Life on the Ice

Scientists brave the cold to study glaciers

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Scientist studying a glacier in the country of Greenland installs an instrument called a Hobo that calculates water depth. (Photo: Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Imagine eating, working, sleeping, and even brushing your teeth on a giant slab of ice! That is what a team of scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Washington in Seattle are doing this summer. They have camped out on the southwestern corner of a glacier in Greenland. The group is studying effects of global warming on the frozen north.

I spoke to a member of the team via satellite phone this week. Kristin Poinar, a 23-year-old graduate student from the University of Washington, described what is has been like to live in a tent on ice for the last three weeks.

"Cramped!" she said. She explained that the tents are the size of a small bedroom, only 10-feet-wide by 10-feet-deep. None of the tents is tall enough to stand up in. For meals, the six-member group gathers in a cook tent already full of cooking supplies.

They sit on boxes of food as their chairs.

When they get too cold, they can go into the "Arctic Oven" tents. These tents use body heat to create warmth. Poinar said she's especially grateful for the warming tents.

But not all everyday needs can be met on the ice.

"It's impossible to take a shower here," she told me. She uses baby wipes to stay clean. Some use ice-cold glacial water to wash their faces. Everybody braves the frigid water to brush their teeth.

Glacial Studies

The scientists are in Greenland to study melting glaciers that are creating large lakes of water. Their measurements show that the ice shelf is melting about five feet each year.

Photo of a moulin taken by scientists camped out on the southwest corner of a glacier in the country of Greenland. A moulin is a hole in a glacier caused by surface water wearing away ice. (Photo: Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.)

Not all global warming effects are negative, said Poinar. Warmer temperatures create more precipitation in places like inland Greenland. That part of Greenland is actually getting more snow than usual. As the snow piles up and turns to ice, it could create new glaciers, which might offset the current melting glaciers.

Poinar will be studying glaciers for a long time: She has at least five more years of school and she is training to be a glaciologist. She wants to continue her Woods Hole research to keep learning how glaciers form and melt.

Kids interested in following in her icy footprints, "really need to like math class," she said. Focusing on math in one's studies can open doors for all types of science jobs, according to Poinar.

For more information about this expedition, visit http://polardiscovery.whoi.edu.

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