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How phosphorus helped oxygenate Earth's atmosphere | Space
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Life in Earth's oceans may have had a slow start because phosphorus -- a key nutrient of life -- was not recycled through the biosphere fast enough. The finding, by scientists at the University of Washington and the University of St Andrews, UK, could explain why it took so long for Earth's atmosphere to become oxygenated. Read More -
Best and worst case scenarios for the Rattlesnake Ridge landslide | KUOW
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Bill Radke talks to David Montgomery, professor of Earth and space sciences at the University of Washington, about the crack in Rattlesnake Ridge and what geologist and state officials are looking for as they monitor the slow moving slide. Read More -
Dozens evacuate in Washington state, fearing landslide | NPR
Monday, January 8, 2018
The first to notice the growing crack in Rattlesnake Ridge, located near Yakima, was a local pilot, back in October. Since then, geologists have been monitoring the area in Washington state, and report that 4 million cubic yards of land have moved in just a couple of months -- faster than was expected. David Montgomery, professor of Earth and space sciences at the UW, is quoted. Read More -
Most of Greenland melted in the recent past, study finds | Gizmodo
Monday, January 8, 2018
The Greenland ice sheet contains enough water to raise global sea levels 24 feet should it all melt. And a massive melt-out is exactly what seems to have happened about a million years ago. Eric Steig, a climate scientist at the UW, is quoted. Read More -
Some residents below slow-moving landslide near Yakima won't evacuate as crack widens, officials say | The Seattle Times
Friday, January 5, 2018
They're staying put. That's the challenge the Yakima Valley Office of Emergency Management is facing while trying to persuade people who live below Rattlesnake Ridge -- where a 250-foot-deep crack in the hillside has continued to grow -- to evacuate. Steve Malone, professor emeritus of Earth and space sciences at the UW, is quoted. Read More -
Icebergs can be green, black, striped, even rainbow | Scientific American
Friday, January 5, 2018
Seawater, algae and lack of cracks can create iceberg colors other than white. Stephen Warren, professor emeritus of atmospheric sciences and of Earth and space sciences at the UW, is quoted. Read More -
Did air pollution cause a deadly Chinese landslide? | Science
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Air pollution in China has led to higher rates of asthma, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes, and--according to The Lancet--it contributed to 1.1 million premature deaths in 2015 alone. Alison Duvall, assistant professor of Earth and space sciences at the UW, is quoted. Read More -
Huge ridge cracks near Yakima prompts evacuation warning | KING 5
Thursday, January 4, 2018
A potential landslide on Rattlesnake Ridge in Yakima County is threatening homes and Interstate 82 near Yakima. David Montgomery, professor of Earth and space sciences at the UW, is quoted. Read More -
2017 Lookback: Earthquake swarm could still be rumbling | Kitsap Sun
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
A swarm of earthquakes that began rumbling beneath Bremerton last spring may not be finished yet, scientists say. Research by Renate Hartog, a seismologist in the UW Department of Earth and space Sciences, is mentioned. Read More -
Partnership will use robotic network to explore Antarctic ice shelves
Monday, December 18, 2017
One of the biggest unknowns for the future of Earth’s climate is Antarctica, where the West Antarctic Ice Sheet holds so much ice that if it collapsed could bring several feet of rising seas.
A new partnership between the University of Washington’s College of the Environment, the UW Applied Physics Laboratory and Paul G. Allen Philanthropies will use a robotic network to observe the conditions beneath a floating Antarctic ice shelf.
This sketch shows how self-driving Seagliders and floats will track conditions below an Antarctic ice shelf. Inside these caves, warmer saltwater flows in on the bottom, carrying heat which may eat away at the ice, and fresher glacial meltwater flows out above.University of Washington
Ice shelves act as buttresses that restrain the flow of inland ice into the sea, which under a warmer climate could trigger many feet of global sea level rise, on a timeline that is largely unknown. Observations in the water-filled caves under ice shelves could help explain how warmer seawater interacts with the glacier’s underbelly.
The team members performed a final test Nov. 6 in Puget Sound before the instruments are deployed in the Southern Ocean from a Korean research ship, the R/V Araon, that departs from New Zealand in mid-December.
“A project as experimental as this one would be impossible without the support of Paul G. Allen Philanthropies,” said Craig Lee, a UW professor of oceanography and oceanographer at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory. “This is a high-risk, proof-of-concept test of using robotic technology in a very risky marine environment.”
The ice shelf is the floating portion of a glacier that extends seaward from inland ice, which rests on bedrock. Most of Antarctica does not yet show significant surface melt, but scientists think melt is happening at the glacier’s underbelly, where relatively warm ocean water meets its underside. What is learned with this new data will help scientists better understand the stability of these ice shelves and help make predictions about sea level rise.
See also:
- “Undersea drones dive below Antarctica’s ice” | Paul G. Allen Foundation
- GeekWire: “Scientists get robots ready to study Antarctic ice shelves from below, with $2M boost from Paul Allen“
- Seattle Times: “UW's robotic fleet will probe under Antarctic ice shelves for clues to future sea-level rise“
- Scientific American: “Ice-diving drones embark on risky Antarctic mission“
“This is one of a series of philanthropic investments by Paul Allen to improve our understanding of how the Earth is changing and how it’s being impacted by climate change,” said Spencer Reeder, director of climate and energy for Paul G. Allen Philanthropies.
UW oceanographers invented the Seaglider in the mid-1990s, with support from the National Science Foundation, and still build research models of the torpedo-shaped ocean drone. UW researchers adapted the Seaglider for operating under ice, and have been using it to sample below Arctic sea ice since 2008. In 2014, Lee used a Seaglider and other technology in the Arctic Ocean to track the breakup of summer sea ice.
UW researcher Jason Gobat, in the foreground, lowers a Seaglider into Puget Sound for an early November test. Three custom Seagliders will travel in December to explore the water below an Antarctic ice shelf.Paul G. Allen Philanthropies
This new project will deploy a similar robotic network in the Southern Hemisphere. The environment is more challenging because the instruments must venture into the ocean cavities formed by ice shelves, which are very complex, but largely unknown, environments.
“We have almost no information about the area where the glacier is floating on top of the ocean,” said glaciologist Knut Christianson, a UW assistant professor of Earth and space sciences. “The ice is 300 to 500 meters (1/5 to 1/3 of a mile) thick. There’s no light penetrating, it’s impossible to communicate with any instruments, and this environment is extremely hard on equipment -- picture big crevasses, rushing water and jagged ice.”
This effort included figuring out how to develop gliders that can get in and out from the ice sheet’s edge without being crushed by moving ice, swept away by fast-flowing water or trapped in the complex of ridges and crevasses on the ice shelf's underside.
This UW-designed autonomous float drifts with the current while changing its buoyancy to move up and down through the water. Four of these instruments will be released below an Antarctic ice shelf.Paul G. Allen Philanthropies
This year’s test also will use complementary technology designed by James Girton, an oceanographer at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory, which drifts with the currents while moving up and down gathering data.
The team has devised new navigation algorithms for the Seaglider and tested them in simulations to make sure the instrument can navigate and return safely. The plan is for the gliders to initially travel in and out of a cave several times a day in summer, surfacing between each trip to beam data back to shore.
Once the ocean surface freezes for the Southern Hemisphere winter, the robots will continue to take measurements on their own, and will beam data back only when they emerge months later in the spring.
“We’ve never been able to get really deep into an ice cave, where the floating ice shelf meets the seafloor,” Christianson said. “If we can do that, we'll be able to collect tons of new data. We often don’t even know what the topography of the seafloor is like beneath the shelf, which affects water flow, temperature and other factors that control the melting rate.”
Team member Pierre Dutrieux, a glaciologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, has used other technologies to gather more limited observations below ice shelves. He and Jason Gobat, an oceanographer at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory, will travel to Antarctica in December for the first deployments under Pine Island Glacier, if conditions allow, or another nearby extension of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. They plan to deploy three gliders and four floats and leave them down for a period of about a year.
The Korean Polar Research Institute (KORPI) is also partnering for this mission. KOPRI will provide field support for the deployments from its ice breaking research vessel Araon, will conduct complementary measurements from the ship and will collaborate on the subsequent analysis of the resulting data.
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For more information, contact Lee at craiglee@uw.edu or Christianson at knut@uw.edu.
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