Size, Timing, And Landscape Impacts Of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods In The Channeled Scabland Of Eastern Washington, Usa, Karin E. Lehnigk

Doctoral Dissertations

Extreme floods have dramatically altered landscapes on Earth and Mars through bedrock erosion, sediment deposition, and canyon formation. The Channeled Scabland of the Columbia Plateau in eastern Washington, USA, is perhaps the most striking example of such a landscape, where outburst floods from an ice-dammed glacial Lake Missoula eroded immense canyons and transported large volumes of sediment during the late Pleistocene. Despite advances in numerical modeling and geochemical exposure dating methods, it has remained a challenge to untangle the complex interactions between floodwater, bedrock, and glacial ice to link the size of a flood with its impact on the landscape. …

Antarctic Ice Sheet Stability During Warm Periods: Integrating Numerical Modeling With Geologic Data, Anna Ruth W. Halberstadt

Doctoral Dissertations

Sea level rise is one of the major social and environmental challenges that threatens modern civilization, yet the response of polar ice sheets to future warming is deeply uncertain. Mass loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet is projected to dominate global sea level rise in the near future, but how much, and when, remains a key unknown. The challenges associated with projecting Antarctica’s future sea level contribution are derived from a knowledge gap of physical ice sheet processes in a world warmer than today, and a lack of understanding of climatic thresholds that drive potentially irreversible retreat. Future and even …

Accessible Science: The Natural History Of The Connecticut River Valley, Fred Venne

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

Many students take an Earth science or geology course to fulfill a requirement, knowing little to nothing about the field. Like all sciences, geology can appear to have ready answers unconnected to other areas of human endeavor, such as art, religion or philosophy. An interdisciplinary approach to teaching can ameliorate this perception for students who are intimidated by the subject and deepen understanding for those who are already excited about geology. We will examine two strategies designed to support the nature of science while scaffolding student learning in geology: research based digital resources use and museum of natural history visits. …

Arctic And North Atlantic Paleo-Environmental Reconstructions From Lake Sediments, Gregory A. De Wet

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT

7700 Years Of Holocene Climatic Variability In Sermilik Valley, Southeast Greenland Inferred From Lake Sediments, Samuel H. Davin

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

During the latter half of the 20^th century until present day there has been an unprecedented rise in global annual mean temperatures accompanied by rising sea levels and a decrease in Northern Hemisphere snow cover, which if it continues will lead to widespread disruption of climate patterns, ecosystems, and present-day landscapes. It is therefore of critical importance to establish an expanded network of paleoclimate records across the globe in order to better assesses how the global climate system has changed in the past, that we may create a metric by which to address modern change. Herein is presented a7,700 …

Final Evaluation Report, Sagefox Consulting Group

IPY STEM Polar Connections

No abstract provided.

Melting Ice And Sea Level Changes, Morton Sternheim

IPY STEM Polar Connections

A simple experiment to demonstrate the effects of melting sea.

Thermohaline Circulation, Rob Snyder

IPY STEM Polar Connections

Surface currents, such as the Gulf Stream, are pushed by the wind. Deep ocean currents, called the “Thermohaline Circulation”, are the result of changes in the density of water. In this activity you can investigate how differences in the temperature and salinity of water can produce deep ocean currents

Globe Walk, Rob Snyder

IPY STEM Polar Connections

A “Globe Walk” can be used as a demonstration or classroom activity to guide students toward a better understanding of the affects that Earth’s axial tilt, rotation on Earth’s axis, and orbital motion have on the angles of incidence of sunlight, the lengths of daytimes, and solar insolation.

Polar Remote Sensing, Beth Caissie

IPY STEM Polar Connections

•Satellite sensors specialize in collecting data about specific wavelengths The Geostationary Operational Environment Satellites (GOES) operated by NASA, NOAA, and the U.S. Department of Commerce provide continuous monitoring of weather conditions. Orbiting the Earth’s equatorial plane at a speed exactly matching the planet’s rotation, satellites in the GOES network seem to hover over fixed spots. They monitor atmospheric conditions that lead to hurricanes, flash floods, tornadoes, and hail storms.

Detecting Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide With Btb, Stephan Schneider

IPY STEM Polar Connections

A study of the concentration of carbon dioxide gas in air samples requires an understanding of effective sampling techniques, the use of pH indicators, an understanding of chemical reactions that result on the formation of acidic compounds, and an understanding of the chemical processes that contribute to the composition and characteristics of Earth’s atmosphere.

Global Warming And Arctic Climate, Ray Bradley

IPY STEM Polar Connections

No abstract provided.

Build A Remote Sensing Satellite, Rob Snyder

IPY STEM Polar Connections

•Build a model of a remote sensing satellite. •Use your model of a satellite to transform reflected visible of different frequencies into electrical signals with different voltages. •Use different colors of paper to calibrate the model. •Create a model of a landscape using three different colors of paper. •Create a “false color” image of the model of a landscape (if time permits).

Seasonal Changes In Sea Ice, Rob Snyder

IPY STEM Polar Connections

No abstract provided.

Why The Arctic? An Overview, Julie Brigham-Grette

IPY STEM Polar Connections

No abstract provided.

Albedo Effects In Polar Regions, Morton Sternheim

IPY STEM Polar Connections

•Why are Polar Regions more affected by global warming than other parts of the globe? •One reason (there are others) is that as sea ice melts and more open water appears, more energy is absorbed, and warming accelerates. •This is a form of positive feedback and it makes the polar climate change faster than the climate in temperate areas. •Increasing vegetation on land also has a similar positive feedback effect.

A (Selective) History Of The International Polar Year, Ray Bradley

IPY STEM Polar Connections

No abstract provided.

Atmospheric Co2 And Temperature. What Is Normal?, Beth Caissie, Julie Brigham-Grette

IPY STEM Polar Connections

–How much of a change in CO2 concentration and other GHGs is natural? –What is the normal range of CO2 and temperature variability? How is normal defined in this context? –What is the relationship between CO2 and global temperatures?

Caribou, Whales, Andenvironmental Variability, Craig Nicolson

IPY STEM Polar Connections

How many caribou are there? Increasing or decreasing? Carrying capacity? How do we measure habitat quality?? Satellite imagery. Whale migration patterns. Activities on caribou and whales. Also, see http://www.nfb.ca/film/being_caribou/ a video entitled Being Caribou..

Melting Ice And Sea Level Change, Morton Sternheim

IPY STEM Polar Connections

Global warming can melt snow or ice on Greenland, Antarctica, and other land areas. It can also melt floating ice in the Arctic Ocean. How do the two cases compare in changing sea levels?

Brine Rejection Activity, Beth Caissie, Rob Snyder

IPY STEM Polar Connections

As salt water freezes, the salt is pushed out of solution through channels in the ice. This process is called brine rejection or brine exclusion. These channels are often used as microhabitats by ice algae, zooplankton, and even tiny fish. You can easily demonstrate what these channels look like.

Play Doh Coring Sampler Teacher Guide, Beth Caissie

IPY STEM Polar Connections

Sediment cores are one of the most valuable types of samples for researchers who would like to learn about past climate or ecological changes. Cores can be retrieved from lakes, marshes, swamps, fields, and the ocean. The layers often reveal striking changes in color (see photos) reflecting changing sediment composition (i.e. more clay deposition or more microfossil s). This easy activity illustrates the basic geologic principle that horizontal layers of sediment become older the deeper you go below the Earth’s surface (Law of Superposition). Each layer contains sediment, fossils and organic matter etc. that can inform us about past changes …

Sea Ice Food Webs—Hands On Sampler Teacher Guide, Beth Caissie

IPY STEM Polar Connections

This activity is a variation on a food web game that I’ve seen played many times before, but it is adapted to reflect a sea ice food web and show the many organisms that are intimately connected to polar bears.

Glacier Goo Activity, Beth Caissie

IPY STEM Polar Connections

We provided the students with background information about what a glacier is, where they are, how they move. Then split the students into four groups each tasked with a question to answer through experimentation

Group s 1 and 2: How does temperature change the way a glacier flows? (we provided frozen, and room temperature goo, and a microwave for heating the goo)

Groups 3 and 4: How does friction or obstacles change the way a glacier flows? (we provided different pvc tubes—tubes with nothing done to them, tubes with paintable sand applied to them, and tubes with rocks glued to …

Carbon Travels Game, Marie Silver

IPY STEM Polar Connections

Carbon cycle game.

Proportions for this activity are based LOOSELY on data from the Exploring the Environment website http://davem2.cotf.edu/ete/modules/carbon/effig11_full.html

They have a brief overview of the carbon cycle at http://davem2.cotf.edu/ete/modules/carbon/efcarbon.html

Recommended Books, Holly Hargraves, Ray Bradley

IPY STEM Polar Connections

No abstract provided.

Polar Literature, Holly Hargraves

IPY STEM Polar Connections

No abstract provided.

Permafrost, Ice Sheets, And Sea Level, Beth Caissie, Julie Brigham-Grette

IPY STEM Polar Connections

Sea level rise and inhabited coastlines. Ice shelves and sea ice do not contribute to sea level but they can buttress the land ice sheets from rapid retreat. Causes of Sea Level Rise:

•Melting of glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets •Thermal expansion of sea water ••Small scale changes due to anthropogenic land water storage (damming rivers, over-pumping of water and fuels, wetland and forest destruction) •Relative changes in sea level due to tectonic movements (land subsidence or rebound)

Teacher’S Guide: Penguins Of Antarctic Region, Marie Silver

IPY STEM Polar Connections

These activities help to connect science learning with real world issues through a study of the Antarctic region. By studying the penguins of the South Pole region you can tap students’ interest in a charismatic macrospecies through demonstrating their adaptation to ongoing climate changes and human activity. A number of current research projects at Antarctic research stations can be accessed online and the data used to demonstrate key concepts of feeding behavior, migration, breeding and population dynamics. The attached activity is in three parts and includes one hands-on demonstration, several mapping exercises and some data interpretation. These activities also provide …

Peary's Explorations, Ray Bradley

IPY STEM Polar Connections

How did he do it?