The Larsen C ice shelf break has sparked groundbreaking research
canada goose store In 2015, glaciologist Daniela Jansen reported that a large Canada Goose Online rift was rapidly growing across one of the Antarctic Peninsula’s ice shelves, known as Larsen C. When the shelf broke, she and colleagues predicted, it would be the largest calving event in decades. canada goose store
canada goose black friday sale It was. In July, a Delaware sized iceberg split off from Larsen C (SN: 8/5/17, p. 6). And canada goose store researchers knew practically the moment it happened. Jansen, of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany, and glaciologist Adrian Canada Goose online Luckman of Swansea University in Wales were among the MIDAS team members who reported their observations on the team’s blog. canada goose black friday sale
To the scientists’ surprise, the news media, Canada Goose Outlet perhaps anticipating a climate change moment, began to track the trackers. When canada goose uk shop interviewed, the researchers repeatedly noted that ice shelves calve naturally, and that any link between the new rift and climate change is complicated at best. But the crescendo of public interest still rose, particularly during the spring and summer of 2017 as the final break loomed.
canadian goose jacket DRIFTING OFF By mid September, the southern canada goose coats edge of the iceberg calved from Larsen C had shifted about 18 kilometers from the rest of the ice sheet. Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA (CC BY SA 3.0 IGO)” DRIFTING OFF By mid September, the southern edge of the iceberg calved from Larsen C had shifted about 18 kilometers from the rest of the ice sheet. Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA (CC BY SA 3.0 IGO)” canadian goose jacket
Although canada goose surprised by the press frenzy, Jansen says she understands why people were so captivated by the big break: “It’s just an amazing thing. Even if people are not into polar research, it’s fascinating to see it and think about the dimensions of it.”Public interest may have plummeted in the aftermath of the split, but scientists are buy canada goose jacket cheap eager to start on the next chapter, Luckman says. “Now we want to understand how the ice shelf will react to this calving canada goose factory sale event.”
Canada Goose Outlet By the end of 2017, the race to the southernmost continent was on. It’s the first time that researchers have been able to put boots on the ground so quickly after a massive calving event, and they have a lot of questions. Some scientists plan to assess the stability buy canada goose jacket of the remaining ice shelf, others will map the region’s seafloor topography and still others want to study the newly exposed ecosystem that’s been hidden from the sun for up to 120,000 years (SN Online: 10/13/17). Canada Goose Outlet
Canada Goose online It’s an unprecedented opportunity, Luckman says. “We’ve never had such tools as we have now to really measure what happens after big calving events.” The last time a large iceberg calved from Antarctica was in 2002, when a chunk about half the size of the Larsen C iceberg calved from a different ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula, Larsen B (SN: 3/30/02, p. 197). Canada Goose online
canada goose coats “We just didn’t have the satellite data to really see what would happen next,” Luckman says. Now, he says, scientists have both vastly superior satellite monitoring capabilities and computer simulations to predict how the remaining ice will behave after the loss of so much mass. Current simulations suggest that the truncated ice shelf will react to this change by flowing faster into the ocean, which will also lead to more calving. canada goose coats
To improve those simulations, Luckman says, scientists Canada Goose Coats On Sale need to directly measure changes in canada goose black friday sale the ice shelf, particularly while it is still in its initial response phase. In November, a team uk canada goose led by the University of Leeds in England was the first to journey to the peninsula. To map out subsurface structures in the ice, the researchers conducted geophysical surveys, including using ground penetrating radar, on the still intact part of Canada Goose sale the ice shelf. Using GPS, the team also monitored the shelf’s movements.
canada goose clearance sale Another team of scientists, led by cheap canada goose uk marine biologist Katrin Linse of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, is preparing for a separate voyage to the ice shelf in February. Linse and colleagues’ mission is to learn what was living on the seafloor in the shadow of the ice. What creatures might inhabit that region is a bit of a mystery. Linse says she expects to find something similar to ecosystems found in the deep sea a dark, extremely food sparse environment with no plant life. Such environments can spawn odd creatures, such as carnivorous sponges and bivalves that snatch at the tiniest sources of food to survive. But it’s also possible that the team will find nothing living there at all, she says. canada goose clearance sale
Meanwhile, the new Larsen C iceberg, now dubbed A68, is still in the picture and could present a navigational headache. As of October, the southern edge of the berg was about 25 to 30 kilometers from the shelf, canadian goose jacket offering a research ship some wiggle room to examine the seafloor, Linse says. But the northern edge was still just two kilometers away, a gap much too close for comfort.
buy canada goose jacket But the headache is worth it, as the researchers may canada goose coats on sale have little time to examine that ecosystem before it begins to change. Now that sunlight can penetrate the canada goose uk outlet waters, microalgae will quickly begin to grow, providing an abundant food source uk canada goose outlet to any seafloor denizens and cheap Canada Goose an enticement to new colonizers. In one to three years, species such as krill may become abundant. After canada goose clearance sale several more years or even decades, there may be enough food to support top predators such as penguins, seals and whales. buy canada goose jacket
canada goose clearance Scientists have previously documented a recently exposed Antarctic seafloor ecosystem only after it was already Canada Goose Jackets in transition. In 2007, marine ecologist Julian Gutt of the Alfred Wegener Institute led an expedition to the Larsen B ice shelf to study the seafloor that had emerged from its ice shadow five years earlier. The researchers found strange new species, but also discovered that some pioneering critters had already moved in (SN: 9/7/13, p. 11). canada goose clearance
Canada Goose Jackets Gutt plans to return to the region in 2019. That expedition, led by Alfred Wegener Institute scientists, originally planned to map the seafloor along canada goose uk black friday the Antarctic Peninsula. Now the project will include time to study the biodiversity of canada goose outlet the seafloor at Larsen C, as well as a return to Larsen B nearly 20 years after its big break, he says. Canada Goose Jackets
“Each species occurring under the former ice shelf would be interesting,” Gutt says, “because the question is, how can they survive under such unusual conditions?”
In fact, whatever the researchers find even if it’s nothing Linse says she will consider her mission a success: “If no communities could thrive, that would be a very https://www.getcanadagooseoutlet.com interesting result because I expect to find life there.”
Canada Goose sale The vigil over the Larsen C break may be over, but for Antarctic scientists, the aftermath is taking on a life of its own. Canada Goose sale
canada goose C. Gramling. When the Larsen C ice shelf broke, it exposed a hidden world. Science News Online, October 13, 2017. canada goose
canada goose coats on sale A. Yeager. Delaware sized iceberg breaks off Antarctic ice shelf. Science News. Vol. 192, August 5, 2017, p. 6. canada goose coats on sale
Canada Goose Parka T. Sumner. Crack in Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf forks. Science News Online, May 2, 2017. Canada Goose Parka
buy canada goose jacket cheap T. Sumner. Fast spreading crack threatens giant Antarctic ice shelf. Science News. Vol. 188, July 25, 2015, p. 8. buy canada goose jacket cheap
canada goose deals J. Shugart. Sponges boom thanks to Antarctic ice shelf bust. Science News. Vol. 184, September 7, 2013, p. 11. canada goose deals
S. Perkins. All cracked up from the heat? Major hunk of an Antarctic ice shelf shatters and drifts away. Science News. Vol. 161, March 30, 2002, p. 197.
