Professor of Geology Christine Siddoway set sail from Punta Arenas, Chile, on Jan. 24, heading for Antarctica as part of the International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 379. The expedition is dedicated to obtaining records and data from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Amundsen Sea.<\/p>\n
The expedition will provide important clues into the future of ice sheet change, the geological foundations, and the future of climate-human convergence, because the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will play a critical role in future sea level rise. If melted as a result of climate change, scientific estimates widely report that the global sea levels could see a rise of 10.8 to 14.1 feet (3.3 to 4.3 meters).<\/p>\n
\u201cThat amount of sea level rise will have immediate consequences for large populations that live in coastal areas, for food growing around the world, and for the way our governments and international relations can maintain a harmonious, peaceful environment, or on the other hand, shift into a period of strife,\u201d says Siddoway.<\/p>\n
One of 30 scientists from around the world on the expedition, Siddoway, with her career of research into structural geology, brings over two decades of expertise to the team. Her most recent relevant experience comes from her work as a member of the ROSETTA Ice Project \u2014 an association of scientists from Colorado College, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Institute, the Scripps Oceanographic Institute, and the nonprofit Earth Space Research \u2014 which gathers together scientists from across five disciplines.<\/p>\n
The ROSETTA Ice Project is a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional project focused on the Ross Ice Shelf, examining changes to the area as a result of climate change.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe innovative and difficult challenge of this research, being part of this team, is that it requires us to genuinely work together \u2014 from across multiple institutions and different fields \u2014 learning the content of vastly unrelated fields in respect to pressing scientific questions to find a unified narrative. It\u2019s hard work,\u201d says Siddoway, who researches mountain building and continental evolution.<\/p>\n
ROSETTA Ice is among the first to bring contemporary remote sensing methods to the ice sheet region, using airborne gravity magnetism, core sampling, lidar (remote sensing using light), and a variety of others \u2014 the most critical being ice-penetrating radar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Antarctic ice sheet in some locations, where the thick ice floats upon ocean water, is undergoing very rapid change, with continental ice moving into the sea, breaking off of the continent and melting in the sea,\u201d Siddoway says. \u201cEach time a rapid event like that happens there is a consequence for sea level and our climate system, because ocean water is\u00a0the<\/em>\u00a0biggest factor in global climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n Siddoway has been incorporating CC into her Antarctic research since she arrived at the college, regularly taking students there for fieldwork.<\/p>\n \u201cCurrently, we\u2019re working with three CC students [and recent grads] on the ROSETTA Ice Project,\u00a0Zoe Krauss \u201919<\/strong>,\u00a0Matt Tankersley \u201918<\/strong>, and\u00a0Alec Lockett \u201917,<\/strong>\u201d says Siddoway. Lockett joined Siddoway on field data collection trips in both 2016 and 2017. In the coming summer, Jonny Norwine \u201921<\/strong> and Sarah Packard \u201921<\/strong> will join in the research.<\/p>\n \u201cThese students, while not directly in the field with me right now, are getting a true virtual reality experience of Antarctica because of all the fundamental knowledge we\u2019ve gained over two decades of research,\u201d explains Siddoway.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t just see a flat, white, windy, cold featureless surface, they see layers and layers of information we can examine together, moving up and down from atmosphere through ice through ocean and into the bedrock.\u201d<\/p>\n Antarctic field research is unlike any other field research, explains Siddoway.<\/p>\n \u201cYou work two shifts; there are 24 hours of daylight, so you can work around the clock. The student or students who\u2019re doing research, along with myself, are having such a different experience to any other on the planet \u2013 literally!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n