Summer Snow Day on the USCGC Healy in the SE Canada Basin (Arctic Ocean). Filmed on the 2010 International Extended Continental Shelf Survey by PolarTREC teacher Bill Schmoker.
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
Many students are familiar with topographic maps showing relief of land surfaces. In this lab they will produce their own bathymetric maps, the underwater equivalent. A bathymetric map shows sea floor features by contouring depths below sea level (instead of elevation above sea level as in topographic maps). Students will first probe depths in “Mystery Bay”, a box
Lake El'gygytgyn (67.5º N, 172º E) is one of the best preserved large asteroid impact craters on earth. In the winter of 2009, I joined an international science team and traveled to the frozen arctic lake to drill and extract lake sediments to study climate change as well as sample the rocks that were changed when the crater
The sediment in Lake El'gygytgyn, (pronounced EL-ge-GIT-gin) located in NE Siberia, holds one of the longest records of climate change anywhere in the continental Arctic. How does sediment (clay and mud) tell us something about past climate? Proxy data! By studying the microfossils of diatoms and pollen in the sediment, we can re-construct the lake environment millions of
Article about Bill Schmoker's upcoming PolarTREC expedition aboard the USCGC Healy in the Arctic Ocean. View the actual article at the Boulder Daily Camera Online.
Greensboro News and Record article about PolarTREC teacher Tim Martin's expedition in Russia. Written post-expedition, it discusses some of the highlights from the project, including being the first to see the rock cores from the bottom of Lake El'gygytgyn. Click below for the online article.
Field Notes newsletter discusses research at Lake El'gygytgyn, and provides a link to follow Tim Martin's PolarTREC journals. Access the article using the link provided.
PolarTREC Teacher, Tim Martin facilitated an unique learning opportunity when his students corresponded with him remotely in a Live from IPY! event. Local reporters covered the live event at Mr. Martin's school in Greensboro, North Carolina.