Fresh off the ice – in search of Antarctica’s chilling secrets – with Professor van de Flierdt

We heard from Professor van de Flierdt, recently back from an expedition to Antarctic targeting ‘the discovery for our lifetime’.

Professor Tina van de Flierdt - Head of Department, Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London; passionate about ocean, climate and ice sheets - and the SWAIS2C Science Team.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) rests on a bed below sea level, making it particularly vulnerable to ocean warming. West Antarctica is losing ice at an accelerating rate. If melted completely, it would raise sea level by up to five metres. But we fundamentally do not know whether this will happen with 1, 2 or 3 degrees of warming. Sediments deposited below the ice can help us answer this question. They work like a time machine and provide insights into what Antarctica looked like under warmer conditions in the past.

But here comes the challenge: The best location to figure out how West Antarctica will react to warmer temperatures is literally in the middle of nowhere, 800 km away from the next base station. How does one go about doing science in such a remote location? And what does it feel like to live for weeks in a tent on the ice with outside temperatures around -10 degrees? Professor van de Flierdt will share pictures, videos and impression from the second field season of the SWAIS 2C project, targeting ‘the discovery for our lifetime’.

About the Speaker

Tina is a Professor of Isotope Geochemistry and her academic background includes a Diploma in geology from the University of Bonn (Germany), a PhD in Natural Science from the ETH Zurich (Switzerland), and Fellowship, Research Scientist and Lecturer positions at Lamont- Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University (USA). She co-leads the MAGIC isotope facility at Imperial College London.

Her research spans a variety of fields from understanding chemical cycles of trace element and pollutants in the ocean, over reconstruction of ocean circulation and its relationship to climate, to the history of the polar ice sheets and their vulnerability to future climate change.

Tina is particularly interested in the response of the Antarctic Ice Sheet to warmer temperatures and implications for future sea level rise around the world. She co-leads the international SWAIS 2C project, is a stubborn optimist, and values working across disciplines and in collaboration with diverse teams of people.