From boulder to Beryllium. The journey of a glacially deposited #Antarctic rock destined for cosmogenic dating 🧊🪨✨.
A whole lot of time in the lab, and no small amount of geochemical wizardry 🧙♂️. The past life of a glacier waiting to be uncovered.
Adélie penguin chills by one of our two flubbers, which store the melted snow for hot water drilling.
Adelie takes the hot seat in the Hot Water Driller’s chair!
In the Mess tent, Skua does what skuas do, eyes on the prize—food scraps! (Skua stuffie sitting by the food waste bins.)
Then it’s off to check out “The Turdis”—one of our two toilets. (Skua stuffie sitting on top of the blue outhouse called the Turdis.)
❄️Our mascots still need names! ❄️
🐧They’ll be doing seriously cool 😎science 🧪& we’re inviting students to help name them!
📝 Deadline extended to Dec 31
💡Get involved in real science & learn about what’s happening at the end of the Earth.
#antarctica #STEAM #scienceeducation #scienceed
Me, the great and wonderful whillans ice stream at AGU24 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm3301
Finally arrived at #AGU24 ... where is everyone? 🙂
Why does an ice stream go stagnant? ⬇️
When Kamb stopped moving. The crevasses of its shear margin remained. Then, new layers of accumulation covered the crevasses.
Don't underestimate the power of hydrology in Antarctica!
/end
So, why the buried crevasses? Unlike most glaciers, we ice streams are not bound by topography. We are simply surrounded by slower ice.
You can find our edges by looking for a bunch of crevasses, where the shear between us and the surrounding ice causes ice to fracture. /5
Ice velocity of the Siple Coast from AntarcticGlaciers.org. Ice Stream C (Kamb) moves very slowly compared to the neighboring ice streams. I also look really good in this picture.
But then Kamb lost their basal water lubrication, bringing them to (essentially) a grinding halt. /4
But hydrology is cruel, and the high of being an ice stream has an expiration date 😥 ... at least where I am in the Siple Coast.
I remember when Kamb had a spring in their step... bragging about how they'd "live FOR-EVAAH!" <--- (their words, btw) /3
For ice streams, it's all about that sweet, sweet water. The deformation of ice is painfully slow, so some water lubrication at our base makes us move faster.
The breeze in our firn is so refreshing. Normal glaciers don't know what they're missing. /2
A very nerdy meme showing a radar profile of the Kamb ice stream that indicates the presence of buried crevasses. Below, is Peter Parker sayin "how'd that get in there?" from Spider-Man 2
Ice streams come and ice streams go. My neighbor, Kamb ice stream, has been stagnant for a very long time. 🧵 ⚒️ 🥼❄️
I somehow have a bunch of new followers by simply posting nothing, so hey, I'll reintroduce myself!
I'm an ice stream of West Antarctica. My emotional support ice shelf is Ross. I'm like... really fast, thanks to a bunch of water under me.
www.antarcticglaciers.org/glacier-proc...
I'm still alive btw, I've just been doing glacier things you humans wouldn't understand
Beneath me there are sediments. And beneath those sediments there are more sediments. And in the pores of those sediments, there is water. That water may influence how I flow 😎 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Beneath me there are sediments. And beneath those sediments there are more sediments. And in the pores of those sediments, there is water. That water may influence how I flow 😎 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Sorry for the inactivity, everyone. I've been busy doing ✨glacier things✨. You humans simply wouldn't understand.
A bunch of satellite images of Antarctica squished together to reveal the entire continent. There is an arrow that points to the Siple Coast (my home) which is on the West Antarctic side of the Ross Sea. Remote sensing is one of those things scientists do to observe Antarctica from above. This image wouldn't exist without remote sensing. Otherwise, I would have to hand-draw picture of Antarctica; which would be bad for everyone because I don't have any hands.
In case you're wondering where exactly I live, it's right about here. It's called Siple Coast! The ice I am now made of came from the West Antarctic ice sheet, and that ice will soon become part of the Ross Ice Shelf.
I'd shout-out Ross Sea, but they don't have social media :(
So what am I, a humble ice stream, doing on social media?
A bunch of scientists do science on me (and in the sediments of my subglacial lakes) to understand the future and past of me! (and Antarctica)!
I'm here to share that science with you all! And promote the smart people who do that science.
As an ice stream, moving slow isn't my thing unfortunately. And a bunch of scientists are trying to find my secrets.
The odds are stacked against me.
You may be asking yourself: how can an ice stream in Antarctica use Bluesky? Like... is there even wifi in Antarctica? Well, to answer your question: none of your business. I'm here now, and I'm going to use this platform to tell my story.
....how does one get followers anyway?