EXTRA CREDIT! Glaciology and Life on a Glacier 101

Hey All-Stars!

Here is an AWESOME opportunity for you to earn some extra credit.

Welcome to the Juneau Icefield!

How to earn extra credit:
1) Read the interview below with my awesome friend Kate. She spent 8 weeks on a glacier two summers ago and is going back this summer!!
2) Comment on this post with the following (up to 7 points on your Future of the Earth Project, Due by Feb 22):
    a) In your own words, describe fieldwork.
    b) In your own words, describe how can we learn about climate from glaciers.
    c) In your own words, describe why is long-term research important.
    d) Would you do the JIRP? Why or why not?
    e) Ask Kate two well thought out, relevant questions about JIRP.

Interview:

Ms. Nickel: Can you tell us when you were on a glacier and why you were there?

Kate: Two summers ago, in 2011, I was a fortunate participant of the Juneau Icefield Research Program. JIRP is a long-term project for monitoring glaciers in Southeast Alaska, British Columbia and the Yukon. Check out this introductory video: Juneau Icefield Research Program.

If you look at a satellite image of Alaska from Google Maps you can see that the Southeast corner has much more white than the rest of the state. 

View Larger Map 

Suncups

The white areas are covered in snow and ice. In the Gulf of Alaska a lot of ocean water evaporates, then it moves west and falls as rain and snow in the mountains along the coast. These coastal mountains are so high and cold that they stay covered in snow all year. Year after year, snow piles up in the mountains and valleys until it becomes so heavy that it starts to flow downhill. A glacier is ice that flows like a river, except much slower. Zoom in to the white areas on the Google Map or on this interactive map of the Juneau Icefield. Do you see land that looks like it is covered in white rivers? The white rivers are actually valleys filled with glaciers As you can see, Southeast Alaska has so many glaciers that it is a great to place to go to study glaciology. 

Ms. Nickel: So why would you want to study glaciers or be a glaciologist? 

Kate: First of all, glaciers hold buried clues to the past. As snow piles up on a glacier it traps and preserves things, just like a fossil preserved in the layers of a sedimentary rock. Some scientists drill ice cores through layers of ice that have been piling up for hundreds of thousands of years. The world’s oldest ice core, from a place called Dome C in Antarctica, contains ice from 800,000 years ago. Dust particles, air bubbles, and isotopes trapped in the ice offer clues about Earth’s past climate. This is important for people interested in global climate change. To determine whether Earth’s climate is changing, we have to compare today’s climate to a long record of past climate. Watch these videos to learn more about ice cores: British Antarctic Survey, US National Ice Core Lab WAIS, US National Ice Core Lab Greenland.

Another reason to study glaciers is that they are very sensitive to their environment. If the air temperature around the glacier rises just one or two degrees it can cause lots of ice to melt. Recently glaciers around the world have been melting, also called retreating, at record speeds. This indicates that global air temperatures are increasing and climate is changing. Here’s some footage of glacier retreat around the world: Glacier Retreat – Extreme Ice Survey. 

This is what a glaciologist looks like :-)

It is also important to understand glaciers because they are a natural resource. It some places, especially below the Himalayas, millions of humans depend on glacial melt water as a source of fresh drinking water. 

Personally, I like studying glaciers because I think they are extremely beautiful. Plus, glaciologists get to do all sorts of adventurous fieldwork on skis and mountaineering rope teams!

Although some scientists wear white coats and goggles and work in a laboratory, other scientists do fieldwork. Fieldwork is any research outside of a laboratory. JIRP is a field program. The entire 6 to 8-week field season takes place outside on ice. 

Ms. Nickel: How do you study glaciers?

In a snow pit!

Kate: In the field we use GPS to study the size, speed and shape of the glacier. We dig snow pits to study how much and what kind of snow fell in the last year. We also can use seismic tools to study the deep inside of the glacier. You’ve probably already learned in class that many Earth processes occur very slowly over a very long period of time. Sometimes tiny changes that occur for many years end up having big consequences. This is why the Juneau Icefield Research Program is a long-term monitoring project. The program started in 1946. For the past 66 summers scientists have recorded similar GPS and snow pit data from the Juneau Icefield. When we look at this long-term record it is possible to see small and slow, but important, changes.  While students help maintain the long-term record some other researchers study different types of science including mountain ecology and meteorology. 

Ms. Nickel: What is a day in your life like with JIRP?

Prussik practice in a cabin

Research in a crevasse

Kate: There are about seven base camps on the Icefield. Students and researchers stay in rustic cabins at each camp. A typical day consists of an 8:00 breakfast, camp chores until 10:00, then 6-8 hours of fieldwork. During the day we leave camp on skis or snowmobiles to collect data.  One major and unique concern about doing fieldwork on a glacier is the safety. Huge crevasses can be disguised by a thin layer of snow. We do not want to fall into a crevasse so we wear skis to distribute our weight over more area and sometimes have to “rope-up” with friends. 

Costume Party above the Gilkey Trench

Most nights we return to camp for a warm meal and comfortable bunk bed. However, sometimes we camp in tents on the ice for 2 or 3 days (which can be quite chilly)! In general there is no phone or Internet. The only communication with the outside world occurs every two or three weeks when a helicopter drops off new food and snail mail. We still found lots of ways to have fun including costume and dance parties. When moving between base camps we will ski up to 12-15 miles carrying all of our gear. My backpack weighed about 50 pounds. Even in a heavy pack, there isn’t room for too many pairs of clothes. JIRP students wear the same clothes everyday and do laundry by hand about once a week. None of the camps have plumbing, so we went to the bathroom in outhouses and just didn’t shower… for almost two months! 

If you want more information about the JIRP program please check out the JIRP 2012 Blog, JIRP Website, their Facebook page and this website about GIS research on the Icefield. Here is one more video about Glaciers in Yosemite National Park that is very informative. 

Please post any questions about JIRP or glaciology! Good luck studying science!

***End of Interview! Comment away! Kate would love some good questions.***