The AGAP (Antarctica’s Gamburtsev Province) PROJECT and Other LDEO Antarctic Research

1. The AGAP (Antarctica’s Gamburtsev Province) PROJECT and Other LDEO Antarctic Research Guest Scientist: Margie Turrin(representing the LDEO AGAP Team now in the field) Originally Presented 13 Dec 2008

2. Antarctica's Gamburtsev Province Project (AGAP) In the dead of winter 2008, when most of us wouldn’t consider traveling to a location that promises even colder temperatures and more severe conditions, a team of scientists will venture to the coldest, most remote location on Earth.  Why? This team of U. S. Antarctic scientists, working with international partners from Britain, Germany, Australia, China and Japan, will complete the first comprehensive study of the Gamburtsev Mountains, found in the deep interior of East Antarctica and hidden several miles beneath the thick ice sheet!  http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/gambit/index.htm http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~mstuding/AGAP/

3. LDEO Researchers Are Investigating the Mysterious Gamburtsev Mountains Located in the most remote area of Antarctica, the Gamburtsev Mountains present researchers with significant scientific, engineering and human challenges. Discovered 50 years ago during International Geophysical Year 1957-58, the Gamburtsev Mountains lie deep in East Antarctica, sitting below the highest point on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, ‘Dome A’, beneath levels of ice measuring up to 600 meters.  http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/gambit/Gamburtsevs.htm

4. What Do the Researchers Expect to Explore: The Gamburtsev Mountains: Integrated International Exploration of the Earths Most Enigmatic Mountain Range  (Exploration of Gamburtsev Mts) http://classic.ipy.org/development/eoi/details.php?id=934

5. IPY 2007 - 2008 • International Polar Year 2007 – 2008 • IGY—International Geophysical Year—1957 – 1958 • Sputnik, Van Allen Belts, exploration of Antarctica • Large-scale international cooperative investigations with modern technology • 1882-1883, 1932-33, and IPY history

6. What is IPY? IPY Timeline IPY Draft Themes Education and Outreach IPY “Focus on …” Land Oceans Atmosphere Ice Space People http://www.ipy.org/

7. Some Useful Background Information:The most important feature about the polar regions is that they are now very cold! (Duh!) Located at Earth’s southern pole means that little or no solar energy is received during half the year, and although the sun shines for long day lengths in the other half, not much energy is absorbed

8. Still, for those of us in the US and most of the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere is largely “Terra Incognito” We look at maps and see unfamiliar shapes and names. We tend to think of the Southern Ocean and surrounding land masses merely as the bottom half of maps or globes. New techniques are beginning to allow us to show more about this interesting portion of our planet: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/predict.gif

9. http://tea.armadaproject.org/activity/demello/ICE_CONTINENT_ENCOUNTER.doc#AntarcticMapshttp://tea.armadaproject.org/activity/demello/ICE_CONTINENT_ENCOUNTER.doc#AntarcticMaps

10. Antarctica wasn’t always this way! • 200 mya, what was to become Antarctica was at the center of Gondwanaland, the southern supercontinent created as Pangaea began to split apart • It was connected to Australia, Africa, South America, India, and New Zealand • Fossils provide evidence that climate was much warmer and lush vegetation covered much of the surface • Any polar ice cap was much smaller, so sea level was much higher

11. You can study an animation from a PBS “NOVA” program showing the breakup of Gondwanaland at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/eden/media/stt.html

12. Becoming Antarctica • Formation of the Circumpolar Current (West Wind Drift) played a major role in isolating and cooling Antarctica • Changes in ocean circulation had major effects on energy transfer on the globe, which will explored in the next few slides • Consequently, the ice cap grew and sea level was lowered, and Antarctica became “Earth’s ice box”

13. Modern Antarctica results largely from its isolation at the pole and the ocean currents that surround it. http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Water/images/Surface_currents_jpg_image.html

14. What did you notice about these currents? • The Southern Ocean is the only area of the world with flow uninterrupted by land • The general movement is west-to-east • There are connections with other surface currents to the north and poleward • These involve both wind-driven surface currents and density-driven deeper circulations

15. So the circulation patterns around Antarctica play major roles in global air-sea exchanges http://www.glacier.rice.edu/oceans/4_antsurfwater.html

16. Looking at the image above it is hard to imagine this continent as more than an icy block – but scientists feel the secrets hidden deep in the heart of Antarctica hold the key to a deeper understanding of the early history of the Earth. The AGAP project focuses on an invisible world in one of the most remote areas on Earth, just west of the Pole of Inaccessibility, in East Antarctica.   Organized as part of a large international effort through the fourth International Polar Year, the project will peel back the roughly 2 mile deep layer of million year old glacial ice, to expose  the mountains and lakes hidden below. http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/gambit/

17. What lies on land beneath Antarctica’s Icecap? http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/news/story3_2_01.html

18. Satellite Studies of Polar Regions • Making accurate observations in polar regions is difficult and, for people, dangerous • So one of the most important advances during the last 50 years is use of satellite observation • Several polar-orbiting satellites with a variety of instruments routinely observe winds, ice, and other conditions

19. Probing Beneath the Ice Cap Between 1988 – 1997, NASA’s RADARSAT program studied our planet using SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) techniques. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio has created an animation using these data.

20. NASA’s Earth Observing System TERRA • “ASTER” Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer • “CERES” Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System • “MODIS” Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica http://veimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/245/MODIS1000029_md.jpg

21. Polar Aircraft Getting to and around Antarctica has posed logistical challenges that frequently have been met through specialized aircraft to operate in extreme conditions. LDEO’s Michael Studinger and colleagues have been involved in testing some of these. The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research recently acquired new research capabilities.

22. Another LDEO Example • West Antarctica Ice Sheet Airborne Gravimetry

23. “A Tour of the Cryosphere” NASA recently released an 8-minute multimedia DVD, which is also available on the Internet at http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/cryosphere.html This provides a brief overview of some of the geographic and logistical challenges of working and living in polar regions.

24. AGAP’s Cutting-Edge Research Our international team will address four fundamental questions: • What role does topography play in the nucleation of continental ice sheets? • How are major elevated continental massifs formed within intraplate settings but without a straightforward plate tectonic mechanism? • How do tectonic processes control the formation, distribution, and stability of subglacial lakes? • Where is the oldest climate record in the Antarctic ice sheet?

25. To learn more… …check out the additional information available through the E2C website • LDEO Polar Research • Other Resources • Classroom Activities