GINA MOSELEY

Exploring the world’s northernmost caves to create an invaluable climate archive

British polar explorer and climate change scientist Gina Moseley’s Rolex Awards for Enterprise project will take her to the planet’s northernmost caves in Greenland, where she and her six-member team hope to gain insight into climate change in the Arctic. Moseley has already led three previous expeditions to remote caves in northeast Greenland. She says that one of the best ways to understand climate change is by studying the chemical history of caves and to look for the presence of calcite mineral deposits, also known as speleothems, which are formed over time by dripping water and would be evidence of a prehistoric Arctic climate that was warmer and wetter than it is today. If calcite is found on this expedition, Moseley’s research could potentially extend the existing climate record for the far north fourfold—up to half a million years ago. By comparing her Greenland findings with other climate records, she hopes to build a more global picture of the planet in a warmer period. “Caves are like time machines,” Moseley explains. “Calcite forms layers, like tree rings. We can analyze each layer to get information about the past climate.” There is one cave in particular that Moseley has set her sights on: a giant cavern situated high in a cliff on Greenland’s Wulff Land peninsula that was reportedly spotted by a U.S. reconnaissance plane during the Cold War. It has never been visited. To gather the all-important samples and study the cave’s ancient interior, two scientists have been selected to take part in the expedition. Together with Moseley, they will cover the disciplines of palaeoclimatology, geology, glaciology, and microbiology. A photographer will also be along to record the expedition for a film and for social media.