Are the Dry Valleys…melting? The Dry Valleys are famous for being extremely dry and ‘ic

Are the Dry Valleys…melting?The Dry Valleys are famous for being extremely dry and ‘ice free’, despite a few glaciers which spill off the Antarctic plateau into them. We love the Dry Valleys here at The Earth Story and have covered many aspects of them previously (see: http://on.fb.me/1c04pNF, http://on.fb.me/1C54jdU, http://on.fb.me/1GfzQ36…just to name a few!)Underneath a lot of the dirt and ‘ice free’ land there is actually, surprise, a significant amount of ice. Scientists with the NSF are beginning to notice a rapid disintegration of this buried ice, which has been steady for thousands of years. It is possible that the cause of this is an increase in solar radiation, which can heat up rocks and soil in the Dry Valleys to over 20 degrees Celcius. Increased solar radiation is not necessarily associated with climate change – it could be more sunny days in recent years or even due to changes in the ozone layer above the Antarctic which have contributed to isolating much of Antarctica from the effects of climate change (which we will explain in a future post, watch this space!).Using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) the team of scientists will be able to create a very high resolution topographical map and compare that with LiDAR results from a 2001 campaign by NASA, which was done to calibrate instruments for the IceSat satellite. One of the teams Co principal investigators expects there to be a dramatic change since 2001. If there is a dramatic change, it will help understand how the region may react and change in a warming world.-MJAImage – Some of the buried ice in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Credit: Jim O’ConnorFurther reading:http://1.usa.gov/1HEL12A -- source link

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