Scientists from the Universities of Leeds and Aberystwyth are heading off on an Antarctic expedition this month to learn more about the climate history of the region.
The team will be heading to part of the coldest, windiest, highest and driest continent on Earth to hunt for clues that will tell us more about how the glaciers and ice sheets of the north-eastern Antarctic Peninsula behaved in past climates and what we can expect in the future. The Antarctic Peninsula has suffered above average warming over the past half-century, with around a 2.5°C temperature increase since 1950. This warming is causing glaciers and ice shelves to melt, releasing large volumes of fresh water into the oceans which not only raises sea level, but also influences deep sea circulation and regional climate. However, scientists do not fully understand the relationship between air and sea temperature, and the melting of ice. Therefore it is difficult for them to assess whether the melting being observed at the moment is unprecedented in the context of geological time. To address these outstanding questions, the team will collect samples of rock to date their exposure to cosmic radiation and thus to analyse how the glaciers and ice have retreated since the last ice age, around 20,000 years ago. "The collapse of Antarctic ice shelves is largely thought to be caused by warming of the atmosphere, but it appears that changes in sea temperature and ice-shelf structure are also important," said lead researcher Professor Neil Glasser, from the University of Aberystwyth.
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