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Experimental validation of a linear numerical model for the water wave scattering by a compliant floating elastic disk, F. Montiel, F. Bonnefoy, L. G. Bennetts, V. A. Squire, P. Ferrant and P. Marsault, The 26th International Workshop of Water Waves & Floating Bodies, Athens, Greece, 2011.
Antifreeze proteins in the Antarctic springtail, Gressittacantha terranova, T. C. Hawes, C. J. Marshall and D. A. Wharton, J Comp Physiol B, 2011, DOI 10.1007/s00360-011-0564-4.
Clilverd, M A, C J Rodger, S Dietrich, T Raita, Th Ulich, E Clarke, A W P
Thomson, and A J Kavanagh, High latitude geomagnetically induced current
events observed on very low frequency radio wave receiver systems, Radio
Sci., 45(2), RS2006, doi:10.1029/2009RS004215, 2010.
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The University is extremely well placed to conduct research on systems and species in a great variety of marine habitants, and it has ready access to Antarctica.
These advantages have been complemented by developments in staffing, research facilities (which include a research vessel and marine laboratory) and in research and teaching activities that have strengthened and broadened over the years.
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My friend said “You are a true glaciologist if you actually love spending all summer at -15 ⁰C in a freezer working with ice.” Another one said “Now that you have spent two and a half months of your life time at -15 ⁰C preserving your body, you must live 2 years longer!” We will see… the work that I did in the cold room was actually not easy on my body, because I went through 40 ⁰C temperature changes several times during the day exiting and re-entering the freezer! But the cold was invigorating and the work inspiring.
From May to July this year I went to Belgium for a research visit. We (my primary supervisor Sean Fitzsimons and I, his Ph.D. student Inka Koch) shipped ice cores and sediment-rich ice samples half way around the globe from an Antarctic ice shelf to a freezer in Brussels, Belgium. Professor Jean Louis Tison and staff of the Laboratoire de Glaciologie at the Université Libre de Bruxelles kindly offered the use of their excellent cold room facilities to us to analyse my ice samples.
These facilities are fantastic since they contain (a) a really fancy diamond wire saw that can cut through ice and rocks without creating heat melting the ice, and (b) an automatic analyser to determine ice crystal direction optically – this machine reduces analytical time from ~1 day manual work to 40 Minute run time of the machine! I felt spoilt since I heard many glaciologists moan about the traditionally tedious task of determining ice crystal orientation crystal by crystal using a total stage that allows for 360⁰ rotation of a sample in all directions. And typically there can be around 50 – 100 ice crystals in one thin section of ice (~5 x 8 cm)! Fortunately, all I needed to do in Brussels was to prepare thin sections of ice using either their microtome (geological ‘shaver’) or their diamond wire saw for sediment-rich ice and feed them into the automatic analyser … and pixel by pixel it would give me results using an algorithm that translated photographs of ice crystals, illuminated under cross-polarized light from 8 light sources installed at different angles, into the orientation of the ice crystals. This information will help me to determine the formation and deformation of the sampled ice shelf ice. Ultimately I would like to understand how sediment gets included into this ice at the ice shelf base. This work is part of a puzzle to understand moraine formation at the Southern McMurdo Ice Shelf in Antarctica.
Not only was the work in the freezer in Brussels faster than in the old days but it was also very rewarding! Thin sections of ice under cross-polarized light look like a piece of art! Depending on the thickness of the sections, ice crystals appear in shades of blue, red and violet. Marine ice – the type of basal ice shelf ice that I was getting the most – looks particularly beautiful. There would be elongated ice crystals all parallel to each other in similar shades of red or blue, or a potpourri of crystals oriented in different directions of different sizes and shapes in a firework of colours! I felt like a little girl in a candy store, unwrapping sweets. Never would I know what I was going to get, but every time it was incredibly beautiful! I would never have thought that the repetitive work of cutting ice, and thinning it down with a microtome to sub-millimetre thickness would stimulate my artistic side in the end! Belgian chocolates helped to keep focused during the day and a cold Belgian beer at the end of a hard working day tasted amazing.
Hence, Belgium was a great environment to be a happy freezer student! When not spending time in the freezer in Brussels, I was checking my data or reporting progress. This improved my knowledge of French glaciological terms so my brain got a real work out! All in all, I made useful connections during my research stay, had great feed-back from leading scientists in my field of research and their graduate students, generated a large amount of good quality data, picked up new practical skills and looked at my Ph.D. work from a different perspective in many ways, including geographically. Thank you to everybody that helped making this possible and supported me during this busy but joyful time and the Polar Environmental Research Theme to provide financial assistance!
Along with my MSc supervisor Sean Fitzsimons, I recently attended the International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences (ISAES) which was held in Edinburgh from the 10-16th July. We were joined for a few days at the end of the week by PhD student Inka Koch, who was busy in Brussels analysing ice samples. ISAES was hosted by the University of Edinburgh, and organized with assistance from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the British Geological Survey (BGS). The symposium brought together over 500 Polar Earth Scientists from around the world to exchange perspectives and information on topics including recently discovered underwater volcanoes, glacial processes, and climate trends. ISAES provided an ideal opportunity for me to present and discuss the findings from my investigation into salt deposits in the Hobbs Glacier region. In addition, Sean presented a very informative keynote lecture for the Glacial Geology session titled: “Glacial geology and landform evolution beneath and at the margins of cold‐based glaciers”.
An aspect of the symposium that I found particularly useful was a session hosted by the Association for Early Career Polar Scientists (APECS). In this meeting, young researchers interacted with a panel of experienced academics and influential scientists from research organisations and universities, including Professor Mahlon Kennicutt II, President of SCAR. The session provided an ideal opportunity for prospective and early career researchers to ask hard questions, seek career advice and to gain an insight as to what a future in Polar Research might entail. Overall, the session provided a well-rounded perspective of the benefits and difficulties faced by Polar Researchers and some key pointers to succeeding in science, such as passion and dedication for your research. Other highlights of the symposium included an opening evening held at Our Dynamic Earth, a conference dinner, distillery trip, and plenty of opportunity to network and enjoy the culture of Edinburgh city.
Overall, the symposium served as an excellent end to my MSc studies, allowed me to present research to an International audience, explore further research opportunities, make new friends and make well informed career decisions. I would like to thank the Polar Environments and Active Earth Processes Themes at University of Otago, the Trans-Antarctic Association and the New Zealand Federation for Graduate Women for providing grants and awards which allowed me to attend the symposium.
This week's Nature issue features articles on the Arctic sea-ice, following last winter's highest temperature ever recorded. This is worth having a look at!