Expedition to study climate change
MUMBAI: Victoria University of Wellington geologist Dr Rob Mckay is leading an international expedition to Antarctic waters in January to discover how warming oceans will affect the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and what that could mean for rising sea levels, global weather systems and marine life.
An associate professor at Victoria’s Antarctic Research Centre, Dr McKay will head a 30-member team of scientists from the International Ocean Discovery Programme (IODP) on the JOIDES Resolution, a 140m long scientific research ship operated by the IODP.
“We plan to spend nine and a half weeks down in the outer Ross Sea to drill six geological drill sites—each of which could be up to a kilometre below the sea floor,” said Dr McKay. “We want to understand how the ocean and the ice sheets interact. So what happens when you put warm water next to the ice sheets? Do they melt? If so, how quickly do they melt? And what’s the impact of that melt on the oceans?”
By drilling down so deeply into the sea floor, the team will be able to get a glimpse into the past—up to 20 million years ago—and “greenhouse worlds” that contained the same level of carbon dioxide currently in our atmosphere.
“Using geological records to see what planetary response was to the current carbon dioxide levels means we can better understand what the scale of change could be for us,” added Dr Mckay. If the West Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt—as it has in the past—the global sea level would rise about 3 metres. HTC