16 July 2011 Day 19: What scientists do when a flight is cancelled?

Journal

Today's student commentary

Submitted by Kurt Olsen (Greenland)

Today we were very excited to take off to NEEM, but still the plans were flexible, so the plan was to be ready to take off today or tomorrow. We went to the waterfall around the sugarloaf area, just a hike, but our primary goal was to photograph the musk ox, unfortunately we didn’t see a single musk ox.

Hiking to waterfall. Photo by Laura Lukes, 2011.

Ole and Sylvia with waterfall in the background. The water is much higher since the Geology Research Group's first visit to the waterfall last week. Photo by Laura Lukes, 2011.

We went home after the waterfall hiking and waited for JP, the mastermind behind the ice core drillings in Arctic and Antarctica to hear his presentation about ice core drillings. The presentation was about, the process, how to read the ice core layers and what had happened in the world in certain years by reading the ice core layers. Then the plans to go to NEEM changed so instead going to NEEM tomorrow, we were scheduled to fly to the Summit of the Ice Sheet.

Today's teacher commentary

Submitted by Jakob Bach (Greenland) and Svend Erik Nielsen (Denmark)

We don’t go to NEEM today because of bad weather condition. Therefore we change plan a make at trip to the waterfall near Sugar Loaf. From the riverside we have a fantastic view to the enormous waterfall of melting water.

We also say other preglacial signs – Polygonal field stripes made by permafrost

Evidence of permafrost. Photo by Jakob Bach, 2011.

Side morains made from the ice movement

And sediment sort by the river and polished rock

In the evening the scientist Jørgen Peter Steffenbsen give a overview lecture about the NEEM drilling project Last year the come to bedrock in 2500 meter.

JP Steffensen explains ice cores and Earth's climate history. Phot by Jakob Bach, 2011.

He talk about have they use ice core data to say something about clima back in time, and to find traces of historical event – or date historical event!

He told us that:

The ice fjord in Ilulissat is retrieving

The ice sheet is melting in the sides – but stabile in the middle

The ice sheet is about 3000m

If the ice sheet melts the see rise will be about 5m.

The ice sheet is an arkiv for the history

In the ice sheet they test for isotopes the say something about the climate back in time, so they can say something about the climate we will meet in time

The big thing in climate change is tectonic forces – and man can`t do anything about that