Measuring East Antarctic Ice Sheet Stability
Meet the Team
Teacher - Katie Pena
Zilker Elementary School
Austin
, Texas
United States
Katie Peña currently teaches at Zilker Elementary School in Austin, Texas. This is her 4th year of teaching at the school where she has taught both the 4th and 5th grades. A graduate from the University of Texas at Austin, with a Bachelor in Science in Applied Learning and Development, Katie has always known she wanted to be a teacher. As far back as 3rd grade in Coppell, Texas, her teacher, Mrs. Howard, whose picture she still has, inspired her by changing her attitude about school and challenging her to have fun while learning. Mrs. Howard had changed Katie’s life, and she knew that she wanted to do the same for other children. Since becoming a teacher, Katie has continued her quest to help every child find joy in learning. Her daily goals for teaching are very simple, teach to each child and have a blast while doing it.
Researcher - Jack Holt
University of Texas at Austin
Austin
, Texas
United States
Researcher - Don Blankenship
University of Texas at Austin
Austin
, Texas
United States
Researcher - Duncan Young
University of Texas at Austin
Austin
, Texas
United States
Journals
January 15, 2009 A Message from Jack
Hey everyone, sorry for the silence but we've had an incredibly intense field season in the icy south with the ICECAP project (and a bit of my NASA-funded Mars analog work). I've just departed, currently in Hobart, Tasmania on my way home. A contingent of our group remains at Casey Station, an...
January 12, 2009 Survival Training and Final Equipment Installations
Every first year person down here has to go through a survival/emergency training that goes from the very basic things to the more advanced blizzard training.
First is some classroom time where they introduce you to the equipment: tent, shovel, ice pick, snow saw, emergency rations... Things...
January 7, 2009 Get Ready, Set, Go-- to Antarctica
The research team went to Antarctica through Churchchrist, New Zealand. In Churchchrist they had to get their ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) gear issued. This gear includes all the clothes, coats, gloves, boots, hats, etc. that will be needed in the cold environment of Antarctica.
The UTIG...
January 7, 2009 Aircraft Preparation
The aircraft needed some changes and installations before being ready to do all the research in Antarctica.
First it had a visit to Basler where installations of hardpoints for the VHF radar antennas and cutout for laser and camera.
Next the aircraft took a visit to Kenn Borek Air...
Project Information
ICECAP (Investigating the Cryospheric Evolution of the Central Antarctic Plate)
McMurdo and Casey Stations
10 December 2008
10 January 2009
Where are They?
The team spent the first part of the field season in McMurdo Station, one of the American Antarctic stations, and then traveled to the Australian Casey Station on the edge of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Later in the season, the team flew transects over East Antarctica, to study the Aurora Subglacial Basin, which includes mountains, valleys, and lakes, all covered by parts of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) is one of two large ice sheets in Antarctica, and the largest in the entire world, and is unlike the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) that rests on frozen water.
What are they Doing?
An international team of scientists from the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia traveled to McMurdo and Casey Stations in Antarctica to finish installing equipment on an airplane which will be used later in the field season to conduct airborne surveys over the Aurora Subglacial Basin, a geologic formation under the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.
The area is one that was considered stable until recently, but could now represent the weak underbelly of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, the largest remaining body of ice on Earth. The research could show how Earth's climate changed in the past and how future climate change will affect global sea levels.
The team flew an upgraded World War II-era DC-3 aircraft using multiple airborne geophysical instruments to map the thickness of the ice sheet and measure the texture, composition, density, and topography of rocks below the ice. Data from the project will help model East Antarctic ice stability and forecast how ice might react to climate change.
The research being conducted may also help solve mysteries about past climate, as the team searches for new sites to drill ice cores with the potential to extend the ice core record beyond one million years. For more information, visit the ICECAP website.
