Antarctica Research Looks for Clues about Climate Change, Mars

01/21/2016

Media contacts: Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu and Christine Gillette, 978-934-2209 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu

LOWELL, Mass. – UMass Lowell scientists lived in tents and braved frigid temperatures in Antarctica for six weeks to study the landscape for clues into past climates on Earth and the terrain on Mars.

A research team led by Andover resident Kate Swanger, an assistant professor in UMass Lowell’s Department of Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, recently returned from Antarctica where the scientists studied the age and impact of buried ice and geological features known as “water tracks.”

The work hopes to shed light on Antarctica’s climate thousands of years ago – not only to better understand the Earth’s history but also to learn more about Mars. As is the case in Antarctica, buried ice and water tracks, which are moist areas of soil that direct groundwater downhill, are found on the Red Planet.

While conducting their work, the team endured temperatures that averaged 15 below zero to 5 degrees Fahrenheit and a sandstorm of 60 mph winds. In a land where the sun never sets, they often struggled to keep track of the day, date and time. The bitter cold also made it difficult for them to cook their meals and maintain a supply of drinking water that did not turn to ice.

The coldest place on Earth, Antarctica is classified as a desert because it rarely rains or snows there. When there is snow, it never completely melts and instead forms ice that builds up over thousands of years. As a result, 98 percent of the continent is covered in ice. However, in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region where the researchers lived, ice on the ground is scarce but is plentiful underneath it.

Though abundant in wildlife, the continent is considered a pristine environment by scientists because so few people live there. As such, it is an ideal place to study the history of climate change, the researchers say.

“It’s important to understand these climate fluctuations where we don’t have humans in the mix in order to separate out what is natural and what is man-made,” Swanger said. 

The team drilled for samples of buried ice, used ground-penetrating radar to determine the depth of the ice and collected soils to determine their chemistry and influence on the local ecosystem – all while guarding against hypothermia and working in thick, protective outerwear that made it difficult for them to move. Time-lapse photography allowed the team to study how often liquid water flows from the normally frozen glaciers.

The water tracks that the scientists encountered in Antarctica appear similar to geological features NASA identified last fall as being the first definitive sign of flowing water on Mars, according to Kelsey Winsor, a UMass Lowell post-doctoral researcher from Lowell who is a member of the team.

“Should NASA one day send crews to Mars, the astronauts would need a water supply and they might be able to get it by mining buried ice,” Winsor said. “And the more we know about the water tracks, the better we’ll understand the Martian hydrologic system.”   

The trip is the second research mission Swanger has led to Antarctica in a year, both funded through a $331,000 National Science Foundation grant.

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