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Ice Shelf Rift Time-Lapse Photography, Antarctica", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/609351"}], "date_created": "Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "This award supports the study of the drift and break-up of Earth\u0027s largest icebergs, which were recently released into the Ross Sea of Antarctica as a result of calving from the Ross Ice Shelf. The scientific goals of the study are to determine the physics of iceberg motion within the dynamic context of ocean currents, winds, and sea ice, which determine the forces that drive iceberg motion, and the relationship between the iceberg and geographically and topographically determined pinning points on which the iceberg can ground. In addition, the processes by which icebergs influence the local environments (e.g., sea ice conditions near Antarctica, access to penguin rookeries, air-sea heat exchange and upwelling at iceberg margins, nutrient fluxes) will be studied. The processes by which icebergs generate globally far-reaching ocean acoustic signals that are detected within the global seismic (earthquake) sensing networks will also be studied. A featured element of the scientific research activity will be a field effort to deploy automatic weather stations, seismometer arrays and GPS-tracking stations on several of the largest icebergs presently adrift, or about to be adrift, in the Ross Sea. Data generated and relayed via satellite to home institutions in the Midwest will motivate theoretical analysis and computer simulation; and will be archived on an \"iceberg\" website (http://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/amrc/iceberg.html) for access by scientists and the general public. At the most broad level, the study is justified by the fact that icebergs released by the Antarctic ice sheet represent the largest movements of fresh water within the natural environment (e.g., several of the icebergs to be studied, B15, C19 and others calved since 2000 CE, represent over 6000 cubic kilometers of fresh water-an amount roughly equivalent to 100 years of the flow of the Nile River). A better understanding of the impact of iceberg drift through the environment, and particularly the impact on ocean stratification and mixing, is essential to the understanding of the abrupt global climate changes witnessed by proxy during the ice age and of concern under conditions of future greenhouse warming. On a more specific level, the study will generate a knowledge base useful for the better management of Antarctic logistical resources (e.g., the shipping lanes to McMurdo Station) that can occasionally be influenced by adverse effects icebergs have on sea ice conditions.", "east": -178.0, "geometry": "POINT(-178 -78)", "instruments": "IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e RECORDERS/LOGGERS \u003e AWS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e TEMPERATURE/HUMIDITY SENSORS \u003e THERMISTORS \u003e THERMISTORS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e TEMPERATURE/HUMIDITY SENSORS \u003e HUMIDITY SENSORS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e TEMPERATURE/HUMIDITY SENSORS \u003e TEMPERATURE SENSORS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e POSITIONING/NAVIGATION \u003e GPS \u003e GPS RECEIVERS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e MAGNETIC/MOTION SENSORS \u003e SEISMOMETERS \u003e SEISMOMETERS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e RECORDERS/LOGGERS \u003e MMS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e PHOTON/OPTICAL DETECTORS \u003e CAMERAS \u003e CAMERAS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e PHOTON/OPTICAL DETECTORS \u003e CAMERAS \u003e CAMERAS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e MAGNETIC/MOTION SENSORS \u003e SEISMOMETERS \u003e SEISMOMETERS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e POSITIONING/NAVIGATION \u003e GPS \u003e GPS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e POSITIONING/NAVIGATION \u003e GPS \u003e GPS RECEIVERS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e RECORDERS/LOGGERS \u003e TEMPERATURE LOGGERS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e TEMPERATURE PROFILERS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e TEMPERATURE/HUMIDITY SENSORS \u003e TEMPERATURE SENSORS", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "SEISMOLOGICAL STATIONS; Pressure; AWS; Velocity Measurements; Firn Temperature Measurements; Ice Velocity; Seismology; Ice Sheet Elevation; Harmonic Tremor; Ice Shelf Temperature; Wind Speed; Iceberg; Ice Surface Elevation; Non-Volcanic Tremor; Not provided; Antarctic; Iceberg Tremor; Solar Radiation; Antarctic Ice Sheet; Ross Ice Shelf; Elevation; GPS; Temperature Profiles; Ice Shelf Rift Camera; GROUND STATIONS; Latitude; GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS; Ice Shelf Weather; FIELD INVESTIGATION; ARWS; Surface Elevation; Ice Shelf Flow; Antarctica; FIELD SURVEYS; Camera; Seismometer; Iceberg Weather (aws); Ice Movement; Photo; Wind Direction; Iceberg Snow Accumulation; Tremor And Slow Slip Events; AWS Climate Data; Location; Iceberg Drift; Iceberg Collisions; Iceberg Tilt; Atmospheric Pressure; Iceberg Seismicity; Firn Temperature", "locations": "Antarctic; Antarctica; Antarctic Ice Sheet; Ross Ice Shelf", "north": -78.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Glaciology", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Okal, Emile; Aster, Richard; Bassis, Jeremy; Kim, Young-Jin; Bliss, Andrew; Sergienko, Olga; Thom, Jonathan; Scambos, Ted; Muto, Atsu; Brunt, Kelly; King, Matthew; Parker, Tim; Okal, Marianne; Cathles, Mac; MacAyeal, Douglas", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD SURVEYS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e PERMANENT LAND SITES \u003e ARWS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e PERMANENT LAND SITES \u003e GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e PERMANENT LAND SITES \u003e GROUND STATIONS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e PERMANENT LAND SITES \u003e SEISMOLOGICAL STATIONS; Not provided; SPACE-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e NAVIGATION SATELLITES \u003e GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS) \u003e GPS", "repo": "AMRDC", "repositories": "AMRDC; IRIS; NSIDC; Project website; USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -78.0, "title": "Collaborative Research of Earth\u0027s Largest Icebergs", "uid": "p0000117", "west": -178.0}, {"awards": "0540915 Scambos, Ted", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-57.9857 -48.444,-55.95557 -48.444,-53.92544 -48.444,-51.89531 -48.444,-49.86518 -48.444,-47.83505 -48.444,-45.80492 -48.444,-43.77479 -48.444,-41.74466 -48.444,-39.71453 -48.444,-37.6844 -48.444,-37.6844 -50.12802,-37.6844 -51.81204,-37.6844 -53.49606,-37.6844 -55.18008,-37.6844 -56.8641,-37.6844 -58.54812,-37.6844 -60.23214,-37.6844 -61.91616,-37.6844 -63.60018,-37.6844 -65.2842,-39.71453 -65.2842,-41.74466 -65.2842,-43.77479 -65.2842,-45.80492 -65.2842,-47.83505 -65.2842,-49.86518 -65.2842,-51.89531 -65.2842,-53.92544 -65.2842,-55.95557 -65.2842,-57.9857 -65.2842,-57.9857 -63.60018,-57.9857 -61.91616,-57.9857 -60.23214,-57.9857 -58.54812,-57.9857 -56.8641,-57.9857 -55.18008,-57.9857 -53.49606,-57.9857 -51.81204,-57.9857 -50.12802,-57.9857 -48.444))", "dataset_titles": "Atlas of the Cryosphere - View dynamic maps of snow, sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, permafrost, and more.; Climate, Drift, and Image Data from Antarctic Icebergs A22A and UK211, 2006-2007; MODIS Mosaic of Antarctica (MOA)", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "609466", "doi": "10.7265/N5N014GW", "keywords": "Ablation; Atmosphere; Glaciology; GPS; Meteorology; Oceans; Photo/video; Photo/Video; Sea Ice; Southern Ocean; Temperature", "people": "Scambos, Ted; Bauer, Rob; Bohlander, Jennifer; Yermolin, Yevgeny; Thom, Jonathan", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Climate, Drift, and Image Data from Antarctic Icebergs A22A and UK211, 2006-2007", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/609466"}, {"dataset_uid": "000189", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NSIDC", "science_program": null, "title": "Atlas of the Cryosphere - View dynamic maps of snow, sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, permafrost, and more.", "url": "http://nsidc.org/MMS/atlas/cryosphere_atlas_north.html"}, {"dataset_uid": "000190", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NSIDC", "science_program": null, "title": "MODIS Mosaic of Antarctica (MOA)", "url": "http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0280.html"}], "date_created": "Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "This award supports a small grant for exploratory research to study the processes that contribute to the melting and break-up of tabular polar icebergs as they drift north. This work will enable the participation of a group of U.S. scientists in this international project which is collaborative with the Instituto Antartico Argentino. The field team will place weather instruments, firn sensors, and a video camera on the iceberg to measure the processes that affect it as it drifts north. In contrast to icebergs in other sectors of Antarctica, icebergs in the northwestern Weddell Sea drift northward along relatively predictable paths, and reach climate and ocean conditions that lead to break-up within a few years. The timing of this study is critical due to the anticipated presence of iceberg A43A, which broke off the Ronne Ice Shelf in February 2000 and which is expected to be accessible from Marambio Station in early 2006. It has recently been recognized that the end stages of break-up of these icebergs can imitate the rapid disintegrations due to melt ponding and surface fracturing observed for the Larsen A and Larsen B ice shelves. However, in some cases, basal melting may play a significant role in shelf break-up. Resolving the processes (surface ponding/ fracturing versus basal melt) and observing other processes of iceberg drift and break up in-situ are of high scientific interest. An understanding of the mechanisms that lead to the distintegration of icebergs as they drift north may enable scientists to use icebergs as proxies for understanding the processes that could cause ice shelves to disintegrate in a warming climate. A broader impact would thus be an ability to predict ice shelf disintegration in a warming world. Glacier mass balance and ice shelf stability are of critical importance to sea level change, which also has broader societal relevance.", "east": -37.6844, "geometry": "POINT(-47.83505 -56.8641)", "instruments": "IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e CORERS \u003e CORING DEVICES; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e CORERS \u003e ICE AUGERS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e CORERS \u003e SNOW DENSITY CUTTER; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e SPECTROMETERS/RADIOMETERS \u003e IMAGING SPECTROMETERS/RADIOMETERS \u003e MODIS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e PHOTON/OPTICAL DETECTORS \u003e CAMERAS \u003e CAMERAS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e POSITIONING/NAVIGATION \u003e GPS \u003e GPS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e RECORDERS/LOGGERS \u003e MMS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e TEMPERATURE/HUMIDITY SENSORS \u003e THERMOMETERS \u003e THERMOMETERS", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Air Temperature; Weddell Sea; Edge-Wasting; Ice Shelf Meltwater; TERRA; Antarctic; GPS; Iceberg; Ice Breakup; South Atlantic Ocean; AQUA; Tabular; Photo; Not provided; Icetrek; HELICOPTER; Antarctica", "locations": "Antarctic; Weddell Sea; Antarctica; South Atlantic Ocean", "north": -48.444, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Glaciology", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Scambos, Ted; Bohlander, Jennifer; Bauer, Rob; Yermolin, Yevgeny; Thom, Jonathan", "platforms": "AIR-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e ROTORCRAFT/HELICOPTER \u003e HELICOPTER; Not provided; SPACE-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITES \u003e AQUA; SPACE-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITES \u003e TERRA; SPACE-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e NAVIGATION SATELLITES \u003e GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS) \u003e GPS", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "NSIDC; USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -65.2842, "title": "Investigating Iceberg Evolution During Drift and Break-Up: A Proxy for Climate-Related Changes in Antarctic Ice Shelves", "uid": "p0000003", "west": -57.9857}, {"awards": "0233303 Jacobs, Stanley", "bounds_geometry": null, "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Mon, 09 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Major portions of the Antarctic Ice Sheet float in the surrounding ocean, at the physical and intellectual boundaries of oceanography and glaciology. These ice shelves lose mass continuously by melting into the sea, and periodically by the calving of icebergs. Those losses are compensated by the outflow of grounded ice, and by surface accumulation and basal freezing. Ice shelf sources and sinks vary on several time scales, but their wastage terms are not yet well known. Reports of substantial ice shelf retreat, regional ocean freshening and increased ice velocity and thinning are of particular concern at a time of warming ocean temperatures in waters that have access to deep glacier grounding lines.\u003cbr/\u003eThis award supports a study of the attrition of Antarctic ice shelves, using recent ocean geochemical measurements and drawing on numerical modeling and remote sensing resources. In cooperation with associates at Columbia University and the British Antarctic Survey, measurements of chlorofluorocarbon, helium, neon and oxygen isotopes will be used to infer basal melting beneath the Ross Ice Shelf, and a combination of oceanographic and altimeter data will be used to investigate the mass balance of George VI Ice Shelf. Ocean and remote sensing observations will also be used to help refine numerical models of ice cavity circulations. The objectives are to reduce uncertainties between different estimates of basal melting and freezing, evaluate regional variability, and provide an update of an earlier assessment of circumpolar net melting.\u003cbr/\u003eA better knowledge of ice shelf attrition is essential to an improved understanding of ice shelf response to climate change. Large ice shelf calving events can alter the ocean circulation and sea ice formation, and can lead to logistics problems such as those recently experienced in the Ross Sea. Broader impacts include the role of ice shelf meltwater in freshening and stabilizing the upper ocean, and in the formation of Antarctic Bottom Water, which can be traced far into the North Atlantic. To the extent that ice shelf attrition influences the flow of grounded ice, this work also has implications for ice sheet stability and sea level rise.", "east": null, "geometry": null, "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": false, "keywords": "Ice Sheet; Basal Melting; Ice Shelf Meltwater; Not provided; Oceanography; Ice Velocity; Glaciology; Sea Level Rise; Ice Sheet Stability; Mass; Ross Ice Sheet; Numerical Model; Basal Freezing; Ice Cavity Circulations; George VI Ice Shelf; Outflow", "locations": "Ross Ice Sheet", "north": null, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Glaciology", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Jacobs, Stanley", "platforms": "Not provided", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": null, "title": "Melting and Calving of Antarctic Ice Shelves", "uid": "p0000730", "west": null}]
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Project Title/Abstract/Map | NSF Award(s) | Date Created | PIs / Scientists | Dataset Links and Repositories | Abstract | Bounds Geometry | Geometry | Selected | Visible | |||||||
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Collaborative Research: Testing the Linchpin of WAIS Collapse with Diatoms and IRD in Pleistocene and Late Pliocene Strata of the Resolution Drift, Amundsen Sea, Antarctica
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2024-02-20 | Scherer, Reed Paul; Siddoway, Christine | Part I, Non-technical Abstract <br/>Concerns that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) might be susceptible to releasing its ice as giant icebergs into the Southern Ocean due to a warming climate, raising global sea level, were first expressed more than 40 years ago. To best-assess this threat, scientists need to know whether such events occurred in the geologically recent past, during warm intervals of past glacial-interglacial cycles. Ocean drilling near the most vulnerable sector of the WAIS, in 2019, yielded seafloor geologic records demonstrating times when icebergs dropped large volumes of sands and pebbles, called ice-rafted detritus (IRD) in deep water of the Amundsen Sea. Occurring together with IRD that was eroded from bedrock beneath the ice sheets, there are abundant microfossils of diatoms (algal plankton), which indicate high biological productivity in the open ocean. The new sediment cores provide a complete, uninterrupted record of a time of dramatic fluctuations of ice sheet extent that occurred over the last 3 million years. Therefore, they provide the means to obtain clear answers to the question whether ice sheet collapse occurred in the past and offering clues to its potential future. This project will investigate sediment intervals where IRD coincides with evidence of high diatom production, to test whether these two criteria indicate rapid ice sheet collapse. Geochemical analysis of IRD pebbles will help trace the source of the icebergs to likely on-land sites. By analyzing conditions of high diatom and IRD accumulation in deep ocean sediment, where local coastal influences can be avoided, we will assess oceanographic and climatic conditions associated with past ice sheet collapse events. Diatoms provide powerful evidence of temperature and ocean productivity changes in the past, that, when linked to time, can translate into rates of ice sheet drawdown. These results will provide critical data for designing, constraining and testing the next suite computer models that can determine the likelihood and timing of future ice sheet collapse in a warming world. The project will include training of undergraduate and graduate students from diverse backgrounds, and the public will be introduced to Antarctic science and engaged through several different outreach efforts.<br/><br/>Part 2, Technical Abstract<br/><br/>New drillcores from the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica (IODP Expedition 379) contain a continuous record of oceanographic changes and iceberg rafted debris (IRD) spanning the last 5 million years. This study aims to identify the signature of retreat/collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) in these continental margin, deep-sea sediments by quantitatively analyzing, in detail, diatom and IRD records across glacial-interglacial lithostratigraphic transitions to establish the timing and frequency of Late Pliocene and Pleistocene WAIS collapse events. The investigators will secure age constraints and diagnostic observations of marine paleoenvironmental conditions for selected interglacial intervals of cores from sites U1532 and U1533, using high resolution micropaleontology of diatom assemblages coupled with microstratigraphic analysis of IRD depositional events, while petrography, geochronology and thermochronology of iceberg rafted clasts will provide evidence of iceberg sources and pathways. Depositional paleotemperatures will be assessed via a new paleotemperature proxy based on quantitative assessment of morphologic changes in the dominant Southern Ocean diatom Fragilariopsis kerguelensis. Their results will contribute to parameterization of new ice sheet models that seek to reconstruct and forecast West Antarctic Ice Sheet behavior. This project will directly contribute to undergraduate education at an undergraduate-only college and at a public university that serves a demographic typified by first generation university students and underrepresented groups. Spanning geology, geochemistry, sedimentology, paleontology and paleoceanography, the proposed work will allow undergraduate students to develop diverse skills through hands-on research within a collaborative team that is dedicated to societally relevant research. The two graduate students will conduct original research and work alongside/mentor undergraduates, making for a well-rounded research experience that prepares them for success in future academic or employment sectors. The discoveries that come from this deep-sea record from West Antarctica will be communicated by students and investigators at national and international conferences and an array of public science outreach events.<br/><br/>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. | POLYGON((-120 -66,-117.5 -66,-115 -66,-112.5 -66,-110 -66,-107.5 -66,-105 -66,-102.5 -66,-100 -66,-97.5 -66,-95 -66,-95 -67.1,-95 -68.2,-95 -69.3,-95 -70.4,-95 -71.5,-95 -72.6,-95 -73.7,-95 -74.8,-95 -75.9,-95 -77,-97.5 -77,-100 -77,-102.5 -77,-105 -77,-107.5 -77,-110 -77,-112.5 -77,-115 -77,-117.5 -77,-120 -77,-120 -75.9,-120 -74.8,-120 -73.7,-120 -72.6,-120 -71.5,-120 -70.4,-120 -69.3,-120 -68.2,-120 -67.1,-120 -66)) | POINT(-107.5 -71.5) | false | false | ||||||||
NSFGEO-NERC: Investigating the Direct Influence of Meltwater on Antarctic Ice Sheet Dynamics
|
2053169 |
2023-09-15 | Kingslake, Jonathan; Sole, Andrew; Livingstone, Stephen; Winter, Kate; Ely, Jeremy | No dataset link provided | When ice sheets and glaciers lose ice faster than it accumulates from snowfall, they shrink and contribute to sea-level rise. This has consequences for coastal communities around the globe by, for example, increasing the frequency of damaging storm surges. Sea-level rise is already underway and a major challenge for the geoscience community is improving predictions of how this will evolve. The Antarctic Ice Sheet is the largest potential contributor to sea-level rise and its future is highly uncertain. It loses ice through two main mechanisms: the formation of icebergs and melting at the base of floating ice shelves on its periphery. Ice flows under gravity towards the ocean and the rate of ice flow controls how fast ice sheets and glaciers shrink. In Greenland and Antarctica, ice flow is focused into outlet glaciers and ice streams, which flow much faster than surrounding areas. Moreover, parts of the Greenland Ice Sheet speed up and slow down substantially on hourly to seasonal time scales, particularly where meltwater from the surface reaches the base of the ice. Meltwater reaching the base changes ice flow by altering basal water pressure and consequently the friction exerted on the ice by the rock and sediment beneath. This phenomenon has been observed frequently in Greenland but not in Antarctica. Recent satellite observations suggest this phenomenon also occurs on outlet glaciers in the Antarctic Peninsula. Meltwater reaching the base of the Antarctic Ice Sheet is likely to become more common as air temperature and surface melting are predicted to increase around Antarctica this century. This project aims to confirm the recent satellite observations, establish a baseline against which to compare future changes, and improve understanding of the direct influence of meltwater on Antarctic Ice Sheet dynamics. This is a project jointly funded by the National Science Foundation?s Directorate for Geosciences (NSF/GEO) and the National Environment Research Council (NERC) of the United Kingdom (UK) via the NSF/GEO-NERC Lead Agency Agreement. This Agreement allows a single joint US/UK proposal to be submitted and peer-reviewed by the Agency whose investigator has the largest proportion of the budget. Upon successful joint determination of an award recommendation, each Agency funds the proportion of the budget that supports scientists at institutions in their respective countries. This project will include a field campaign on Flask Glacier, an Antarctic Peninsula outlet glacier, and a continent-wide remote sensing survey. These activities will allow the team to test three hypotheses related to the Antarctic Ice Sheet?s dynamic response to surface meltwater: (1) short-term changes in ice velocity indicated by satellite data result from surface meltwater reaching the bed, (2) this is widespread in Antarctica today, and (3) this results in a measurable increase in mean annual ice discharge. The project is a collaboration between US- and UK-based researchers and will be supported logistically by the British Antarctic Survey. The project aims to provide insights into both the drivers and implications of short-term changes in ice flow velocity caused by surface melting. For example, showing conclusively that meltwater directly influences Antarctic ice dynamics would have significant implications for understanding the response of Antarctica to atmospheric warming, as it did in Greenland when the phenomenon was first detected there twenty years ago. This work will also potentially influence other fields, as surface meltwater reaching the bed of the Antarctic Ice Sheet may affect ice rheology, subglacial hydrology, submarine melting, calving, ocean circulation, and ocean biogeochemistry. The project aims to have broader impacts on science and society by supporting early-career scientists, UK-US collaboration, education and outreach, and adoption of open data science approaches within the glaciological community. | None | None | false | false | |||||||
Collaborative Research: Linking Marine and Terrestrial Sedimentary Evidence for Plio-pleistocene Variability of Weddell Embayment and Antarctic Peninsula Glaciation
|
2302832 |
2023-07-12 | Reilly, Brendan | The potential for future sea level rise from melting and collapse of Antarctic ice sheets and glaciers is concerning. We can improve our understanding of how water is exchanged between Antarctic ice sheets and the ocean by studying how ice sheets behaved in past climates, especially conditions that were similar to or warmer than those at present. For this project, the research team will document Antarctica's response across an interval when Earth transitioned from the warm Pliocene into the Pleistocene ice ages by combining marine and land evidence for glacier variations from sites near the Antarctic Peninsula, complimented by detailed work on timescales and fossil evidence for environmental change. An important goal is to test whether Antarctica's glaciers changed at the same time as glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere as Earth's most recent Ice Age intensified, or alternatively responded to regional climate forcing in the Southern Hemisphere. Eleven investigators from seven US institutions, as well as Argentine collaborators, will study new sediment cores from the International Ocean Discovery Program, as well as legacy cores from that program and on-land outcrops on James Ross Island. The group embraces a vertically integrated research program that allows high school, undergraduate, graduate, post-docs and faculty to work together on the same projects. This structure leverages the benefits of near-peer mentoring and the development of a robust collaborative research network while allowing all participants to take ownership of different parts of the project. All members of the team are firmly committed to attracting researchers from under-represented groups and will do this through existing channels as well as via co-creating programming that centers the perspectives of diverse students in conversations about sea-level rise and climate change. The proposed research seeks to understand phasing between Northern and Southern Hemisphere glacier and climate changes, as a means to understand drivers and teleconnections. The dynamics of past Antarctic glaciation can be studied using the unique isotope geochemical and mineralogic fingerprints from glacial sectors tied to a well-constrained time model for the stratigraphic successions. The proposed work would further refine the stratigraphic context through coupled biostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic work. The magnitude of iceberg calving and paths of icebergs will be revealed using the flux, geochemical and mineralogic signatures, and 40Ar/39Ar and U-Pb geochronology of ice-rafted detritus. These provenance tracers will establish which sectors of Antarctica's ice sheets are more vulnerable to collapse, and the timing and pacing of these events will be revealed by their stratigraphic context. Additionally, the team will work with Argentine collaborators to connect the marine and terrestrial records by studying glacier records intercalated with volcanic flows on James Ross Island. These new constraints will be integrated with a state of the art ice-sheet model to link changes in ice dynamics with their underlying causes. Together, these tight stratigraphic constraints, geochemical signatures, and ice-sheet model simulations will provide a means to compare to the global records of climate change, understand their primary drivers, and elucidate the role of the Antarctic ice sheet in a major, global climatic shift from the Pliocene into the Pleistocene. | POLYGON((-70 -55,-67 -55,-64 -55,-61 -55,-58 -55,-55 -55,-52 -55,-49 -55,-46 -55,-43 -55,-40 -55,-40 -56.1,-40 -57.2,-40 -58.3,-40 -59.4,-40 -60.5,-40 -61.6,-40 -62.7,-40 -63.8,-40 -64.9,-40 -66,-43 -66,-46 -66,-49 -66,-52 -66,-55 -66,-58 -66,-61 -66,-64 -66,-67 -66,-70 -66,-70 -64.9,-70 -63.8,-70 -62.7,-70 -61.6,-70 -60.5,-70 -59.4,-70 -58.3,-70 -57.2,-70 -56.1,-70 -55)) | POINT(-55 -60.5) | false | false | ||||||||
Modeling Giant Icebergs and Their Decay
|
1744800 1744835 |
2022-01-18 | Wagner, Till; Eisenman, Ian |
|
Nearly half of the freshwater flux from the Antarctic Ice Sheet into the Southern Ocean occurs in the form of large tabular icebergs that calve off the continent’s ice shelves. However, because of difficulties in adequately simulating their breakup, large Antarctic icebergs to date have either not been represented in models or represented but with no breakup scheme such that they consistently survive too long and travel too far compared with observations. Here, we introduce a representation of iceberg fracturing using a breakup scheme based on the “footloose mechanism.” We optimize the parameters of this breakup scheme by forcing the iceberg model with an ocean state estimate and comparing the modeled iceberg trajectories and areas with the Antarctic Iceberg Tracking Database. We show that including large icebergs and a representation of their breakup substantially affects the iceberg meltwater distribution, with implications for the circulation and stratification of the Southern Ocean. | 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)) | POINT(0 -89.999) | false | false | |||||||
OPP-PRF Calving, Icebergs, and Climate
|
2139002 |
2021-11-05 | Huth, Alex |
|
Icebergs influence climate by controlling how freshwater from ice sheets is distributed into the ocean, where roughly half of ice sheet mass loss is attributed to iceberg calving in the current climate. The freshwater deposited by icebergs as they drift and melt can affect ocean circulation, sea-ice formation, and biological primary productivity. Furthermore, calving of icebergs from ice shelves, the floating extensions of ice sheets, can influence ice sheet evolution and sea-level rise by reducing the resistive stresses provided by ice shelves on the seaward flow of upstream grounded ice. The majority of mass calved from ice shelves occurs in the form of tabular icebergs, which are typically hundreds of meters thick and on the order of tens to hundreds of kilometers in length and width. Tabular calving occurs when full-thickness ice shelf fractures known as rifts propagate to the edges of the ice shelf. These calving events are infrequent, often with decades between events on an individual ice shelf. Changes in tabular calving behavior, i.e., the size and frequency of calving events, can strongly influence climate and ice sheet evolution. However, tabular calving behavior, and how it responds to changes in climate, is neither well understood nor accurately represented in climate models. In this project, a tabular calving parameterization for climate models will be developed. The parameterization will be derived according to data generated from a series of realistic and idealized century-scale tabular calving simulations, which will be performed with a novel ice flow and damage framework that can be applied at the scale of individual ice sheet-ice shelf systems: the CD-MPM-SSA (Continuum Damage Material Point Method for Shelfy-Stream Approximation). During these simulations, the geometry of the ice shelf, mechanical/rheological properties of the ice, and climate forcings such as ocean temperature will be varied to determine the rifting and calving response. The calving parameterization derived from these experiments will be implemented in a Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) climate model, where it will be coupled with a bonded-particle iceberg model. Then, experiments will be run to study the feedback between changes in iceberg calving behavior and climate. Success of this project will improve our understanding and representation of the ice mass budget, ice sheet evolution, and ocean freshwater fluxes, and will improve projections of climate change and sea-level rise. | 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)) | POINT(0 -89.999) | false | false | |||||||
Investigating Antarctic Ice Sheet-Ocean-Carbon Cycle Interactions During the Last Deglaciation
|
2103032 |
2021-09-09 | Schmittner, Andreas; Haight, Andrew ; Clark, Peter | No dataset link provided | The Antarctic ice sheet is an important component of Earth’s climate system, as it interacts with the atmosphere, the surrounding Southern Ocean, and the underlaying solid Earth. It is also the largest potential contributor to future sea level rise and a major uncertainty in climate projections. Climate change may trigger instabilities, which may lead to fast and irreversible collapse of parts of the ice sheet. However, very little is known about how interactions between the Antarctic ice sheet and the rest of the climate system affect its behavior, climate, and sea level, partly because most climate models currently do not have fully-interactive ice sheet components. This project investigates Antarctic ice-ocean interactions of the last 20,000 years. A novel numerical climate model will be constructed that includes an interactive Antarctic ice sheet, improving computational infrastructure for research. The model code will be made freely available to the public on a code-sharing site. Paleoclimate data will be synthesized and compared with simulations of the model. The model-data comparison will address three scientific hypotheses regarding past changes in deep ocean circulation, ice sheet, carbon, and sea level. The project will contribute to a better understanding of ice-ocean interactions and past climate variability. This project will test suggestions that ice-ocean interactions have been important for setting deep ocean circulation and carbon storage during the Last Glacial Maximum and subsequent deglaciation. The new model will consist of three existing and well-tested components: (1) an isotope-enabled climate-carbon cycle model of intermediate complexity, (2) a model of the combined Antarctic ice sheet, solid Earth and sea level, and (3) an iceberg model. The coupling will include ocean temperature effects on basal melting of ice shelves, freshwater fluxes from the ice sheet to the ocean, and calving, transport and melting of icebergs. Once constructed and optimized, the model will be applied to simulate the Last Glacial Maximum and subsequent deglaciation. Differences between model versions with full, partial or no coupling will be used to investigate the effects of ice-ocean interactions on the Meridional Overturning Circulation, deep ocean carbon storage and ice sheet fluctuations. Paleoclimate data synthesis will include temperature, carbon and nitrogen isotopes, radiocarbon ages, protactinium-thorium ratios, neodymium isotopes, carbonate ion, dissolved oxygen, relative sea level and terrestrial cosmogenic ages into one multi-proxy database with a consistent updated chronology. The project will support an early-career scientist, one graduate student, undergraduate students, and new and ongoing national and international collaborations. Outreach activities in collaboration with a local science museum will benefit rural communities in Oregon by improving their climate literacy. | 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)) | POINT(0 -89.999) | false | false | |||||||
Collaborative Research: Linking Marine and Terrestrial Sedimentary Evidence for Plio-pleistocene Variability of Weddell Embayment and Antarctic Peninsula Glaciation
|
2114786 |
2021-09-09 | Warnock, Jonathan | No dataset link provided | The potential for future sea level rise from melting and collapse of Antarctic ice sheets and glaciers is concerning. We can improve our understanding of how water is exchanged between Antarctic ice sheets and the ocean by studying how ice sheets behaved in past climates, especially conditions that were similar to or warmer than those at present. For this project, the research team will document Antarctica’s response across an interval when Earth transitioned from the warm Pliocene into the Pleistocene ice ages by combining marine and land evidence for glacier variations from sites near the Antarctic Peninsula, complimented by detailed work on timescales and fossil evidence for environmental change. An important goal is to test whether Antarctica’s glaciers changed at the same time as glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere as Earth's most recent Ice Age intensified, or alternatively responded to regional climate forcing in the Southern Hemisphere. Eleven investigators from seven US institutions, as well as Argentine collaborators, will study new sediment cores from the International Ocean Discovery Program, as well as legacy cores from that program and on-land outcrops on James Ross Island. The group embraces a vertically integrated research program that allows high school, undergraduate, graduate, post-docs and faculty to work together on the same projects. This structure leverages the benefits of near-peer mentoring and the development of a robust collaborative research network while allowing all participants to take ownership of different parts of the project. All members of the team are firmly committed to attracting researchers from under-represented groups and will do this through existing channels as well as via co-creating programming that centers the perspectives of diverse students in conversations about sea-level rise and climate change. The proposed research seeks to understand phasing between Northern and Southern Hemisphere glacier and climate changes, as a means to understand drivers and teleconnections. The dynamics of past Antarctic glaciation can be studied using the unique isotope geochemical and mineralogic fingerprints from glacial sectors tied to a well-constrained time model for the stratigraphic successions. The proposed work would further refine the stratigraphic context through coupled biostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic work. The magnitude of iceberg calving and paths of icebergs will be revealed using the flux, geochemical and mineralogic signatures, and 40Ar/39Ar and U-Pb geochronology of ice-rafted detritus. These provenance tracers will establish which sectors of Antarctica’s ice sheets are more vulnerable to collapse, and the timing and pacing of these events will be revealed by their stratigraphic context. Additionally, the team will work with Argentine collaborators to connect the marine and terrestrial records by studying glacier records intercalated with volcanic flows on James Ross Island. These new constraints will be integrated with a state of the art ice-sheet model to link changes in ice dynamics with their underlying causes. Together, these tight stratigraphic constraints, geochemical signatures, and ice-sheet model simulations will provide a means to compare to the global records of climate change, understand their primary drivers, and elucidate the role of the Antarctic ice sheet in a major, global climatic shift from the Pliocene into the Pleistocene. | None | None | false | false | |||||||
Antarctic Submarine Melt Variability from Remote Sensing of Icebergs
|
1643455 1933764 |
2021-06-28 | Enderlin, Ellyn |
|
The project uses repeat, very high-resolution (~0.5 m pixel width and length) satellite images acquired by the WorldView satellites, to estimate rates of iceberg melting in key coastal regions around Antarctica. The satellite images are used to construct maps of iceberg surface elevation change over time, which are converted to estimates of area-averaged submarine melt rates. Where ocean temperature observations are available, the melt rates are compared to these data to determine if variations in ocean temperature can explain observed iceberg melt variability. The iceberg melt rates are also compared to glacier frontal ablation rates (flow towards the terminus minus changes in terminus position over time) and integrated into a numerical ice flow model in order to assess the importance of submarine melting on recent changes in terminus position, ice flow, and dynamic mass loss. Overall, the analysis will yield insights into the effects of changes in ocean forcing on the submarine melting of Antarctic ice shelves and icebergs. The project does not require field work in Antarctica. | 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)) | POINT(0 -89.999) | false | false | |||||||
High Resolution Heterogeneity at the Base of Whillans Ice Stream and its Control on Ice Dynamics
|
1443525 |
2021-02-12 | Tulaczyk, Slawek; Schwartz, Susan |
|
Ice fracturing plays a crucial role in mechanical processes that influence the contribution of glaciers and ice sheets to the global sea-level rise. Such processes include, among others, ice shelf disintegration, iceberg calving, and fast ice sliding. Over the last century, seismology developed highly sensitive instrumentation and sophisticated data processing techniques to study earthquakes. This interdisciplinary project used seismological research methods to investigate fracturing beneath and within ice on a fast-moving ice stream in West Antarctica that is experiencing rapid sliding and flexure driven by ocean tides. Data were collected from two strategically located clusters of seismometers. One was located in the epicenter zone where tidally triggered rapid sliding events of the ice stream start. The other was placed in the grounding zone, where the ice stream flexes with tides where it goes afloat and becomes an ice shelf. Seismometers in the epicenter cluster recorded many thousands of microearthquakes coming from beneath ice during ice stream sliding events. Analyses of these microearthquakes suggest that the geologic materials beneath the ice stream are fracturing. The spatial pattern of fracturing is not random but forms elongated stripes that resemble well-known glacial landforms called megascale glacial lineations. These findings indicate that the frictional resistance to ice sliding may change through time due to these landforms changing as a result of erosion and sedimentation beneath ice. This may have implications for the rate of ice loss from Antarctic ice streams that drain about 90% of all ice discharged into the Southern Ocean. In addition to microearthquakes, the epicenter cluster of seismometers also recorded vibrations (tremors) from beneath the ice stream. These may be caused by the rapid repetition of many microearthquakes coming from the same source. The grounding zone cluster of seismometers recorded many thousands of microearthquakes as well. However, they are caused by ice fracturing near the ice stream's surface rather than at its base. These microearthquakes originate when the grounding zone experiences strong tension caused by ice flexure during dropping ocean tide. This tension causes the opening of near-surface fractures (crevasses) just before the lowest tide, rather than at the lowest tide as expected from elasticity of solids. This unexpected timing of ice fracturing indicates that ice in the grounding zone behaves like a viscoelastic material, i.e., partly like a solid and partly like a fluid. This is an important general finding that will be useful to other scientists who are modeling interactions of ice with ocean water in the Antarctic grounding zones. Overall, the observed pervasive fracturing in the grounding zone, where an ice stream becomes an ice shelf, may make ice shelves potentially vulnerable to catastrophic collapses. It also may weaken ice shelves and make it easier for large icebergs to break off at their fronts. In addition to Antarctic research, this award supported education and outreach activities, including presentations and field trips during several summer schools at UCSC for talented and diverse high school students. The students were exposed to glaciological and seismological concepts and performed hands-on scientific exercises. The field trips focused on the marine terrace landscape around Santa Cruz. This landscape resulted from interactions between the uplift of rocks along the San Andreas fault with global-sea level changes caused by the waxing and waning of polar ice sheets in response to Ice Age climate cycles. | POLYGON((-165 -83.8,-163 -83.8,-161 -83.8,-159 -83.8,-157 -83.8,-155 -83.8,-153 -83.8,-151 -83.8,-149 -83.8,-147 -83.8,-145 -83.8,-145 -83.92,-145 -84.04,-145 -84.16,-145 -84.28,-145 -84.4,-145 -84.52,-145 -84.64,-145 -84.76,-145 -84.88,-145 -85,-147 -85,-149 -85,-151 -85,-153 -85,-155 -85,-157 -85,-159 -85,-161 -85,-163 -85,-165 -85,-165 -84.88,-165 -84.76,-165 -84.64,-165 -84.52,-165 -84.4,-165 -84.28,-165 -84.16,-165 -84.04,-165 -83.92,-165 -83.8)) | POINT(-155 -84.4) | false | false | |||||||
Collaborative Research: Deglacial Ice Dynamics in the Weddell Sea Embayment using Sediment Provenance
|
1724670 |
2020-09-10 | Williams, Trevor; Hemming, Sidney R. | Abstract for the general public:<br/><br/>The margins of the Antarctic ice sheet have advanced and retreated repeatedly over the past few million years. Melting ice from the last retreat, from 19,000 to 9,000 years ago, raised sea levels by 8 meters or more, but the extents of previous retreats are less well known. The main goal of this project is to understand how Antarctic ice retreats: fast or slow, stepped or steady, and which parts of the ice sheet are most prone to retreat. Antarctica loses ice by two main processes: melting of the underside of floating ice shelves and calving of icebergs. Icebergs themselves are ephemeral, but they carry mineral grains and rock fragments that have been scoured from Antarctic bedrock. As the icebergs drift and melt, this 'iceberg-rafted debris' falls to the sea-bed and is steadily buried in marine sediments to form a record of iceberg activity and ice sheet retreat. The investigators will read this record of iceberg-rafted debris to find when and where Antarctic ice destabilized in the past. This information can help to predict how Antarctic ice will behave in a warming climate. <br/><br/>The study area is the Weddell Sea embayment, in the Atlantic sector of Antarctica. Principal sources of icebergs are the nearby Antarctic Peninsula and Weddell Sea embayment, where ice streams drain about a quarter of Antarctic ice. The provenance of the iceberg-rafted debris (IRD), and the icebergs that carried it, will be found by matching the geochemical fingerprint (such as characteristic argon isotope ages) of individual mineral grains in the IRD to that of the corresponding source area. In more detail, the project will: <br/><br/>1. Define the geochemical fingerprints of the source areas of the glacially-eroded material using samples from each major ice stream entering the Weddell Sea. Existing data indicates that the hinterland of the Weddell embayment is made up of geochemically distinguishable source areas, making it possible to apply geochemical provenance techniques to determine the origin of Antarctica icebergs. Few samples of onshore tills are available from this area, so this project includes fieldwork to collect till samples to characterize detritus supplied by the Recovery and Foundation ice streams. <br/><br/>2. Document the stratigraphic changes in provenance of iceberg-rafted debris (IRD) and glacially-eroded material in two deep water sediment cores in the NW Weddell Sea. Icebergs calved from ice streams in the embayment are carried by the Weddell Gyre and deposit IRD as they pass over the core sites. The provenance information identifies which groups of ice streams were actively eroding and exporting detritus to the ocean (via iceberg rafting and bottom currents), and the stratigraphy of the cores shows the relative sequence of ice stream activity through time. A further dimension is added by determining the time lag between fine sediment erosion and deposition, using a new method of uranium-series isotope measurements in fine grained material. <br/><br/>Technical abstract:<br/><br/> The behavior of the Antarctic ice sheets and ice streams is a critical topic for climate change and future sea level rise. The goal of this proposal is to constrain ice sheet response to changing climate in the Weddell Sea during the three most recent glacial terminations, as analogues for potential future warming. The project will also examine possible contributions to Meltwater Pulse 1A, and test the relative stability of the ice streams draining East and West Antarctica. Much of the West Antarctic ice may have melted during the Eemian (130 to 114 Ka), so it may be an analogue for predicting future ice drawdown over the coming centuries. <br/><br/>Geochemical provenance fingerprinting of glacially eroded detritus provides a novel way to reconstruct the location and relative timing of glacial retreat during these terminations in the Weddell Sea embayment. The two major objectives of the project are to: <br/><br/>1. Define the provenance source areas by characterizing Ar, U-Pb, and Nd isotopic signatures, and heavy mineral and Fe-Ti oxide compositions of detrital minerals from each major ice stream entering the Weddell Sea, using onshore tills and existing sediment cores from the Ronne and Filchner Ice Shelves. Pilot data demonstrate that detritus originating from the east and west sides of the Weddell Sea embayment can be clearly distinguished, and published data indicates that the hinterland of the embayment is made up of geochemically distinguishable source areas. Few samples of onshore tills are available from this area, so this project includes fieldwork to collect till to characterize detritus supplied by the Recovery and Foundation ice streams. <br/><br/>2. Document the stratigraphic changes in provenance of iceberg-rafted debris (IRD) and glacially-eroded material in two deep water sediment cores in the NW Weddell Sea. Icebergs calved from ice streams in the embayment are carried by the Weddell Gyre and deposit IRD as they pass over the core sites. The provenance information will identify which ice streams were actively eroding and exporting detritus to the ocean (via iceberg rafting and bottom currents). The stratigraphy of the cores will show the relative sequence of ice stream activity through time. A further time dimension is added by determining the time lag between fine sediment erosion and deposition, using U-series comminution ages. | POLYGON((-70 -60,-65 -60,-60 -60,-55 -60,-50 -60,-45 -60,-40 -60,-35 -60,-30 -60,-25 -60,-20 -60,-20 -62.5,-20 -65,-20 -67.5,-20 -70,-20 -72.5,-20 -75,-20 -77.5,-20 -80,-20 -82.5,-20 -85,-25 -85,-30 -85,-35 -85,-40 -85,-45 -85,-50 -85,-55 -85,-60 -85,-65 -85,-70 -85,-70 -82.5,-70 -80,-70 -77.5,-70 -75,-70 -72.5,-70 -70,-70 -67.5,-70 -65,-70 -62.5,-70 -60)) | POINT(-45 -72.5) | false | false | ||||||||
RAPID: Collaborative Research: Marine Ecosystem Response to the Larsen C Ice-Shelf Breakout: "Time zero"
|
1822256 1822289 |
2019-05-15 | Vernet, Maria; Smith, Craig |
|
Marine ecosystems under large ice shelves are thought to contain sparse, low-diversity plankton and seafloor communities due the low supply of food from productive sunlight waters. Past studies have shown sub-ice shelf ecosystems to change in response to altered oceanographic processes resulting from ice-shelve retreat. However, information on community changes and ecosystem structure under ice shelves are limited because sub-ice-shelf ecosystems have either been sampled many years after ice-shelf breakout, or have been sampled through small boreholes, yielding extremely limited spatial information. The recent breakout of the A-68 iceberg from the Larsen C ice shelf in the western Weddell Sea provides an opportunity to use a ship-based study to evaluate benthic communities and water column characteristics in an area recently vacated by a large overlying ice shelf. The opportunity will allow spatial assessments at the time of transition from an under ice-shelf environment to one initially exposed to conditions more typical of a coastal Antarctic marine setting. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThis RAPID project will help determine the state of a coastal Antarctic ecosystem newly exposed from ice-shelf cover and will aid in understanding of rates of community change during transition. The project will conduct a 10-day field program, allowing contrasts to be made of phytoplankton and seafloor megafaunal communities in areas recently exposed by ice-shelf loss to areas exposed for many decades. The project will be undertaken in a collaborative manner with the South Korean Antarctic Agency, KOPRI, by participating in a cruise in March/May 2018. Combining new information in the area of Larsen C with existing observations after the Larsen A and B ice shelf breakups further to the north, the project is expected to generate a dataset that can elucidate fundamental processes of planktonic and benthic community development in transition from food-poor to food-rich ecosystems. The project will provide field experience to two graduate students, a post-doctoral associate and an undergraduate student. Material from the project will be incorporated into graduate courses and the project will communicate daily work and unfolding events through social media and blogs while they explore this area of the world that is largely underexplored. | POLYGON((-59.5 -62,-59.05 -62,-58.6 -62,-58.15 -62,-57.7 -62,-57.25 -62,-56.8 -62,-56.35 -62,-55.9 -62,-55.45 -62,-55 -62,-55 -62.27,-55 -62.54,-55 -62.81,-55 -63.08,-55 -63.35,-55 -63.62,-55 -63.89,-55 -64.16,-55 -64.43,-55 -64.7,-55.45 -64.7,-55.9 -64.7,-56.35 -64.7,-56.8 -64.7,-57.25 -64.7,-57.7 -64.7,-58.15 -64.7,-58.6 -64.7,-59.05 -64.7,-59.5 -64.7,-59.5 -64.43,-59.5 -64.16,-59.5 -63.89,-59.5 -63.62,-59.5 -63.35,-59.5 -63.08,-59.5 -62.81,-59.5 -62.54,-59.5 -62.27,-59.5 -62)) | POINT(-57.25 -63.35) | false | false | |||||||
Collaborative Research: Assessing the Global Climate Response to Melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet
|
1443394 1443347 |
2019-02-04 | Pollard, David; Condron, Alan; DeConto, Robert | A great deal of uncertainty remains over how changes in high-latitude freshwater forcing will impact the stability of global ocean circulation, and in particular the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in the next 100-300 years, especially in realistic models. Indeed, it is still not understood whether increased Southern Ocean freshwater forcing will act to intensify the AMOC and warm the Northern Hemisphere or weaken it and trigger a cooling. The requirement to accurately assess climate sensitivity to freshwater forcing is heightened by increasing evidence that the marine-based West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is vulnerable to rapid retreat and collapse on multidecadal-to-centennial timescales. Observations collected over the last 30 years indicate that WAIS is losing ice at an accelerated rate and may signal that the ice sheet has already begun a rapid and irreversible collapse. In addition, future simulations of the Antarctic ice sheet by members of our Project Team show the potential for far more rapid Antarctic ice sheet retreat in the future than previously simulated, suggesting that the discharge of enormous fluxes of icebergs and freshwater to the Southern Ocean should be considered a possibility in the near-future. Here, we performed a suite of coupled numerical climate model simulations to more accurately determine the sensitivity of global ocean circulation to freshwater and iceberg discharge from the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) in the future under IPCC RCP scenarios 4.5 and 8.5. In our model, the input of freshwater and ice was provided by a dynamic ice sheet-shelf model that predicts a full collapse of the WAIS in the next ~100 years. Significantly, we find that accounting for Antarctic discharge raises subsurface ocean temperatures by >1°C at the ice sheet grounding line, relative to model simulations that are unable to capture this discharge. In contrast, we find that the increased meltwater causes a dramatic expansion of sea ice and a 2° - 10°C cooling of the surface air and surface ocean temperatures over the Southern Ocean that would have the potential to stabilize/reduce projected future ice sheet melt rates. Our work thus highlights that the future stability of the Antarctic ice sheet will likely be governed by whether any surface cooling can counteract any increased rates of subsurface melt. | 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)) | POINT(0 -89.999) | false | false | ||||||||
Impact of Supraglacial Lakes on Ice-Shelf Stability
|
1443126 |
2018-07-24 | MacAyeal, Douglas | Meltwater lakes that sit on top of Antarctica's floating ice shelves have likely contributed to the dramatic changes seen in Antarctica's glacial ice cover over the past two decades. In 2002, the 1,600-square-kilometer Larsen B Ice Shelf located on the Eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula, for example, broke into thousands of small icebergs, which subsequently floated away as a result of the formation of more than 2,000 meltwater lakes on its surface over the prior decade. Our research project addresses the reasons why surface lakes form on Antarctic ice shelves and how these surface lakes subsequently contribute to the forces that may contribute to ice-shelf breakup like that of the Larsen B. Our project focuses primarily on making precise global positioning system (GPS) measurements of ice-shelf bending in response to the filling and draining of a surface lake on the McMurdo Ice Shelf. The observed vertical displacements (on the order of tens of centimeters) in response to lake filling will be used to calibrate and test computer simulation models that predict the response of ice shelves to surface lakes more generally and in a variety of future climate conditions. Our project will make hourly measurements of both vertical ice-shelf movements (using GPS surveying instruments) and of temperature and sunlight conditions (that drive melting) around a surface lake located close to the McMurdo Station airfield. Following this initial data-gathering effort, computer simulations and other more theoretical analysis will be undertaken to determine the suitability of the chosen McMurdo Ice Shelf surface lake as a field-laboratory for continued study. Ultimately, the research will contribute to understanding of the glaciological processes that link climate change to rising sea level. A successful outcome of the research will allow glaciologists to better assess the processes that promote or erode the influence Antarctic ice shelves have in controlling the transfer of ice from the interior of Antarctica into the ocean. The project will undertake two outreach activities: (1) web-posting of a field-activity journal and (2) establishing an open-access glaciological teaching and outreach web-sharing site for the International Glaciological Society.<br/><br/>The proposed project seeks to experimentally verify a theory of ice-shelf instability proposed to explain the explosive break-up of Larsen B Ice Shelf in 2002. This theory holds that the filling and draining of supraglacial lakes on floating ice shelves induces sufficient flexure stress within the ice to (a) induce upward/downward propagating fractures originating at the base/surface of the ice shelf that (b) dissect the ice shelf into fragments that tend to have widths less than about half the ice thickness. The significance of narrow widths is that they promote capsize of the ice-shelf fragments during the break-up process. This capsize releases large amounts of gravitational potential energy (comparable to thousands of kilotons of TNT for the Larsen B Ice Shelf) thereby promoting explosiveness of the Larsen B event. The observational motivation for experimentally verifying the surface-lake mechanism for ice-shelf breakup is based on the fact that >2,000 surface lakes developed on the Larsen B Ice Shelf in the decade prior to its break up, and that these lakes were observed (via satellite imagery) to drain in a coordinated fashion during the day prior to the initiation of the break up.<br/><br/>The field-observation component of the project will focus on a supraglacial lake on the McMurdo Ice Shelf where there is persistent summer season surface melting. The lake will be studied during a single provisional field season to determine whether grooming of surrounding surface streams and shorelines with heavy construction equipment will allow surface water to be manually encouraged to fill the lake. If successfully encouraged to develop, the McMurdo Ice Shelf surface lake will allow measurements of key ice-shelf flexure and stress variables needed to develop the theory of ice-shelf surface lakes without having to access the much more logistically demanding surface lakes of ice-shelves located elsewhere in Antarctica. Data to be gathered during the 6-week provisional field season include: energy- and water-balance parameters determining how the surface lake grows and fills, and various global positioning system measurements of the vertical bending of the ice sheet in response to the changing meltwater load contained within the surface lake. These data will be used to (1) constrain a computer model of viscoelastic flexure and possible fracture of the ice shelf in response to the increasing load of meltwater in the lake, and (2) determine whether continued study of the incipient surface-meltwater lake features on the McMurdo Ice Shelf provides a promising avenue for constraining the more-general behavior of surface meltwater lakes on other ice shelves located in warmer parts of Antarctica. Computer models constrained by the observational data obtained from the field project will inform energy- and water-balance models of ice shelves in general, and allow more accurate forecasts of changing ice-shelf conditions surrounding the inland ice of Antarctica. The project will create the first-ever ground-based observations useful for spawning the development of models capable of predicting viscoelastic and fracture behavior of ice shelves in response to supraglacial lake evolution, including slow changes due to energy balance effects, as well as fast changes due to filling and draining. | POLYGON((166.1631 -77.9007,166.19736 -77.9007,166.23162 -77.9007,166.26588 -77.9007,166.30014 -77.9007,166.3344 -77.9007,166.36866 -77.9007,166.40292 -77.9007,166.43718 -77.9007,166.47144 -77.9007,166.5057 -77.9007,166.5057 -77.90423,166.5057 -77.90776,166.5057 -77.91129,166.5057 -77.91482,166.5057 -77.91835,166.5057 -77.92188,166.5057 -77.92541,166.5057 -77.92894,166.5057 -77.93247,166.5057 -77.936,166.47144 -77.936,166.43718 -77.936,166.40292 -77.936,166.36866 -77.936,166.3344 -77.936,166.30014 -77.936,166.26588 -77.936,166.23162 -77.936,166.19736 -77.936,166.1631 -77.936,166.1631 -77.93247,166.1631 -77.92894,166.1631 -77.92541,166.1631 -77.92188,166.1631 -77.91835,166.1631 -77.91482,166.1631 -77.91129,166.1631 -77.90776,166.1631 -77.90423,166.1631 -77.9007)) | POINT(166.3344 -77.91835) | false | false | ||||||||
Collaborative Research: Explosive Ice-Shelf Disintegration
|
0944193 |
2014-08-25 | MacAyeal, Douglas |
|
This award supports a project to examine and test a 3-step process model for explosive ice-shelf disintegration that emerged in the wake of the recent 2008 and 2009 events of the Wilkins Ice Shelf. The model is conditioned on Summer melt-driven increase in free-surface water coupled with surface and basal crevasse density growth necessary to satisfy an "enabling condition". Once met, the collapse proceeds through three steps: (Step 1), calving of a "leading phalanx" of tabular icebergs from the seaward ice front of the ice shelf which creates in its wake a region, called a "mosh pit" (located between the phalanx and the edge of the intact ice shelf), where ocean surface-gravity waves are trapped by reflection (a fast mechanically enabled process), (Step 2), and a rapid, runaway conversion of gravitational potential energy into ocean-wave energy by iceberg capsize and fragmentation within the "mosh pit" which leads to further wave-induced calving, capsize and fragmentation (Step 3). The project will be conducted by a multidisciplinary team and will focus on theoretical model development, numerical method development and application and new observations. The project will participate in both the Research Experience for Undergraduates program in the Physics Department and the Summer Research Early Identification Program (SR-EIP) that fosters participation in research by underrepresented minorities. The PIs, postdoctoral scholar, graduate students and unfunded participants will develop a graduate-level seminar/tutorial to introduce advanced computational methods to glaciology. A postdoctoral scholar and graduate student will be trained in new research techniques during the project. | None | None | false | false | |||||||
History of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet since the mid-Miocene: New Evidence from Provenance of Ice-rafted Debris
|
0944489 |
2014-08-13 | Williams, Trevor; Hemming, Sidney R. |
|
Intellectual Merit: <br/>The PIs propose to study the stability and dynamics of the East Antarctic ice sheet during the Pliocene in the area of the Wilkes and Aurora subglacial basins. Models indicate the ice sheet is most sensitive to warming in these low-lying areas. This study is important as there is very little direct evidence about which parts of the East Antarctic ice sheet became unstable under warm conditions. In a pilot study the PIs have shown that the isotopic geochemical signature of downcore ice-rafted debris (IRD) can be linked to continental source areas indicating which parts of the ice sheet reached the coast and calved IRD-bearing icebergs. Their initial results suggest rapid iceberg discharge from the Wilkes Land and Adélie Land coastal areas at times in the late Miocene and early Pliocene. In this study the PIs will analyze IRD from IODP sediment cores collected on the continental rise off East Antarctica. By analyzing 40Ar/39Ar ages of hornblende IRD grains, U-Pb ages of zircons, and Sm-Nd isotopes of the fine fraction of several IRD-rich layers for each core, they will be able to fingerprint continental source areas that will indicated ice extent and dynamics on East Antarctica. The PIs will also carry out detailed studies across a few of these layers to characterize the anatomy of the ice-rafting event and better understand the mechanism of ice destabilization.<br/><br/>Broader impacts: <br/>The data collected will be important for scientists in a broad variety of fields. The project will involve one undergraduate student and one summer intern at LDEO, and a graduate student at Imperial College London. The project will expose to cutting edge methodologies as well as an international research team. Data from the project will be deposited in the online databases (SedDB) and all results and methods will be made available to the scientific community through publications in peer-reviewed journals and attendance at international conferences. | POLYGON((-55 -58,-33.2 -58,-11.4 -58,10.4 -58,32.2 -58,54 -58,75.8 -58,97.6 -58,119.4 -58,141.2 -58,163 -58,163 -60,163 -62,163 -64,163 -66,163 -68,163 -70,163 -72,163 -74,163 -76,163 -78,141.2 -78,119.4 -78,97.6 -78,75.8 -78,54 -78,32.2 -78,10.4 -78,-11.4 -78,-33.2 -78,-55 -78,-55 -76,-55 -74,-55 -72,-55 -70,-55 -68,-55 -66,-55 -64,-55 -62,-55 -60,-55 -58)) | POINT(54 -68) | false | false | |||||||
Collaborative Research: Weddell seals as autonomous sensors of the winter oceanography of the Ross Sea
|
0838937 0838911 0838892 |
2013-11-11 | Burns, Jennifer; Hofmann, Eileen; Costa, Daniel | Abstract <br/>This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). <br/><br/>Marine mammals of the Southern Ocean have evolved diverse life history patterns and foraging strategies to accommodate extreme fluctuations in the physical and biological environment. In light of ongoing climate change and the dramatic shifts in the extent and persistence of sea ice in the Ross Sea, it is critical to understand how Weddell seals, Leptonychotes weddellii, a key apex predator, select and utilize foraging habitats. Recent advances in satellite-linked animal-borne conductivity, temperature and depth (CTD) tags make it possible to simultaneously collect data on seal locations, their diving patterns, and the temperature and salinity profiles of the water columns they utilize. In other ecosystems, such data have revealed that marine predators selectively forage in areas where currents and fronts serve to locally concentrate prey resources, and that these conditions are required to sustain populations. Weddell seals will be studied in McMurdo Sound and at Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea and will provide the first new data on Weddell seal winter diving behavior and habitat use in almost two decades. The relationship between an animal's diving behavior and physical habitat has enormous potential to enhance monitoring studies and to provide insight into how changes in ice conditions (due either to warming or the impact of large icebergs, such as B15) might impact individual time budgets and foraging success. The second thrust of this project is to use the profiles obtained from CTD seal tags to model the physical oceanography of this region. Current mathematical models of physical oceanographic processes in the Southern Ocean are directed at better understanding the role that it plays in global climate processes, and the linkages between physical and biological oceanographic processes. However, these efforts are limited by the scarcity of oceanographic data at high latitudes in the winter months; CTD tags deployed on animals will collect data at sufficient spatial and temporal resolution to improve data density. The project will contribute to two IPY endorsed initiatives: MEOP (Marine Mammals as Explorers of the Ocean Pole to Pole) and CAML (Census of Antarctic Marine Life). In addition, the highly visual nature of the data and analysis lends itself to public and educational display and outreach, particularly as they relate to global climate change, and we have collaborations with undergraduate and graduate training programs, the Seymour Marine Discovery Center, and the ARMADA program to foster these broader impacts. | POLYGON((160 -68,162 -68,164 -68,166 -68,168 -68,170 -68,172 -68,174 -68,176 -68,178 -68,180 -68,180 -68.8,180 -69.6,180 -70.4,180 -71.2,180 -72,180 -72.8,180 -73.6,180 -74.4,180 -75.2,180 -76,178 -76,176 -76,174 -76,172 -76,170 -76,168 -76,166 -76,164 -76,162 -76,160 -76,160 -75.2,160 -74.4,160 -73.6,160 -72.8,160 -72,160 -71.2,160 -70.4,160 -69.6,160 -68.8,160 -68)) | POINT(170 -72) | false | false | ||||||||
Collaborative Research: Free Drifting Icebergs as Proliferation Sites of Iron Enrichment, Organic Carbon Production and Export in the Southern Ocean
|
0636543 0636319 0636440 0636723 |
2010-11-22 | Twining, Benjamin; Shaw, Tim; Long, David; Murray, Alison; Helly, John | Atmospheric warming has been associated with retreating glaciers, disintegrating ice shelves, and the increasing prevalence of icebergs in the Southern Ocean over the last decade. Our preliminary study of two icebergs in the NW Weddell Sea, an area of high iceberg concentration, showed significant delivery of terrestrial material accompanied by significant enhancement of phytoplankton and zooplankton/micronekton abundance, and primary production surrounding the icebergs. We hypothesize that nutrient enrichment by free-drifting icebergs will increase primary production and sedimentation of organic carbon, thus increasing the draw-down and sequestration of CO2 in the Southern Ocean and impacting the global carbon cycle. Our research addresses the following questions:1) What is the relationship between the physical dynamics of free-drifting icebergs and the Fe and nutrient distributions of the surrounding water column? 2) What is the relationship between Fe and nutrient distributions associated with free-drifting icebergs and the organic carbon dynamics of the ice-attached and surrounding pelagic communities (microbes, zooplankton, micronekton)? 3) What is impact on the export flux of particulate organic carbon from the mixed layer? An interdisciplinary approach is proposed to examine iceberg structure and dynamics, biogeochemical processes, and carbon cycling that includes measurement of trace element, nutrient and radionuclide distributions; organic carbon dynamics mediated by microbial, ice-attached and zooplankton communities; and particulate organic carbon export fluxes. Results from this project will further our understanding of the relationship between climate change and carbon sequestration in the Southern Ocean. Our findings will be incorporated into the Antarctic Research division of the Ocean Exploration Center (OEC) as part of the SIOExplorer: Digital Library Project. The OEC allows users to access content, which is classified to one of four levels: entry (grade K-6), student (grade 6-12), college, and research. Graduate students, undergraduates, teachers, and volunteers are important participants in the proposed field and laboratory work. For the K-12 level, a professional writer of children's books will participate in cruises to produce an account of the expedition and a daily interactive website. | POLYGON((-55 -52,-53.5 -52,-52 -52,-50.5 -52,-49 -52,-47.5 -52,-46 -52,-44.5 -52,-43 -52,-41.5 -52,-40 -52,-40 -53.3,-40 -54.6,-40 -55.9,-40 -57.2,-40 -58.5,-40 -59.8,-40 -61.1,-40 -62.4,-40 -63.7,-40 -65,-41.5 -65,-43 -65,-44.5 -65,-46 -65,-47.5 -65,-49 -65,-50.5 -65,-52 -65,-53.5 -65,-55 -65,-55 -63.7,-55 -62.4,-55 -61.1,-55 -59.8,-55 -58.5,-55 -57.2,-55 -55.9,-55 -54.6,-55 -53.3,-55 -52)) | POINT(-47.5 -58.5) | false | false | ||||||||
Collaborative Reseach: Free-drifting Icebergs as Proliferating Dispersion Sites of Iron Enrichment, Organic Carbon Production and Export in the Southern Ocean.
|
0636730 |
2010-11-22 | Vernet, Maria |
|
Atmospheric warming has been associated with retreating glaciers, disintegrating ice shelves, and the increasing prevalence of icebergs in the Southern Ocean over the last decade. Our preliminary study of two icebergs in the NW Weddell Sea, an area of high iceberg concentration, showed significant delivery of terrestrial material accompanied by significant enhancement of phytoplankton and zooplankton/micronekton abundance, and primary production surrounding the icebergs. We hypothesize that nutrient enrichment by free-drifting icebergs will increase primary production and sedimentation of organic carbon, thus increasing the draw-down and sequestration of CO2 in the Southern Ocean and impacting the global carbon cycle. Our research addresses the following questions:1) What is the relationship between the physical dynamics of free-drifting icebergs and the Fe and nutrient distributions of the surrounding water column? 2) What is the relationship between Fe and nutrient distributions associated with free-drifting icebergs and the organic carbon dynamics of the ice-attached and surrounding pelagic communities (microbes, zooplankton, micronekton)? 3) What is impact on the export flux of particulate organic carbon from the mixed layer? An interdisciplinary approach is proposed to examine iceberg structure and dynamics, biogeochemical processes, and carbon cycling that includes measurement of trace element, nutrient and radionuclide distributions; organic carbon dynamics mediated by microbial, ice-attached and zooplankton communities; and particulate organic carbon export fluxes. Results from this project will further our understanding of the relationship between climate change and carbon sequestration in the Southern Ocean. Our findings will be incorporated into the Antarctic Research division of the Ocean Exploration Center (OEC) as part of the SIOExplorer: Digital Library Project. The OEC allows users to access content, which is classified to one of four levels: entry (grade K-6), student (grade 6-12), college, and research. Graduate students, undergraduates, teachers, and volunteers are important participants in the proposed field and laboratory work. For the K-12 level, a professional writer of children's books will participate in cruises to produce an account of the expedition and a daily interactive website. | POLYGON((-55 -52,-53.5 -52,-52 -52,-50.5 -52,-49 -52,-47.5 -52,-46 -52,-44.5 -52,-43 -52,-41.5 -52,-40 -52,-40 -53.3,-40 -54.6,-40 -55.9,-40 -57.2,-40 -58.5,-40 -59.8,-40 -61.1,-40 -62.4,-40 -63.7,-40 -65,-41.5 -65,-43 -65,-44.5 -65,-46 -65,-47.5 -65,-49 -65,-50.5 -65,-52 -65,-53.5 -65,-55 -65,-55 -63.7,-55 -62.4,-55 -61.1,-55 -59.8,-55 -58.5,-55 -57.2,-55 -55.9,-55 -54.6,-55 -53.3,-55 -52)) | POINT(-47.5 -58.5) | false | false | |||||||
Free Drifting Icebergs: Influence of Floating Islands on Pelagic Ecosystems in the Weddell Sea.
|
0650034 |
2010-05-04 | Smith, Ken |
|
This project seeks to examine the importance of icebergs to the pelagic ecosystem of the North-West Weddell Sea. Atmospheric warming has been associated with retreating glaciers and the increasing prevalence of icebergs in the Southern Ocean over the last decade. The highest concentration of icebergs occurs in the NW Weddell Sea, where they drift in a clockwise pattern to the northeast, following the contours of the Antarctic Peninsula through an area dubbed "Iceberg Alley". Little is known about the impact of free-drifting icebergs on the pelagic ecosystem of the Weddell Sea or on the Southern Ocean as a whole. It is hypothesized that as drifting islands, icebergs of small to intermediate size (< 10 km in largest dimension) impart unique physical, chemical and biological characteristics to the surrounding water. Three general questions will be asked to address this hypothesis: 1) What are the dynamics (approximate size, abundance and spatial distribution) of free-drifting icebergs on temporal scales of days to months, based on correlation of field measurements with imagery derived from satellite sensors? 2) What is the relationship between the size of free-drifting icebergs and the structure of the associated pelagic communities? 3) What is the estimated combined impact of free-drifting icebergs in the NW Weddell Sea on the biological characteristics of the pelagic zone? This interdisciplinary study will use standard oceanographic sampling coupled with unique methodology for staging shipboard data from all types of sensors and survey methods to determine the sphere of influence for a diverse set of biological factors as a function of iceberg size. The exploratory research proposed here will provide critical data on the effects of atmospheric warming in the Antarctic Peninsula region. The recent prevalence of free drifting icebergs in the Southern Ocean should have a pronounced enrichment effect on the surrounding pelagic ecosystem, altering community dynamics. Enhanced primary production associated with these icebergs could influence the global carbon cycle since the Southern Ocean is considered a major sink for excess CO2 from the atmosphere. <br/>The proposed research will include an innovative education component through the Ocean Exploration Center (OEC), whose focus is to provide a comprehensive view of the oceans, intelligible to non-scientists and researchers alike, with direct access to state-of-the-art databases and selected websites. The OEC will allow users to access content which has been classified to one of four levels: entry (grade K-6), student (grade 6-12), college, and research. The results from this iceberg project will be incorporated into the Antarctic Research division of the OEC, providing databases documenting the impact of free-drifting icebergs on the surrounding pelagic ecosystem. These data then will be extrapolated to evaluate the impact of icebergs on the ecosystem of the Weddell Sea. Graduate students, undergraduates, teachers and volunteers are an important part of the proposed field and laboratory work. | None | None | false | false | |||||||
Free Drifting Icebergs: Influence of Floating Islands on Pelagic Ecosystems in the Weddell Sea.
|
0529815 |
2010-05-04 | Smith, Ken |
|
This project seeks to examine the importance of icebergs to the pelagic ecosystem of the North-West Weddell Sea. Atmospheric warming has been associated with retreating glaciers and the increasing prevalence of icebergs in the Southern Ocean over the last decade. The highest concentration of icebergs occurs in the NW Weddell Sea, where they drift in a clockwise pattern to the northeast, following the contours of the Antarctic Peninsula through an area dubbed "Iceberg Alley". Little is known about the impact of free-drifting icebergs on the pelagic ecosystem of the Weddell Sea or on the Southern Ocean as a whole. It is hypothesized that as drifting islands, icebergs of small to intermediate size (< 10 km in largest dimension) impart unique physical, chemical and biological characteristics to the surrounding water. Three general questions will be asked to address this hypothesis: 1) What are the dynamics (approximate size, abundance and spatial distribution) of free-drifting icebergs on temporal scales of days to months, based on correlation of field measurements with imagery derived from satellite sensors? 2) What is the relationship between the size of free-drifting icebergs and the structure of the associated pelagic communities? 3) What is the estimated combined impact of free-drifting icebergs in the NW Weddell Sea on the biological characteristics of the pelagic zone? This interdisciplinary study will use standard oceanographic sampling coupled with unique methodology for staging shipboard data from all types of sensors and survey methods to determine the sphere of influence for a diverse set of biological factors as a function of iceberg size. The exploratory research proposed here will provide critical data on the effects of atmospheric warming in the Antarctic Peninsula region. The recent prevalence of free drifting icebergs in the Southern Ocean should have a pronounced enrichment effect on the surrounding pelagic ecosystem, altering community dynamics. Enhanced primary production associated with these icebergs could influence the global carbon cycle since the Southern Ocean is considered a major sink for excess CO2 from the atmosphere. <br/>The proposed research will include an innovative education component through the Ocean Exploration Center (OEC), whose focus is to provide a comprehensive view of the oceans, intelligible to non-scientists and researchers alike, with direct access to state-of-the-art databases and selected websites. The OEC will allow users to access content which has been classified to one of four levels: entry (grade K-6), student (grade 6-12), college, and research. The results from this iceberg project will be incorporated into the Antarctic Research division of the OEC, providing databases documenting the impact of free-drifting icebergs on the surrounding pelagic ecosystem. These data then will be extrapolated to evaluate the impact of icebergs on the ecosystem of the Weddell Sea. Graduate students, undergraduates, teachers and volunteers are an important part of the proposed field and laboratory work. | POLYGON((-68.12004 -52.65918,-65.348168 -52.65918,-62.576296 -52.65918,-59.804424 -52.65918,-57.032552 -52.65918,-54.26068 -52.65918,-51.488808 -52.65918,-48.716936 -52.65918,-45.945064 -52.65918,-43.173192 -52.65918,-40.40132 -52.65918,-40.40132 -53.972709,-40.40132 -55.286238,-40.40132 -56.599767,-40.40132 -57.913296,-40.40132 -59.226825,-40.40132 -60.540354,-40.40132 -61.853883,-40.40132 -63.167412,-40.40132 -64.480941,-40.40132 -65.79447,-43.173192 -65.79447,-45.945064 -65.79447,-48.716936 -65.79447,-51.488808 -65.79447,-54.26068 -65.79447,-57.032552 -65.79447,-59.804424 -65.79447,-62.576296 -65.79447,-65.348168 -65.79447,-68.12004 -65.79447,-68.12004 -64.480941,-68.12004 -63.167412,-68.12004 -61.853883,-68.12004 -60.540354,-68.12004 -59.226825,-68.12004 -57.913296,-68.12004 -56.599767,-68.12004 -55.286238,-68.12004 -53.972709,-68.12004 -52.65918)) | POINT(-54.26068 -59.226825) | false | false | |||||||
COLLABORATIVE: Geographic Structure of Adelie Penguin Colonies - Demography of Population Change
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0439759 |
2009-05-19 | Ballard, Grant | This project is an international collaborative investigation of geographic structuring, founding of new colonies, and population change of Adelie penguins (Pygoscelis adelia) nesting on Ross and Beaufort islands, Antarctica. The long-term changes occurring at these colonies are representative of changes throughout the Ross Sea, where 30% of all Adelie penguins reside, and are in some way related to changing climate. The recent grounding of two very large icebergs against Ross and Beaufort islands, with associated increased variability in sea-ice extent, has provided an unparalleled natural experiment affecting wild, interannual swings in colony productivity, foraging effort, philopatry and recruitment. Results of this natural experiment can provide insights into the demography and geographic population structuring of this species, having relevance Antarctic-wide in understanding its future responses to climate change as well as interpreting its amazingly well known Holocene history. This ongoing study will continue to consider the relative importance of resources that constrain or enhance colony growth (nesting habitat, access to food); the aspects of natural history that are affected by exploitative or interference competition among neighboring colonies (breeding success, foraging effort); climatic factors that influence the latter, especially sea ice patterns; and behavioral mechanisms that influence colony growth as a function of initial size and location (emigration, immigration). An increased effort will focus on understanding factors that affect over-winter survival. The hypothesis is that the age structure of Cape Crozier has changed over the past thirty years and no longer reflects the smaller colonies nearby. Based on recent analyses, it appears that the Ross Island penguins winter in a narrow band of sea ice north of the Antarctic Circle (where daylight persists) and south of the southern boundary of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (where food abounds). More extensive winter ice takes the penguins north of that boundary where they incur higher mortality. Thus, where a penguin winters may be due to the timing of its post-breeding departure (which differs among colonies), which affects where it first encounters sea ice on which to molt and where it will be transported by the growing ice field. Foraging effort and interference competition for food suggested as factors driving the geographic structuring of colonies. The research includes a census of known-age penguins, studies of foraging effort and overlap among colonies; and identification of the location of molting and wintering areas. Information will be related to sea-ice conditions as quantified by satellite images. Demographic and foraging-effort models will be used to synthesize results. The iceberg natural experiment is an unparalleled opportunity to investigate the demographics of a polar seabird and its response to climate change. The marked, interannual variability in apparent philopatry, with concrete data being collected on its causes, is a condition rarely encountered among studies of vertebrates. Broader impacts include collaborating with New Zealand and Italian researchers, involving high school teachers and students in the fieldwork and continuing a website to highlight results to both scientists and the general public. | POLYGON((-180 -60,-177.5 -60,-175 -60,-172.5 -60,-170 -60,-167.5 -60,-165 -60,-162.5 -60,-160 -60,-157.5 -60,-155 -60,-155 -61.76,-155 -63.52,-155 -65.28,-155 -67.04,-155 -68.8,-155 -70.56,-155 -72.32,-155 -74.08,-155 -75.84,-155 -77.6,-157.5 -77.6,-160 -77.6,-162.5 -77.6,-165 -77.6,-167.5 -77.6,-170 -77.6,-172.5 -77.6,-175 -77.6,-177.5 -77.6,180 -77.6,178.5 -77.6,177 -77.6,175.5 -77.6,174 -77.6,172.5 -77.6,171 -77.6,169.5 -77.6,168 -77.6,166.5 -77.6,165 -77.6,165 -75.84,165 -74.08,165 -72.32,165 -70.56,165 -68.8,165 -67.04,165 -65.28,165 -63.52,165 -61.76,165 -60,166.5 -60,168 -60,169.5 -60,171 -60,172.5 -60,174 -60,175.5 -60,177 -60,178.5 -60,-180 -60)) | POINT(-175 -68.8) | false | false | ||||||||
Collaborative Research of Earth's Largest Icebergs
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0229546 |
2008-09-19 | Okal, Emile; Aster, Richard; Bassis, Jeremy; Kim, Young-Jin; Bliss, Andrew; Sergienko, Olga; Thom, Jonathan; Scambos, Ted; Muto, Atsu; Brunt, Kelly; King, Matthew; Parker, Tim; Okal, Marianne; Cathles, Mac; MacAyeal, Douglas | This award supports the study of the drift and break-up of Earth's largest icebergs, which were recently released into the Ross Sea of Antarctica as a result of calving from the Ross Ice Shelf. The scientific goals of the study are to determine the physics of iceberg motion within the dynamic context of ocean currents, winds, and sea ice, which determine the forces that drive iceberg motion, and the relationship between the iceberg and geographically and topographically determined pinning points on which the iceberg can ground. In addition, the processes by which icebergs influence the local environments (e.g., sea ice conditions near Antarctica, access to penguin rookeries, air-sea heat exchange and upwelling at iceberg margins, nutrient fluxes) will be studied. The processes by which icebergs generate globally far-reaching ocean acoustic signals that are detected within the global seismic (earthquake) sensing networks will also be studied. A featured element of the scientific research activity will be a field effort to deploy automatic weather stations, seismometer arrays and GPS-tracking stations on several of the largest icebergs presently adrift, or about to be adrift, in the Ross Sea. Data generated and relayed via satellite to home institutions in the Midwest will motivate theoretical analysis and computer simulation; and will be archived on an "iceberg" website (http://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/amrc/iceberg.html) for access by scientists and the general public. At the most broad level, the study is justified by the fact that icebergs released by the Antarctic ice sheet represent the largest movements of fresh water within the natural environment (e.g., several of the icebergs to be studied, B15, C19 and others calved since 2000 CE, represent over 6000 cubic kilometers of fresh water-an amount roughly equivalent to 100 years of the flow of the Nile River). A better understanding of the impact of iceberg drift through the environment, and particularly the impact on ocean stratification and mixing, is essential to the understanding of the abrupt global climate changes witnessed by proxy during the ice age and of concern under conditions of future greenhouse warming. On a more specific level, the study will generate a knowledge base useful for the better management of Antarctic logistical resources (e.g., the shipping lanes to McMurdo Station) that can occasionally be influenced by adverse effects icebergs have on sea ice conditions. | POINT(-178 -78) | POINT(-178 -78) | false | false | ||||||||
Investigating Iceberg Evolution During Drift and Break-Up: A Proxy for Climate-Related Changes in Antarctic Ice Shelves
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0540915 |
2007-08-16 | Scambos, Ted; Bohlander, Jennifer; Bauer, Rob; Yermolin, Yevgeny; Thom, Jonathan | This award supports a small grant for exploratory research to study the processes that contribute to the melting and break-up of tabular polar icebergs as they drift north. This work will enable the participation of a group of U.S. scientists in this international project which is collaborative with the Instituto Antartico Argentino. The field team will place weather instruments, firn sensors, and a video camera on the iceberg to measure the processes that affect it as it drifts north. In contrast to icebergs in other sectors of Antarctica, icebergs in the northwestern Weddell Sea drift northward along relatively predictable paths, and reach climate and ocean conditions that lead to break-up within a few years. The timing of this study is critical due to the anticipated presence of iceberg A43A, which broke off the Ronne Ice Shelf in February 2000 and which is expected to be accessible from Marambio Station in early 2006. It has recently been recognized that the end stages of break-up of these icebergs can imitate the rapid disintegrations due to melt ponding and surface fracturing observed for the Larsen A and Larsen B ice shelves. However, in some cases, basal melting may play a significant role in shelf break-up. Resolving the processes (surface ponding/ fracturing versus basal melt) and observing other processes of iceberg drift and break up in-situ are of high scientific interest. An understanding of the mechanisms that lead to the distintegration of icebergs as they drift north may enable scientists to use icebergs as proxies for understanding the processes that could cause ice shelves to disintegrate in a warming climate. A broader impact would thus be an ability to predict ice shelf disintegration in a warming world. Glacier mass balance and ice shelf stability are of critical importance to sea level change, which also has broader societal relevance. | POLYGON((-57.9857 -48.444,-55.95557 -48.444,-53.92544 -48.444,-51.89531 -48.444,-49.86518 -48.444,-47.83505 -48.444,-45.80492 -48.444,-43.77479 -48.444,-41.74466 -48.444,-39.71453 -48.444,-37.6844 -48.444,-37.6844 -50.12802,-37.6844 -51.81204,-37.6844 -53.49606,-37.6844 -55.18008,-37.6844 -56.8641,-37.6844 -58.54812,-37.6844 -60.23214,-37.6844 -61.91616,-37.6844 -63.60018,-37.6844 -65.2842,-39.71453 -65.2842,-41.74466 -65.2842,-43.77479 -65.2842,-45.80492 -65.2842,-47.83505 -65.2842,-49.86518 -65.2842,-51.89531 -65.2842,-53.92544 -65.2842,-55.95557 -65.2842,-57.9857 -65.2842,-57.9857 -63.60018,-57.9857 -61.91616,-57.9857 -60.23214,-57.9857 -58.54812,-57.9857 -56.8641,-57.9857 -55.18008,-57.9857 -53.49606,-57.9857 -51.81204,-57.9857 -50.12802,-57.9857 -48.444)) | POINT(-47.83505 -56.8641) | false | false | ||||||||
Melting and Calving of Antarctic Ice Shelves
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0233303 |
2007-07-09 | Jacobs, Stanley | No dataset link provided | Major portions of the Antarctic Ice Sheet float in the surrounding ocean, at the physical and intellectual boundaries of oceanography and glaciology. These ice shelves lose mass continuously by melting into the sea, and periodically by the calving of icebergs. Those losses are compensated by the outflow of grounded ice, and by surface accumulation and basal freezing. Ice shelf sources and sinks vary on several time scales, but their wastage terms are not yet well known. Reports of substantial ice shelf retreat, regional ocean freshening and increased ice velocity and thinning are of particular concern at a time of warming ocean temperatures in waters that have access to deep glacier grounding lines.<br/>This award supports a study of the attrition of Antarctic ice shelves, using recent ocean geochemical measurements and drawing on numerical modeling and remote sensing resources. In cooperation with associates at Columbia University and the British Antarctic Survey, measurements of chlorofluorocarbon, helium, neon and oxygen isotopes will be used to infer basal melting beneath the Ross Ice Shelf, and a combination of oceanographic and altimeter data will be used to investigate the mass balance of George VI Ice Shelf. Ocean and remote sensing observations will also be used to help refine numerical models of ice cavity circulations. The objectives are to reduce uncertainties between different estimates of basal melting and freezing, evaluate regional variability, and provide an update of an earlier assessment of circumpolar net melting.<br/>A better knowledge of ice shelf attrition is essential to an improved understanding of ice shelf response to climate change. Large ice shelf calving events can alter the ocean circulation and sea ice formation, and can lead to logistics problems such as those recently experienced in the Ross Sea. Broader impacts include the role of ice shelf meltwater in freshening and stabilizing the upper ocean, and in the formation of Antarctic Bottom Water, which can be traced far into the North Atlantic. To the extent that ice shelf attrition influences the flow of grounded ice, this work also has implications for ice sheet stability and sea level rise. | None | None | false | false |