glacier research
glacier research
Glaciologist Bethan Davies describes what glaciers are, discusses her field work, and considers the effects of glacial retreat.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Transcript
BETHAN DAVIES: Hi, my name is Bethan Davies. And I'm a glaciologist. I study glaciers and how they've changed both today and in the past and how they're going to change in the future. I work on glaciers in lots of different places. I've worked on glaciers in Antarctica, so I've done three expeditions to Antarctica. Pretty much any glacier, I'm up for working on. And the main projects I'm doing at the moment are at Alaska, Antarctica, the Andes, and Austria.
Going to Antarctica is a real privilege. When I go to Antarctica, I am deployed deep field. And I've been deployed from a ship and from a research base. The research bases are like little towns. So if you go to Rothera, you've got your main building which has your rec area. It has a cafeteria. It has science laboratories. And it has the accommodation which would be dormitories or bunk beds in paired rooms. The bedrooms are pretty comfortable. I've stayed in hotels that were not as nice as Rothera.
We also have the airport at Rothera. There's a medical center. There's a gym. There's the recreational area where you can watch films or perhaps make music, which is quite popular. People often make little bands and make music together. We don't really have internet and things like that in Antarctica, you can't call home very easily, unless you use a satellite phone.
All of my expeditions to Antarctica have been deep field. A lot of my work's been really focused on trying to pinpoint the exact moment in time when glaciers last were at a particular size. And the way in which we do that is we can visit rocks that have been picked up and moved by the glacier. So my work has really involved quite long days on foot, or ski, or some other form of travel, walking around, looking for rocks that I can then sample, and take back to the laboratory, and date.
When we did our field work on Alexander Island, we were deployed by Twin Otter, so little aeroplanes that can go anywhere, that can land on anything. And what's most clever about them is they can take off on a gravel runway, and then put down little skis, and then land on the snow. Other times I've been deployed by ship, so we didn't actually go to the research base. And then we're camping in Antarctica for weeks at a time, in just a really small group, maybe just three or four of us. I have a radio that allows us to communicate with base. And it's really back to basics simple living. You have a couple of sets of clothes. You have a sleeping bag. You have your tent, that's your home. And you're really disconnected from modern life.
That camping can be fairly cold, or it might not be that cold. It really depends where you are. But remember that Antarctica is a really, really big continent. If you're on the northern parts of the Antarctic Peninsula, then in the summer, it might be above 0 degrees centigrade. So it might be up to 5 degrees centigrade. It might even rain. Camping further south is a lot colder.
So one of my expeditions was to Alexander Island. And that was about minus 20 degrees centigrade when we were camping. It was very much all about the big down jacket and keeping warm, drink lots of warm tea and warm coffee to stay warm. Then if you go further south again, more continental, to the South Pole, it would be a lot colder. And it can be minus 50 or minus 60 degrees centigrade easily at the South Pole.
Mostly, what we're concerned about when we're deep field, getting enough fuel into our bodies to sustain us for the day. It feels somewhere where it's really very cold, there's not going to be any liquid water around. So you have to melt any water that you want to drink. If it's very cold, the only way in which you're going to melt snow to be able to drink it is to cut blocks of snow, put it on a stove in your tent, and then melt it. So when we're in the coldest conditions, we are melting snow pretty much all the time. And by doing that, we have just about enough water to live on, to eat, and to drink.
We're eating dehydrated food. You might have had them when you're camping yourself. They'll come in a little plastic pouch, and you add boiling water, and you stir it all up, and then you eat it. Mostly, we're eating that and chocolate. We get through a lot of chocolate. Chocolate and trail mix go down really well to keep people going in the field.
Going to Antarctica is a real privilege. When I go to Antarctica, I am deployed deep field. And I've been deployed from a ship and from a research base. The research bases are like little towns. So if you go to Rothera, you've got your main building which has your rec area. It has a cafeteria. It has science laboratories. And it has the accommodation which would be dormitories or bunk beds in paired rooms. The bedrooms are pretty comfortable. I've stayed in hotels that were not as nice as Rothera.
We also have the airport at Rothera. There's a medical center. There's a gym. There's the recreational area where you can watch films or perhaps make music, which is quite popular. People often make little bands and make music together. We don't really have internet and things like that in Antarctica, you can't call home very easily, unless you use a satellite phone.
All of my expeditions to Antarctica have been deep field. A lot of my work's been really focused on trying to pinpoint the exact moment in time when glaciers last were at a particular size. And the way in which we do that is we can visit rocks that have been picked up and moved by the glacier. So my work has really involved quite long days on foot, or ski, or some other form of travel, walking around, looking for rocks that I can then sample, and take back to the laboratory, and date.
When we did our field work on Alexander Island, we were deployed by Twin Otter, so little aeroplanes that can go anywhere, that can land on anything. And what's most clever about them is they can take off on a gravel runway, and then put down little skis, and then land on the snow. Other times I've been deployed by ship, so we didn't actually go to the research base. And then we're camping in Antarctica for weeks at a time, in just a really small group, maybe just three or four of us. I have a radio that allows us to communicate with base. And it's really back to basics simple living. You have a couple of sets of clothes. You have a sleeping bag. You have your tent, that's your home. And you're really disconnected from modern life.
That camping can be fairly cold, or it might not be that cold. It really depends where you are. But remember that Antarctica is a really, really big continent. If you're on the northern parts of the Antarctic Peninsula, then in the summer, it might be above 0 degrees centigrade. So it might be up to 5 degrees centigrade. It might even rain. Camping further south is a lot colder.
So one of my expeditions was to Alexander Island. And that was about minus 20 degrees centigrade when we were camping. It was very much all about the big down jacket and keeping warm, drink lots of warm tea and warm coffee to stay warm. Then if you go further south again, more continental, to the South Pole, it would be a lot colder. And it can be minus 50 or minus 60 degrees centigrade easily at the South Pole.
Mostly, what we're concerned about when we're deep field, getting enough fuel into our bodies to sustain us for the day. It feels somewhere where it's really very cold, there's not going to be any liquid water around. So you have to melt any water that you want to drink. If it's very cold, the only way in which you're going to melt snow to be able to drink it is to cut blocks of snow, put it on a stove in your tent, and then melt it. So when we're in the coldest conditions, we are melting snow pretty much all the time. And by doing that, we have just about enough water to live on, to eat, and to drink.
We're eating dehydrated food. You might have had them when you're camping yourself. They'll come in a little plastic pouch, and you add boiling water, and you stir it all up, and then you eat it. Mostly, we're eating that and chocolate. We get through a lot of chocolate. Chocolate and trail mix go down really well to keep people going in the field.