Feature Radio Show

Ice Core Drilling in Greenland

Host Intro: Professor Jim White directs the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, and he’s a professor of geological sciences and environmental studies at the University of Colorado.

Professor White is also a paleoclimatologist — in other words, he studies ancient climates in attempt to understand better how Earth’s climate system works. He has just journeyed back to Boulder from the Greenland ice sheet, where he has been part of an international science team working on the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling project, or NEEM.

After two summers of work, the NEEM team has drilled down more than 1.5 miles through the Greenland ice sheet, reaching bedrock just last week. And the ice core Jim White and his colleagues have recovered is from what’s known as the Eemian interglacial period, from 115,000 to 130,000 years ago.

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Martian Life — LESLIE READS
Researchers have discovered evidence of ancient hot springs on Mars where life may once have thrived.

The scientists have discovered that minerals in the Nili Fossae region of the Red Planet are a “dead ringer” — their words — for deposits in Australia associated with ancient fossils called stromatolites.

The Australian fossils, located in the Pilbara region, are the remains of layered structures built by micro-organisms some 4 billion years ago. Are there stromatolite fossils, or something similar, on Mars?

Evidence from an instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft suggest that the answer could be ‘yes,’ according to Adrian Brown of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, and leader of the research team.

That instrument revealed that carbonate rocks in the Nili Fossae region formed in a hot springs environment, just as they did in the Pilbara of Australia.

Brown says that the associated hydrothermal activity would have provided sufficient energy for biological activity on early Mars at Nili Fossae.”

And it’s possible that the remains of stromatolite organisms may be preserved at there, just as they are in Australia, Brown argues — especially considering the surprising similarities between the geologic settings and minerals at both sites.

The only way to know for sure whether life once thrived in hot springs at Nili Fossae is for a robotic rover, or perhaps even astronauts, to examine the rocks directly.

Unfortunately, that region of Mars has been removed as a candidate landing spot for a rover mission to the Red Planet that will launch in 2011. NASA deemed the ruggedness of the terrain too dangerous for the lander carrying the rover.

Scientists say it may take two or more decades to develop the ability to safely land an unmanned rover at a site like Nili Fossae.

Phyotoplankton — TOM READS
Half of all the organic matter on our planet is produced by microscopic plants living near the surface of the ocean. 

And if a new study published last Thursday in the journal Nature is right, these phytoplankton are in significant decline as a result of climate change.

The tiny plants are a critical part of Earth’s life-support system, adding oxygen to the atmosphere and removing carbon dioxide.

In fact, every day, photosynthesis by phytoplankton removes more than 100 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. 

The plants are also the base of the marine food chain, providing food for zooplankton, which are in turn eaten by fish.

The new study shows that as the surface of the world’s oceans has heated up due to global warming, the mass of phytoplankton has declined by 1 percent per year since 1899.

Since 1950, the decline in phytoplankton in oceanic surface waters has amounted to a stunning 40 percent, according to the researchers.

In the words of lead author Daniel Boyce, a marine ecologist and doctoral student at Dalhousie University in Canada:

“This is a definite wake-up call that our oceans are becoming increasingly stressed  DELETE THIS?, and this is another indicator of that.”  Climate — LESLIE READS  
A 224-page scientific report released last week documents unmistakable evidence that the world is indeed heating up.

From increasing temperatures in the atmosphere and oceans to rising humidity, and melting of the Earth’s snow and ice, 10 major variables all point in the same direction — toward global warming.

Walt Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center here in Boulder summed up the significance of the changes by saying that:

“From the poles to the equator, from the top of the atmosphere to the bottom of the ocean — things are getting warmer. DELETE THIS? That’s really persuasive evidence.”

According to the report, published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, each of the last three decades has been warmer than the one before it.

Sea surface temperatures have been rising as well, with 1998, 2003, 2005 being the three warmest years since 1950, and 2009 following not far behind.

At the same time, sea level has risen — about 2 to 3 millimeters a year since 2003.

Arctic sea ice has shrunk by about 4 percent a year, and 2008 marked the 18th consecutive year that more ice was lost by the world’s alpine glaciers than was gained.

Meanwhile, in Greenland 34 large glaciers shrank by a total of 100 square kilometers in 2009.

Between 2000 and 2009, the loss of ice from these glaciers totaled almost 1,000 square kilometers — an area equivalent to 11 Manhattan islands.

[This leads into the Jim White segment. See INTRO on the next page.]

MUSIC BREAK
Intro to Jim White — TOM READS

You’re tuned to How on Earth, the KGNU Science Show.  I’m Tom Yulsman, and our guest today has more sobering news about global climate change.  Professor Jim White directs the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, and he’s a professor of geological sciences and environmental studies at the University of Colorado.

Professor White is also a paleoclimatologist — in other words, he studies ancient climates in attempt to understand better how Earth’s climate system works. He has just journeyed back to Boulder from the Greenland ice sheet, where he has been part of an international science team working on the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling project, or NEEM.

Welcome to the program Jim. [Jim responds.]

As I understand it, there is some exciting news to report. After two summers of work, the NEEM team has drilled down more than 1.5 miles through the Greenland ice sheet, reaching bedrock just last week. And the ice core Jim White and his colleagues have recovered is from what’s known as the Eemian interglacial period, from 115,000 to 130,000 years ago. Is that right Jim, and why is this significant?

CLOSE  Jim White directs the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, and he’s a professor of geological sciences and environmental studies at the University of Colorado.

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