Climate265
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Climate and Meningitis in Africa
The International Research Institute for Climate and Society and Google are offering a guided tour of Africa to teach you about the relationship between climate and deadly meningitis outbreaks there. No need to pack your bags, though: it’s a virtual tour, one you can run on Google Earth from your living room. The climate and…
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The Oden and the Polarstern Cross Paths
We successfully finished our scientific work in the Amundsen Sea and are now heading back to Punta Arenas, at the tip of South America. It will take eight to nine days to get there depending on the weather and winds. Just before we left the Amundsen Sea we passed the German ice-breaker ship, the Polarstern.…
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Some Thoughts about Glaciers Before Heading Home
Mike and I head out today for Cerro Gorra, leaving Jay and Barbara at Lago Cardiel to finish the stratigraphy. What wonderful people; I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to do field work with them. We drive to Lago Argentino, where Mike is meeting a new research team for a separate project.…
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Learning to Be Observant
Last night I made dinner. I’ve never cooked over an open fire—only on a tiny gas-powered stove on backpacking trips–but Jay and Barbara have been teaching me how. Dinner was edible. Jay built the fire last night, but tonight I’m hoping to do the whole thing start to finish. Wish me luck. We left Cerro…
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El Niño and a Pathogen Killed Costa Rican Toad, Study Finds
Challenges Evidence That Global Warming Was the Cause
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Building the Best Story You Can
Reconstructing a shoreline history takes skill. Today we’re using altimeters to establish the elevation of Lago Cardiel’s former shorelines. We also continue to look for shells to help us date the lake’s past shorelines, a task that requires strong powers of observation. In one short stretch there might be a dime-sized snail shell almost indistinguishable…
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Searching for Snails
Today we’re looking for live snails so that we can measure how much carbon-14 they are incorporating into their calcite shells. Carbon-14 is a rare isotope of carbon that decays radioactively–organisms incorporate carbon-14 into their tissues and shells while they are alive, and as soon as they die, the carbon-14 starts decaying away. We can…
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Looking at Mud to Learn About Ice Sheets
The bottom of the seafloor shows us where ice used to flow. To pinpoint when the ice retreated, the geologists on board take samples of mud and sand from the seafloor. Using a weighted steel barrel lowered to the seafloor they bore their way through sand and mud. A catcher at the bottom of the…
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When Lago Cardiel Was Larger
The lake has grown and shrunk many times over the past 20,000 years. When it grows, it leaves behind a “bathtub ring” of residue around its edge: pebbles smoothed by wave action, carbonate tufas, the remnants of the things that lived at the shore. There are at least three distinct bathtub rings (each of which…
The first Earth Day in 1970 ignited a movement to stop polluting our planet. This Earth Month, join us in our commitment to realizing a just and sustainable future for our planet. Visit our Earth Day website for ideas, resources, and inspiration.