Researcher Egbert Schwartz and PolarTREC teacher Justin Kendhammer will travel to the Dry Valleys of Antarctica in search of life in the seemingly barren soil. One of the questions they will attempt to answer is whether microbes in the soil are native to Antarctic soil or whether they have been blown onto the continent from elsewhere in the world.
PolarTREC teacher Bill Schmoker, one of 14 teachers nationwide, has been awarded the National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship. This article describes his upcoming National Geographic expedition to the Arctic Ocean aboard its research ship 'Explorer'.
Density currents drive 3D movements within the world’s oceans that dwarf surface currents by volume. Density-driven movements due to temperature/salinity differences keep the world’s oceans well mixed & help to re-distribute heat from tropical areas towards polar areas. Resultant upwelling creates some of the world’s richest ocean ecosystems. Density movements known as turbidity currents are the world’s largest