Glaciology Commons^™

S6e6: How Do Changing Conditions In The Arctic Affect Maine?, Ron Lisnet, Karl Kreutz, Kristin Schild

The Maine Question

Changes in the Arctic affect Maine, despite them being separated by more than 1,000 miles. Several scientists from the University of Maine study these shifting conditions of the climate and environment in the region and their impacts. In 2018, the UMaine Arctic Initiative was formed to build on their work and enhance collaboration in the campus community and with outside stakeholders.

In this episode of “The Maine Question” podcast, scientists Karl Kreutz and Kristin Schild from UMaine Arctic and the UMaine Climate Change Institute discuss their research, and elaborate on the region and its shifting conditions influence the state.

Subsurface Architecture Of Alpine Icy Debris Fans: Integration Of Ground-Penetrating Radar And Surface Observations In Alaska And New Zealand, Robert W. Jacob, Jeffrey M. Trop, R. Craig Kochel

Faculty Journal Articles

Icy debris fans (IDFs) are extremely dynamic supraglacial landforms at the mouths of bedrock catchments between valley glaciers and icecaps. Recent studies quantified the nature, pace, and volume of mass flow processes contributing ice and sediment to IDFs by integrating field observations, drone and time-lapse imagery, and terrestrial laser scanning. New geophysical data presented herein characterize the subsurface architecture of IDFs along the McCarthy Glacier in Alaska and the Douglas, La Perouse, and Mueller Glaciers in New Zealand. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) profiles and soundings from field surveys during 2013–2015 provide stratigraphic evidence of the following subsurface processes important in …

Internal Composition, Structure, And Hydrological Significance Of Rock Glaciers In The Eastern Cascades, Washington, Adam Riffle

All Master's Theses

Low summer river base flow places a strain on natural and economic resources of the Eastern Cascades. A major contributor to stream flow in this region is snow pack which has declined over the past few decades because of a warming climate. In addition, glacial runoff, which contributes significantly to base flow in summer dry periods, will diminish from glacial recession. However, rock glaciers, because their internal ice (i.e., permafrost) is insulated by an outer debris layer, react slowly to climate change, thus acting as sinks for ice and liquid water storage in mountain environments. This study utilized ground penetrating …

Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution Project (Rice): Us Deep Ice Core Glaciochemistry Contribution (2011- 2014), Paul Andrew Mayewski, Karl J. Kreutz, Andrei V. Kurbatov

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a project to analyze a deep ice core which will be drilled by a New Zealand research team at Roosevelt Island. The objectives are to process the ice core at very high resolution to (a) better understand phasing sequences in Arctic/Antarctic abrupt climate change, even at the level of individual storm events; (b) determine the impact of changes in the Westerlies and the Amundsen Sea Low on past/present/future climate change; (c) determine how sea ice extent has varied in the area; (d) compare the response of West Antarctica climate to other regions during glacial/interglacial cycles; and (e) …

Collaborative Research: Byrd Glacier Flow Dynamics, Gordon S. Hamilton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a project to understand the flow dynamics of large, fast-moving outlet glaciers that drain the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The project includes an integrated field, remote sensing and modeling study of Byrd Glacier which is a major pathway for the discharge of mass from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) to the ocean. Recent work has shown that the glacier can undergo short-lived but significant changes in flow speed in response to perturbations in its boundary conditions. Because outlet glacier speeds exert a major control on ice sheet mass balance and modulate the ice sheet contribution to …

Collaborative Research: Timing And Structure Of The Last Glacial Maximum And Termination In Southern Peru: Implications For The Role Of The Tropics In Climate Change, Brenda L. Hall

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The role of the tropics in climate change has important implications for understanding both orbital-scale and abrupt climate variations. Yet our ability to assess tropical behavior during major climate events, such as the last glacial maximum (LGM), is limited by poor spatial coverage and insufficient control on sample ages. This project will address this problem by developing well-dated records of glacial fluctuations from the LGM through the termination and late-glacial period at Nevados Coropuna and Allinccapac in southern Peru and use these data in numerical simulations of glacier mass balance and local climate. These sites allow an examination of glacier …

Sensitivity Of The Antarctic Ice Sheet To Climate Change Over The Last Two Glacial/Interglacial Cycles, Brenda Hall, George H. Denton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This project was designed to develop knowledge of the extent of the Ross Sea ice sheet during the last two glaciations and to develop a chronology for the last glacial maximum and penultimate glaciation. To this end, we had the following goals:

1) Map the extent of the Ross Sea ice sheet along the western coast of McMurdo Sound from Taylor Valley to the southern Royal Society Range.
2) Develop a radiocarbon chronology for the last glacial maximum from dates of algal mats within moraines.
3) Produce a uranium-thorium chronology to gain information on the timing of the penultimate glaciation. …

Sensitivity Of The Antarctic Ice Sheet To Climate Change Over The Last Two Glacial/Interglacial Cycles, Brenda L. Hall, George H. Denton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a project to investigate the sensitivity of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) to global climate change over the last two Glacial/Interglacial cycles. The intellectual merit of the project is that despite its importance to Earth's climate system, we currently lack a full understanding of AIS sensitivity to global climate change. This project will reconstruct and precisely date the history of marine-based ice in the Ross Sea sector over the last two glacial/interglacial cycles, which will enable a better understanding of the potential driving mechanisms (i.e., sea-level rise, ice dynamics, ocean temperature variations) for ice fluctuations. This will …

Hudson Museum Collection: Byrd's Second Antarctic Expedition, 1933-1935, John L. Herrman, Harold Borns

UMaine Video

Dr. Harold Borns, Professor Emeritus at the University of Maine Climate Change Institute, narrates original footage of Richard E. Byrd's second Antarctic expedition, 1933-1935. The footage was filmed by John L. Herrmann of Paramount Pictures. The original footage presented was transferred from 16mm film in January 2002 by Northeast Historic Film in Bucksport, Maine, and narration by Dr. Harold Borns added in August 2014. The original film footage is held by the Hudson Museum, University of Maine.

Collaborative Research: St. Elias Erosion And Tectonics Project (Steep), Peter O. Koons, Phaedra Upton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

1) Refinement of a regional scale model to include an approximation of the true 3D geometry of the orogen.

2) Develop a new local-scale model that incorporates topography, GPS data, and glacial erosion processes to refine the initial results.

3) Develop a modeling experiment to test the hypothesis that the rise and fall of ice masses during glacial cycles might influence where deformation is focused at any given time.

Colle Gnifetti Ice Core (Kcc) Progress Report (Year One)—Arcadia Ice Core Proposal: Initiatives On The Science Of The Human Past, Paul Mayewski

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The Colle Gnifetti glacier of the Monta Rosa Massif on the Swiss-Italian border is perfectly situated to offer insight into the intersection of environment (climate) and culture (history of the economy, political stability, pollution, disease) in medieval Europe. While ice cores previously collected at Colle Gnifetti were sampled at state-of-the-art resolution for the time, it was nevertheless impossible to differentiate annual or finer layering in the period older than 1500 A.D. The 2013 Colle Gnifetti expedition thus sought to collect a new ice core that could be analyzed using the ultra-high-resolution laser based technology developed in the Climate Change Institute’s …

Collaborative Research: Subglacial Water Intrusion In Greenland, Gordon K. Oswald

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The project's goals are:

• To analyse radio echo sounding data acquired over the Greenland Ice Sheet by the University of Kansas / CReSIS team with the objective of discriminating between frozen and thawed conditions at the bed of the ice sheet.
• To provide maps of the bed state, with the aim of making them available via the National Snow and Ice Data Centre.
• To support ice sheet modelling activities by providing information on the bed state, thus related to the temperature at the bed and the rheological conditions at the bed.
• To make available to educational establishments information on the …

Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution Project (Rice): Us Deep Ice Core Glaciochemistry Contribution (2011- 2014), Paul Andrew Mayewski, Karl J. Kreutz, Andrei V. Kurbatov

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a project to analyze a deep ice core which will be drilled by a New Zealand research team at Roosevelt Island. The objectives are to process the ice core at very high resolution to (a) better understand phasing sequences in Arctic/Antarctic abrupt climate change, even at the level of individual storm events; (b) determine the impact of changes in the Westerlies and the Amundsen Sea Low on past/present/future climate change; (c) determine how sea ice extent has varied in the area; (d) compare the response of West Antarctica climate to other regions during glacial/interglacial cycles; and (e) …

Collaborative Research: Grounding-Line Retreat In The Southern Ross Sea - Constraints From Scott Glacier, Brenda L. Hall

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a project to investigate late Pleistocene and Holocene changes in Scott Glacier, a key outlet glacier that flows directly into the Ross Sea just west of the present-day West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) grounding line. The overarching goals are to understand changes in WAIS configuration in the Ross Sea sector at and since the last glacial maximum (LGM) and to determine whether Holocene retreat observed in the Ross Embayment has ended or if it is still ongoing. To address these goals, moraine and drift sequences associated with Scott Glacier will be mapped and dated and ice thickness, …

Collaborative Proposal: 2000+ Year Detailed, Calibrated Climate Reconstruction From A South Pole Ice Core Set In An Antarctic - Global Scale Context, Paul Andrew Mayewski Dr., Karl J. Kreutz, Andrei V. Kurbatov

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a project to examine an existing ice core of opportunity from South Pole (SPRESO core) to develop a 2000+ year long climate record. SPRESO ice core will be an annually dated, sub-annually-resolved reconstruction of past climate (atmospheric circulation, temperature, precipitation rate, and atmospheric chemistry) utilizing continuous, co-registered measurements (n=45) of: major ions, trace elements, and stable isotope series, plus selected sections for microparticle size and composition. The intellectual merit of this project relates to the fact that few 2000+ year records of this quality exist in Antarctica despite increasing scientific interest in this critical time period as …

The Science Behind Climate Change: A Journey To Reedy Glacier, Brenda L. Hall, Molly Schauffler

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This Communicating Research to Public Audiences project focuses on the Reedy Glacier Antarctic research of Brenda Hall (OPP 0229034) and its relevance to the residents of and visitors to Maine. Collaborators include the University of Maine, the Maine Discovery Museum, the Acadia National Park and Cadillac Mountain Sports (an environmentally active retail company with several stores around the state). The primary deliverable is the development of an interactive software program that presents information and experiences in a two-tiered concept approach -- on the Reedy Glacier and its connection to Maine and on the process of science. The software is being …

Stable Isotopes And Climate Change, Ray Bradley, Rob Snyder

IPY STEM Polar Connections

The following description of the role of the study of stable isotopes in water and carbon dioxide molecules when constructing a record of Earth’s pattern of climate change is an excerpt from:

Climate Change and Society by Raymond S. Bradley & Norman E. Law (2001) Nelson Thornes, Cheltenham, UK (ISBN: 0 7487 5823 2)

State Of The Antarctic And Southern Ocean Climate System, Paul Andrew Mayewski, M. P. Meredith, C. P. Summerhayes, J. Turner, A. Worby, P. J. Barrett, G. Casassa, Nancy Bertler, T. Bracegirdle, A. C. Naveira Garabato, D. Bromwich, H. Campbell, Gordon S. Hamilton, W. B. Lyons, Kirk A. Maasch, S. Aoki, C. Xiao, Tas Van Ommen

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

This paper reviews developments in our understanding of the state of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean climate and its relation to the global climate system over the last few millennia. Climate over this and earlier periods has not been stable, as evidenced by the occurrence of abrupt changes in atmospheric circulation and temperature recorded in Antarctic ice core proxies for past climate. Two of the most prominent abrupt climate change events are characterized by intensification of the circumpolar westerlies (also known as the Southern Annular Mode) between ∼6000 and 5000 years ago and since 1200–1000 years ago. Following the last …

Dry Valleys Late Holocene Climate Variability, Karl J. Kreutz, Paul Andrew Mayewski

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a project to collect and develop high-resolution ice core records from the Dry Valleys region of Antarctica, and provide interpretations of interannual to decadal-scale climate variability during the last 2000 years (late Holocene). The project will test hypotheses related to ocean/atmosphere teleconnections (e.g., El Nino Southern Oscillation, Antarctic Oscillation) that may be responsible for major late Holocene climate events such as the Little Ice Age in the Southern Hemisphere. Conceptual and quantitative models of these processes in the Dry Valleys during the late Holocene are critical for understanding recent climate changes, and represent the main scientific merit …

Ice Core Record Of Rising Lead Pollution In The North Pacific Atmosphere, E. Osterberg, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Karl J. Kreutz, D. Fisher, Michael Handley, Sharon Sneed, C. Zdanowicz, J. Zheng, M. Demuth, M. Waskiewicz, J. Bourgeois

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

A high-resolution, 8000 year-long ice core record from the Mt. Logan summit plateau (5300 m asl) reveals the initiation of trans-Pacific lead (Pb) pollution by ca. 1730, and a >10-fold increase in Pb concentration (1981–1998 mean = 68.9 ng/l) above natural background (5.6 ng/l) attributed to rising anthropogenic Pb emissions from Asia. The largest rise in North Pacific Pb pollution from 1970–1998 (end of record) is contemporaneous with a decrease in Eurasian and North American Pb pollution as documented in ice core records from Greenland, Devon Island, and the European Alps. The distinct Pb pollution history in the North Pacific …

Collaborative Research: Late Quaternary History Of Reedy Glacier, Brenda Hall

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The stability of the marine West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) remains an important, unresolved problem for predicting future sea level change. Recent studies indicate that the mass balance of the ice sheet today may be negative or positive. The apparent differences may stem in part from short-term fluctuations in flow. By comparison, geologic observations provide evidence of behavior over much longer time scales. Recent work involving glacial-geologic mapping, dating and ice-penetrating radar surveys suggests that deglaciation of both the Ross Sea Embayment and coastal Marie Byrd Land continued into the late Holocene, and leaves open the possibility of ongoing deglaciation …

Collaborative Research: Chronology Of Ice Fluctuations In The South Shetland Islands Since The Last Glacial Maximum, Brenda L. Hall

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a study of the timing of climate changes in the Southern Hemisphere with the goal of reconstructing former ice extent and fluctuations, as well as paleoclimate, along the key latitudinal transect from temperate Tierra del Fuego to the polar Antarctic Peninsula. Samples already in hand will allow the dating of ice fluctuations in the South Shetland Islands (SSI), a critical location where that transect crosses the Antarctic Convergence. Surprisingly little concrete evidence exists concerning former ice extent in the island chain. The results of this study will answer a number of basic questions regarding ice extent and …

Satellite Remote Sensing Of Glaciers And Ice Caps In Svalbard, Eurasian High Arctic, Gordon S. Hamilton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Recent compilations of climate-related observations show that important changes are now underway in the High Arctic, probably as a response to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions over the last approximately 250 years. These changes include warming of the troposphere, reductions in sea ice cover, decreases in snow cover area, warming of tundra permafrost, and negative mass balances of glaciers and ice caps. In many instances, observations of change are relatively short in duration or sparse in spatial extent. The Principal Investigators will study glacier and ice cap variations over the approximately last 80 years and at a large scale on Svalbard. …

A New Mt. Logan Ice Core Record - Change In Climate And Chemistry Of The Atmosphere For The North Pacific, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Gregory Zielinski, Karl J. Kreutz, Andrei V. Kurbatov

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Mt. Logan, in the St. Elias Range, southeast Alaska, offers a unique opportunity for monitoring climate change and change in the atmospheric chemistry of the Gulf of Alaska and the North Pacific. In 1980, a 103-meter (M) ice core was recovered from Mt. Logan which spanned AD 1689-1980. It revealed well-defined annual layers, calibrated through the identification of radioactive bomb and volcanic horizons, allowing continuous, sub-seasonal sampling for stable isotopes and ion chemistry. The -29 degree C mean annual temperature at the site assures that the soluble, insoluble, and isotopic components of the core are well preserved.

In 2001 and …

Glaciology Of Blue Ice Areas In Antarctica, Gordon Hamilton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

A 'horizontal ice core' was collected at the Mount Moulton blue ice field in West Antarctica and preliminary analyses of the sample material suggests that a ~500 kyr climate record is preserved in the ice at this site. This award will contribute to the understanding of the Mt Moulton record by assessing the potential for ice-flow induced deformation of the stratigraphic profile. In addition, this award builds on the recognition of blue ice areas as archives of long climate records by conducting reconnaissance studies for a potential horizontal ice core location at the Allan Hills in East Antarctica. The objectives …

A Science Management Office For The U. S. Component Of The International Trans Antarctic Expedition (Us Itase Smo)Ûa Collaborative Pgrm Of Research From S. Pole To N. Victoria Land, Paul A. Mayewski, Gordon S. Hamilton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a science management office for a pilot ice-core drilling and analysis program to test the feasibility of obtaining well-dated, high-resolution isotope and chemistry records from East Antarctica. Shallow ice cores will be obtained from two locations: 1) ~100 km from South Pole towards the Pole of Inaccessibility, as an extension of the Byrd Station-to-South Pole ITASE traverse [International Trans Antarctic Scientific Expedition]; 2) at Taylor Dome, near the original deep coring site, and (3) possibly at AGO 3 and AGO 4 as part of a logistics traverse to these sites. All of the cores collected will be …

Glacial History Of The Amundsen Sea Shelf, Thomas B. Kellogg, Daniel Belknap, Davida Kellogg, Terence Hughes

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award, provided by the Antarctic Geology and Geophysics Program of the Office of Polar Programs, supports a marine geological investigation of the Amundsen Sea region toward a better understanding of the deglaciation history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). The WAIS may be inherently unstable because it is the last marine-based ice sheet in the world. Unlike other embayments in West Antarctica, major ice streams draining into the Amundsen Sea from the interior of the WAIS lack buttressing ice shelves. Mass balance data for the distal portions of these ice streams (Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers) appear to …

Snow Chemistry Across Antarctica, Nancy Bertler, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Alberto Aristarain, P. Barrett, S. Becagli, Ronaldo Torma Bernardo, Xiao Cunde, M. Curran, Qin Dahe, Daniel Dixon, Francisco Adolfo Ferron, H. Fischer, Markus Frey, M. Frezzotti, F. Fundel, Christophe Genthon, R. Gragani, Gordon Hamilton, M. Handley, Sungmin Hong, E. Isaksson, Ren Jiawen, Kokichi Kamiyama, Satoru Kanamori, Eija Karkas, L. Karlöf, S. Kaspari, K. Kreutz, A. Kurbatov, E. Meyerson, Hideaki Motoyama, R. Mulvaney, Zhang Mingjun, H. Oerter, E. Osterberg, M. Proposito, A. Pyne, U. Ruth, Jefferson Cardia Simoes, B. Smith, S. Sneed, Kimmo Teinila, F. Traufetter, R. Udisti, Aki Virkkula, Okitsugu Watanabe, B. Williamson, E. Wolff, Li Zhongqin

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

An updated compilation of published and new data of major-ion (Ca, Cl, K, Mg, Na, NO₃, SO₄) and methylsulfonate (MS) concentrations in snow from 520 Antarctic sites is provided by the national ITASE (International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition) programmes of Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States and the national Antarctic programme of Finland. The comparison shows that snow chemistry concentrations vary by up to four orders of magnitude across Antarctica and exhibit distinct geographical patterns. The Antarctic-wide comparison of glaciochemical records provides a unique opportunity to improve …

The International Trans-Arctic Scientific Expedition (Itase): An Overview, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Massimo Frezzotti, Nancy Bertler, Tas Van Ommen, Gordon S. Hamilton, Tim H. Jacka, Brian Welch, Markus Frey, Dahe Qin, Jiawen Ren, Jefferson Simões, Michel Fily, Hans Oerter, Fumihiko Nishio, Elisabeth Isaksson, Robert Mulvaney, Per Holmund, Volodya Lipenkov, Ian Goodwin

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

From its original formulation in 1990 the International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE) has had as its primary aim the collection and interpretation of a continent-wide array of environmental parameters assembled through the coordinated efforts of scientists from several nations. ITASE offers the ground-based opportunities of traditional-style traverse travel coupled with the modern technology of GPS, crevasse detecting radar, satellite communications and multidisciplinary research. By operating predominantly in the mode of an oversnow traverse, ITASE offers scientists the opportunity to experience the dynamic range of the Antarctic environment. ITASE also offers an important interactive venue for research similar to that afforded …

Deglacial Chronology Of The Northern Scott Coast From Relative Sea-Level Curves, Brenda Hall

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award provides support for three years for a project to develop a radiocarbon chronology for recession of grounded ice from the northwestern Ross Sea Embayment (northern Scott Coast) since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). A key unresolved question in Antarctic glaciology concerns the stability of the marine-based West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS). One way to gain insight into present and future stability is to examine its past behavior. In particular, the timing of deglaciation from the LGM position on the continental shelf is critical for isolating the mechanisms (sea level, climate, ocean temperature, and internal dynamics) that control WAIS …