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Feature - Thawing out history in the Antarctic

Local scientist studying global climate change from the bottom up

Underneath carpenter Peter Glenday’s mild-mannered exterior lies the heart and soul of an adventurer.

This passion, and university training in computer science and geography, has taken the Whistler resident to Antarctica twice as a volunteer on scientific missions to map climate change.

"It is an adventure," said Glenday, frosting the ground at his feet with fine sawdust as he moved in his chair.

"But it is also the opportunity to do something very few people get to do."

Glenday returned from his latest trip to Antarctica last December.

He volunteered as the team leader for a scientific mission with the University of Illinois in Chicago to withdraw sediment samples from the bottom of polar lakes.

The samples will be thawed and investigated next month.

"There will be an analysis of the layers," said Glenday.

"So there can be some understanding of rate of processes."

It’s not unlike looking at the rings of a tree. By studying the rings experts can speculate on what caused great growth and what hindered it.

The layers in the ice and those from the sediment beneath – amazingly there is sludge at the bottom of these frozen desert lakes – can help scientists understand what was going on in the environment at the time the layers were laid down.

It is likely the core samples taken during the expedition Glenday was on date back 25,000 years.

"We can take that project data and more accurately forecast what is going to happen," said Glenday.

"If anything is going to happen with global climate change it is going to happen there first."

In a similar project some time ago on the Antarctic’s Lake Vida, the ice cores contained several layers of microbes clustered into mats.

Incredibly these came to life when thawed. These microbes were in ice 12 metres below the surface and are around 2,800 years old.

Lake Vida and the three lakes Glenday’s team investigated, Lake Hoare, Lake Bonney and Lake Fryxell are all in the Dry Valleys near the coast of Antarctica, where less than 10 centimetres of snow fall all year and temperatures can drop to minus 30 degrees Celsius.

But it is not just climate change which is of interest to these scientific explorers. The data collected may prove useful to the U.S. space program, as conditions found in the Antarctic and its lakes may be similar to those found on Mars and other planets.

The research is part of a decade long project partially funded by the National Science Foundation and termed the Long Term Ecological Research project.

The lead scientist on Glenday’s team, Dr. Peter Doran, is a principal investigator on the LTER.

Many teams of scientists head to the Antarctic to study a variety of things.

Glenday’s team had four scientists with it. He was responsible for making sure everything they could possibly need went out with them to the research sites from the main base at McMurdo. The main form of transport is helicopter.

Not only does everything go out it also has to come back.

"They are very concerned about having as little impact on the environment as possible," said Glenday, whose expenses are all covered out of expedition funds.

Everyone has to pee in a bottle, no matter where you are, and all waste has to be lifted out, along with all other gear.

"You’ve got to be smart about things, no question," said Glenday.

From the sounds of it there isn’t much you can’t get in McMurdo. There are three bars and an expert in just about everything from mechanics to cooking.

And there are lots of outdoor recreational activities and history to explore. Not far from McMurdo the huts of Antarctic explorers Robert Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton can be found.

But facing history can be spine-tingling.

"It is creepy," said Glenday.

"You can be standing in the same place as you were years before and everything looks exactly the same. That rock hasn’t moved or changed.

"And I think of (other explorers) dragging sleds around and seeing the same things, well, it’s an incredible thought."

All research team members who haven’t been there before have to go to "Happy Camper" school to learn about survival in the Antarctic.

But, said Glenday, the greatest risk really comes form the psychology of being so far from home in such a remote place.

"You can call home, but you can’t get away from the vastness of the place," said Glenday searching for words to describe the isolation that can set in and sap the will.

"You can’t judge scale. You stand and look at exactly the same thing for six weeks.

"It is incredibly beautiful but it is hard to describe because it is like no other place."

Glenday will be travelling back next year and plans to finish his PhD as part of the trip.

While loath to call his trips "adventure science" he said there is no doubt that they have offered him opportunities and experiences he will cherish for his whole life.

He would love for others to get the same experience.

"I wish when I was younger, as a teen, that I knew these opportunities were out there for people in physical sciences," said Glenday.

"It is science on a grand scale. It is really incredible.

"Maybe some one will read this and be intrigued and find their way to university or college and then into something like this where they can not only do good for themselves but for science as well."



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