ICECAP (Investigating the Cryospheric Evolution of the Central Antarctic Plate)
December 10, 2008 - January 10, 2009 | McMurdo and Casey Stations
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Drs. Jack Holt, Duncan Young, and Don Blankenship are researchers at the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas in Austin. Their scientific interests are in ice sheets, and using airborne geophysical techniques to study ice covered regions.
Dr. Lawver is a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas in Austin. Although currently not in the field, Dr. Lawver works with the research team and has previously worked with PolarTREC teacher Katie Peña. Ms. Peña traveled with him to Antarctica in April and May 2008 as a part of the Drake Passage Opening PolarTREC expedition.
Due to the challenging logistics of this research project, Drs. Holt, Young, and Blankenship could not host a teacher on this particular expedition, however, from Texas, Ms. Peña will be communicating with the team regularly to post journal entries from the field research team while they work in Antarctica.
Katie Peña currently teaches both 4th and 5th grades at Zilker Elementary School in Austin, Texas. 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.
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.
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.
