See how CO2 and ice growth are closely linked

Read this blogpost about an interesting link between  CO2 and Antarctic ice extent as we reconstructed from sedimentary facies and heavy mineral analysis (Hauptvogel and Passchier, 2012 and Passchier et al., 2011).

Sub-tropical climate and forest in Antarctica

Results from Expedition 318 to the Wilkes Land margin of Antarctica show that Antarctica was warm and that forests were present on its coast some 53 million years ago, when carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was at twice the present levels. During this time, Antarctica was already in near polar position and the study provides important information on the Earth System's sensitivity to climate change. Dr. Passchier participated in this expedition and is a co-author on this study as part of Expedition 318 scientists.
links: BBC News article, Nature abstract.

 The Nathaniel B. Palmer, Our Ice Breaking Research Ship

Brendan and Nadine on Board the Ship, NBP12-03

Latitude: -53.8986
Longitude: -66.0856

My name is Nadine Orejola. I am currently an undergrad student at MSU that was granted the opportunity to participate in LARISSA (Larsen Ice Shelf System Antacrtica) Program on a cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula.  I’m here with Brendan Reilly, an MSU geoscience graduate student, and we will be focusing on Magnetic Susceptibility of sediment cores retrieved from sites located around the Antarctic Peninsula.

We are on our way to Antarctica after 3 days of delay in Punta Arenas, Chile. After yesterday’s departure at 1600 hrs, we moved through the storm driven rocky waters of the Strait of Magellan and are headed south in the Southern Atlantic, hugging the coastline of Tierra del Fuego. We plan to reach the Drake Passage by 2100hrs. We are anticipating our arrival at the first Whale Bone recovery site on Thursday.   After that we hope sea ice conditions are favorable and we can start recovering sediment cores from under the locations of the former Larsen A and B ice shelves.

LARISSA

A new expedition is about to get on its way. Follow Dr. Stefanie Brachfeld's students on their first trip to Antarctica with the LARISSA project.