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Activity at Kilauea brings renewed attention to volcanic hazards in Washington State
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Prof. George Bergantz was recently interview regarding the sudden change in eruptive activity at Kilauea volcano and implications for Cascade volcanoes. Read More -
UW researchers will survey Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier as part of major international effort
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
The National Science Foundation and the U.K.’s Natural Environmental Research Council this month announced a joint 5-year, $25 million effort to study Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier.
Nicknamed the “world’s most dangerous glacier,” Thwaites Glacier already is contributing to rising seas; if it collapsed it would raise global sea level by about three feet. The glacier may also act as a linchpin on the whole West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which could raise sea level by much more.
University of Washington glaciologists will participate in one of the eight projects funded through the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration to better understand the glacier and predict what it will do next.
Reconnaissance flight over Thwaites Glacier, which is thought to act as a buttress on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.U.S. Antarctic Program/National Science Foundation
“About 100 scientists are involved in this initiative, which is the largest Antarctic deep-field effort in 70 years,” said Knut Christianson, assistant professor of Earth and space sciences and the UW’s principal investigator on the project. “This is one of the largest deep-field efforts ever attempted in West Antarctica, and is on a scale neither the U.S. nor the U.K. -- or anyone else -- could accomplish alone.”
The UW is participating in the Geophysical Habitat of Subglacial Thwaites, or GHOST project, that will collect on-the-ground data to see the details of the glacier’s internal structure and better map the surface underneath.
The information they collect will provide better data to feed into the computer models that scientists are using to forecast the future of Earth’s climate.
“It’s unlikely that the ice-sheet modelers have the big story wrong,” Christianson said. “But if you’re looking for shorter-term estimates, having detailed information about the bed conditions or how ice is flowing over a ridge can be useful for understanding how the glacier might behave over the next few decades or century.”
That’s the kind of timeline that would be useful on the ground. A 2014 UW study found that Thwaites Glacier would likely collapse within 200 to 1,000 years, though other estimates also exist. More data could provide a firmer timeline.
A graphic showing all the different projects that will be part of the collaboration.Ben Gilliland/NERC
The GHOST team plans to spend two 60-day seasons in the field during the Antarctic summer, beginning in late 2019 and late 2020. An initial trip later this year will install equipment and fuel caches and survey potential base camps.
During the field campaign, the team will begin near the glacier's coastal terminus, where the most rapid changes are occurring. Christianson, UW postdoctoral researcher Nick Holschuh and a graduate student will conduct the scans. The UW team plans to travel by snowmobile, surveying about 50 km (31 miles) of the glacier per day. Every week or so the entire GHOST project’s science team will move and set up a new camp, gradually working its way uphill toward the ice sheet's interior.
Knut Christianson (center) on Helheim Glacier in eastern Greenland in August 2014. The ground-penetrating radar, inside the case, is powered by the solar panel on the lower left.
The UW researchers will use two different radars to map individual layers of snow and ice, and the underlying bedrock. The first technology, ground-penetrating radar, has been used by Christianson’s group for years and can penetrate through more than 2 miles of ice. His team’s data will complement airborne surveys being done by other teams.
“To map out a glacier’s internal structure, it’s advantageous to have a ground-based survey,” Christianson said. “If you want to recover very steeply-sloped layers of ice where the ice has folded, you can acquire higher-quality data if you’re driving on the ground. These layers tell us about the past flow structure of the ice, as well as the current deformation: where it’s bending in response to a sticky edge, or an area where there’s a lot of friction at the base.”
The other method the UW team will use is a newer tool developed by the British Antarctic Survey that sends similar waves into the glacier but is designed for determining relative rates of change between layers in the ice detected by the radar. This technique allows detection of changes in glacier internal structure with a scale of just fractions of an inch, rather than several feet. Christianson hopes to repeat these scans a few weeks apart to see the details of Thwaites Glacier’s movement during a single summer.
“By taking the difference of two measurements we can see the ice deform and study how it flows in near-real time,” Christianson said. “This technique has been used in glaciology for about the last five years, but we’ll be doing it on a new scale for this project.”
The GHOST project is led by Sridhar Anandakrishnan at Pennsylvania State University and Andy Smith at the British Antarctic Survey, and involves scientists from several other U.S. and U.K. institutions.
Watch a video featuring leaders of the overall Thwaites Glacier project:
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For more information on the UW effort, contact Christianson at knut@uw.edu. More information on the larger project is at www.thwaitesglacier.org.
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Early Earth's mild climate may signal life on other planets | Earth.com
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Early Earth has always had a volatile reputation. Previous studies have estimated various scenarios ranging from an ice-covered, snowball Earth to a sweltering environment complete with acidic oceans. David Catling, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences, and Joshua Krissansen-Totton, a UW doctoral student in Earth and space sciences, are quoted. Read More -
Four UW students honored by Goldwater Foundation
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Three University of Washington undergraduates are among 211 students nationwide named as 2018 Goldwater Scholars. One UW student received honorable mention.
The Barry Goldwater Scholarships are awarded to students who have "outstanding potential" and plan to pursue research careers in mathematics, natural sciences or engineering. The awards cover tuition, room and board, fees and books up to $7,500 annually for one or two years.
The 2018 Goldwater Scholars from the UW are Nelson Liu, Kimberly Ruth and Tyler Valentine. Andrew Luo earned an honorable mention.
Shown left to right are Liu, Ruth, Valentine and Luo.University of Washington
- Liu, who is from California, is a computer science, statistics and linguistics major who hopes to teach at the university level and conduct research on natural language processing and machine learning.
- Ruth, whose home state is Washington, is pursuing a double major in computer engineering and mathematics. She plans to pursue a doctorate in computer science on her way to a research career in computer science and privacy.
- Valentine, who is from Washington, is majoring in Earth and space sciences. He plans to pursue a doctorate in space science and engineering focused on using the resources of near-Earth space.
- Luo, who is from Washington, is a double major in computer science and bioengineering.
The Goldwater Foundation fielded a total of 1,280 nominations from colleges and universities throughout the United States in 10 fields.
This year's scholars were chosen from among 1,280 students nominated by faculty members at colleges and universities around the country, and include 110 men and 99 women. The majority -- 142 -- are majoring in natural sciences-related fields; 29 are math and computer science majors, and 40 are engineering majors. Many are pursuing dual majors and almost all hope to obtain a doctorate.
The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986 to honor Goldwater, a five-term senator from Arizona and Air Force Reserve major general. Since 1989, the program has provided more than 8,100 scholarships totaling $65 million dollars.
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Early Earth's climate was more tame than previously thought, suggesting other planets may be suitable for life | Tech Times
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
There has yet to be consensus on the climate of early Earth. Different studies have described the planet as an extremely cold snowball, while others have said that it had unimaginable heat on the surface as it was cooling. A new UW study suggests that the climate of Earth was similar to its current climate. Read More -
Moderate conditions on the early Earth raise the prospects of life elsewhere | IFLScience
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Geologists have spent decades debating the temperatures during the first few hundred million years of Earth's history, as well as the early ocean's chemistry. A new paper provides evidence for relative moderation, similar to the world today. Joshua Krissansen-Totton, a UW doctoral student in Earth and space sciences, is quoted. Read More -
Life on alien planets? Earth's mild climate history hints at possibility | International Business Times
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
A new study presented by a group of researchers at University of Washington hints at a more moderate climatic history for our planet. David Catling, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences, and Joshua Krissansen-Totton, a UW doctoral student in Earth and space sciences, are quoted. Read More -
Earth's stable temperature past suggests other planets could also sustain life
Monday, April 2, 2018
Theories about the early days of our planet’s history vary wildly. Some studies have painted the picture of a snowball Earth, when much of its surface was frozen. Other theories have included periods that would be inhospitably hot for most current lifeforms to survive.
New research from the University of Washington suggests a milder youth for our planet. An analysis of temperature through early Earth’s history, published the week of April 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, supports more moderate average temperatures throughout the billions of years when life slowly emerged on Earth.
“Ideas about the early Earth’s environment are all over the place, from a very hot world, to one locked in a permanent ice age, from a world with acidic oceans to one with seawater so alkaline it would sting your eyes,” said David Catling, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences. “These simulations show that our early world had about the same average temperature as today, and a seawater pH within roughly one unit of neutral.”
The study significantly narrows the possible temperature of the early Earth to 0 to 50 degrees Celsius. It also finds the ocean’s pH has remained fairly moderate, gradually increasing from a slightly acidic initial value of about 6.6, through the neutral value of 7.0, to today’s slightly alkaline seawater of about 8.1.Joshua Krissansen-Totton/University of Washington
Previous research studies have put average temperatures during the Archean era, 4 to 2.5 billion years ago, as low as minus 25 degrees Celsius. Other estimates, based on different interpretations of the evidence, have placed average temperatures as high as 85 degrees Celsius, under which only heat-loving microbes that now exist in hot springs could survive.
The new results put the outer range of possible temperatures at 0 to 50 C (32 to 122 F).
“Our results show that Earth has had a moderate temperature through virtually all of its history, and that is attributable to weathering feedbacks -- they do a good job at maintaining a habitable climate,” said first author Joshua Krissansen-Totton, a UW doctoral student in Earth and space sciences.
To create their estimate, the researchers took the most recent understanding for how rocks, oceans and air temperature interact, and put that into a computer simulation of Earth’s temperature over the past 4 billion years. Their calculations included the most recent information for how seafloor weathering occurs on geologic timescales, and under different conditions.
Though we don’t think of wind and rain wearing away at the seafloor, the seabed is eroded as seawater percolates through rock on the ocean’s floor. Carbon-containing molecules settle out from the water, a process related to the temperature and acidity of the seawater, while other chemicals are dissolved from the rock.
“Seafloor weathering was more important for regulating temperature of the early Earth because there was less continental landmass at that time, the Earth’s interior was even hotter, and the seafloor crust was spreading faster, so that was providing more crust to be weathered,” Krissansen-Totton said.
The authors ran simulations for many possible scenarios for the size of the continents, the temperature sensitivity of chemical weathering and other factors to get the full range of possible scenarios for average air temperature and ocean pH through history.
“We got this initial answer that early Earth had moderate temperatures and slightly acidic ocean pH,” Krissansen-Totton said. “I tried really hard to break that, looking for assumptions that could possibly change that answer. But I found that this is a really robust result. It’s hard to imagine a realistic scenario where temperatures or pH were more extreme.”
That is good news for the search for life on other planets. If Earth’s temperature was moderate throughout its history, other planets located in the habitable zone must also retain a fairly stable climate long enough for other lifeforms to evolve.
“There’s nothing particularly remarkable about these processes,” Krissansen-Totton said. “They can occur on any rocky planet with oceans. So other planets that are in the habitable zone are likely to have their climates stabilized to moderate values by these weathering feedbacks. And that’s a good thing for the search for life, because you need moderate temperatures for billions of years to have a stable environment for life to evolve.”
The results may also help shed light on what conditions were like during the early evolution of life on Earth.
“The results help us understand how natural processes kept Earth’s environment suitable for life to carry on for billions of years, from its humblest beginnings to the wonderful forms now around us,” Catling said.
The paper’s other co-author is Giada Arney, a research scientist at NASA who contributed as part of her UW doctorate. The research was funded by NASA and the Simons Foundation.
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For more information, contact Krissansen-Totton at joshkt@uw.edu or 206-402-7007 and Catling at dcatling@uw.edu.
Grants: NASA: NNX15AR63H, NNA13AA93A, NNX15AL23G, Simons Foundation: 511570
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2018 ESS Awards and Scholarships Applications are OPEN
Sunday, April 1, 2018
The awards application for ALL ESS students (MESSAGe grads, research grads, and undergrads) is now available! As you know, every year the ESS Department and our donors provide a number of funding opportunities for our students. Every ESS student should consider applying to these awards! Applications are due by 11PM on Sunday, April 1. Please also save the date for the ESS Awards Ceremony at 3:30PM on Thurs., May 10 in JHN 102. All applicants are expected to attend the Awards Ceremony. We look forward to receiving your applications! Read More -
How would aliens detect life on Earth? | National Geographic
Monday, March 26, 2018
From gases in the atmosphere to satellites in space, Earth is sending plenty of signals that something here is alive. Joshua Krissansen-Totton, a UW doctoral student in Earth and space sciences, is quoted. Read More
