Today, a large portion of the earth’s population is inward lockdown. During this complicated time, I persuasion it would live a prissy persuasion to accept you lot on a journeying to Antarctica, where nosotros volition larn how long-term climate records are collected together with analyzed. Here nosotros go!
Context
One yr ago, I had the swell chance to sheet on board the JOIDES Resolution for an IODP (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program) Expedition inward Antarctica during my PhD studies. IODP is an international inquiry collaboration plan that coordinates seagoing expeditions to study the history of basis equally recorded inward marine sediments together with rocks or together with hence the world. The JOIDES Resolution Science Operator (JRSO) operates the scientific drillship JOIDES Resolution on behalf of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
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Applying for an expedition is a long process. First, you lot receive got to lead which expedition you lot desire to bring together together with what sort of chore you lot desire to do. I applied to the Expedition 379 (Fig. 1): “Amundsen Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet History”, which was co-led yesteryear Julia Wellner (University of Houston, USA) together with Karsten Gohl (Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany), equally a micropaleontologist to study foraminifera together with ostracods inward the Amundsen Sea. One yr before the expedition was due to leave, I was selected to live constituent of Expedition 379 together with finally, I knew I was going to receive got a fantastic experience inward Antarctica!
I went on Expedition 379 during the 3rd together with lastly yr of my PhD, which focused on the reconstruction of oceanographic together with atmospheric changes inward the Eastern Indian Ocean (NW-Australia) during the Quaternary using marine sediments retrieved inward an before expedition (IODP Exp 356). I applied a multi-proxy approach that included micropaleontology (foraminifera - unicellular organisms which build a calcareous trounce or together with hence them; Fig. 2) together with geochemistry (radiogenic isotopes of Neodymium together with Strontium) to describe the sediment provenance and, particularly, for identifying the Australian continental sediment sources. My go allowed me to clarify the source of the sediment during massive dust storms crossing the whole continent during glacial periods [2].
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| Fig. 2: Some examples of dissimilar foraminifera a) Vaginulopsis sp., b) Planorbulina sp. together with c) Sigmoilopsis schlumbergeri |
Life on board
After preparing my luggage a dozen times, I travelled to Punta Arenas, Republic of Chile (Fig. 3), where the JOIDES Resolution was waiting. One hundred together with seventeen people were onboard the vessel from the 21st of Jan (2019) for ii entire months, without whatever stopovers. During these months nosotros were working 12 hours a day, every solar daytime of the week. This was definitely non a cruise! I was working the black shift from midnight to midday. In the beginning, it was difficult to alter my habit of beingness awake during the solar daytime but subsequently a few days, having breakfast at xi pm together with going to bed or together with hence three pm began to look normal.
Being inward the middle of the Amundsen Sea has its ups together with downs. As constituent of the black shift, I saw all the sunsets together with all the sunrises (if the heaven was clear), together with they were the most beautiful ones I receive got seen inward my life. One of the best experiences was watching sea life! When nosotros were at a drilling site, nosotros didn’t motility for weeks, together with hence nosotros saw plenty of humpback whales swimming or together with hence the boat; sometimes merely a few meters away (Fig. 4) together with some were fifty-fifty breaching!
When you lot are inward Antarctica, of course, you lot are expecting to run into some icebergs together with they were amazing to see, but inward 2019 the release of icebergs introduce inward the Amundsen Sea was TREMENDOUS. Luckily, nosotros had ii H2O ice specialists amongst us, who monitored each iceberg’s trajectory constantly. If 1 of them came inside ii miles of the boat, nosotros had to halt the drilling operations. Even worse, if it came inside 1 mile nosotros had to abandon the drilling hole! Because in that place were together with hence many icebergs, drilling go was “paused” during 50% of the expedition. This large iceberg abundance inward the Amundsen Sea during the austral summertime was mayhap unprecedented together with may receive got been caused yesteryear major calving events of the H2O ice shelves during the lastly 2–3 years [1].
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| Fig. 3: Me standing inward front end of the JOIDES Resolution inward the port of Punta Arenas. © Vivien Cumming |
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| Fig. 4: Photos from the expedition. Left: Me working on identifying foraminifera. © Vivien Cumming. Middle: Humpback whale swimming or together with hence the ship. © Margot Courtillat. Right: One of the numerous icebergs nosotros saw. © Vivien Cumming |
One other large line of piece of employment organization I had amongst beingness at sea for 2 months was worrying: “Am I going to live seasick?“ I practise non know if it was expert luck, but I was non sick at all, fifty-fifty amongst 10 meter tall waves inward the Drake Passage! But if you lot are unremarkably seasick on a ship it does non hateful that you lot shouldn’t apply for an expedition because in that place are some expert treatments – some scientists on board took them to experience good plenty to go amongst success.
Scientific results
Even though the expedition was cutting downwards yesteryear 1 calendar week together with seat on ‘pause’ a lot because of icebergs together with sea ice, it was withal a success! We drilled at ii sites together with retrieved 1086.46 m of sediment dating from the Holocene to piece of cake Miocene, amongst an 85% amount recovery charge per unit of measurement providing us amongst a high-quality record. As a result, nosotros recovered the longest sediment amount from the Antarctic part drilled on a marine platform close a rapidly melting, massive H2O ice sheet together with produced a scientific report.
These ii sites are going to assistance us reconstruct the history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is suspected to receive got previously collapsed together with raised the global sea degree yesteryear several meters [3]. Understanding the H2O ice sheet’s history together with the weather condition of its collapse volition assistance us ameliorate assess how much sea degree mightiness ascent together with how rapidly if it collapses inward the future. This is actually of import for us scientists but also for the global community. In fact, the 2013 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment written report highlighted that if in that place is a substantial increase inward the charge per unit of measurement of sea-level ascent over the side yesteryear side century, it is probable to come upward from marine-based H2O ice similar that inward the Amundsen Sea Embayment [4]. More recently, the IPCC (2018) concluded that marine H2O ice sheet instability inward Antarctica together with the irreversible loss of the Greenland H2O ice sheet could live triggered yesteryear 1.5° to 2°C of global warming together with outcome inward multimeter sea degree ascent over hundreds to thousands of years [1,5].
Conclusions
The expedition took ii months away from working on my PhD, yet it was a expert experience! In damage of work, I learned a lot from beingness constituent of this project, especially equally a PhD student. In fact, your go is considered equal to the senior scientists together with it is e'er really interesting to receive got a scientific conversation amongst them! I also learned how to go inward a large international squad together with how rewarding it tin be.
But this experience was also rich inward human kindness, because to a greater extent than than having novel colleagues, at 1 time I tin also tell that I receive got novel friends!
I would strongly recommend joining an IODP expedition. If you lot are interested inward joining the IODP expedition see the website together with cheque opportunities. Also, don’t hesitate to contact me if you lot receive got questions!
Want to know more?
● During the expedition, I made a French blog to push clitoris solar daytime to solar daytime life on board, but fifty-fifty if you lot don’t read French, you lot tin withal receive got a facial expression at the pictures!
● There is also a actually prissy video that was made yesteryear Vivien Cumming during the expedition, together with explaining the scientific projection inward particular (in English).
● Another video was made onboard well-nigh the diatoms together with their purpose inward the reconstruction of Antarctic history (in English).
● If you lot prefer comics, hither is the website of Karen Romano Young who was an creative soul on board during the expedition.
Margot Courtillat, PhD
Centre of Education together with Research on Mediterranean Environments, Université de Perpignan, France
If you lot receive got questions or comments concerning Margot's post, delight acquire out a comment below, or shipping her an email. You tin also follow her inquiry on ResearchGate or Twitter.
[1] Gohl, K., Wellner, J.S., Klaus, A., together with the Expedition 379 Scientists, 2019. Expedition 379 Preliminary Report: Amundsen Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet History. International Ocean Discovery Program. https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.pr.379.2019
[2] Courtillat, M., Hallenberger, M., Bassetti, M.A., Aubert, D., Jeandel, C., Reuning, L., Korpanty, C., Moissette, P., Mounic, S., Saavedra-Pellitero, M., (submitted). Middle to Late Pleistocene Record of Dust Input during Glacial Periods inward Western Commonwealth of Australia shelf (IODP Expedition 356, Site U1461).
[3] Fretwell, P., Pritchard, H.D., Vaughan, D.G., Bamber, J.L., Barrand, N.E., Bell, R., Bianchi, C., et al., 2013. Bedmap2: improved H2O ice bed, surface together with thickness datasets for Antarctica. The Cryosphere, 7(1):375–393. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-375-2013
[4] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2013. Summary for policymakers. In Stocker, T.F., Qin, D., Plattner, G.-K., Tignor, M., Allen, S.K., Boschung, J., Nauels, A., Xia, Y., Bex, V., together with Midgley, P.M. (Eds.), Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Cambridge, Great Britain (Cambridge University Press), 3–29. http://www.climatechange2013.org/images/report/WG1AR5_SPM_FINAL.pdf
[5] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2018. Summary for policymakers. In Masson-Delmotte, V., Zhai, P., Pörtner, H.-O., Roberts, D., Skea, J., Shukla, P.R., Pirani, A., et al. (Eds.), Global Warming of 1.5°C: Geneva (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/SR15_SPM_version_stand_alone_LR.pdf