I am motivated to post after a long hiatus. Last year (2010), in September, I went with my colleagues to the Red Desert in Wyoming. We participated in a Mars analog project at the Killpecker Dunes. In a Mars analog study, we research geologic features on Earth that look similar to features we observe on Mars, and with the assumption that the features were similarly formed, we gain knowledge about the structure of Mars.

In this particular project, our colleague at the Planetary Science Institute based in Tuscon, Arizona, wished to see if it were possible to detect ice buried within the dunes in Wyoming using a geophysical technique called ground-penetrating radar (GPR). It is rumored that these dunes do contain ice that does not melt from year-to-year. And there are dunes on Mars very similar to the barchan dunes in Wyoming.


We used the GPR on several dunes, but the one I will show here is in the upper-right of the photo below:

And Barchan dunes on Mars:



Our GPR profiles were collected by running a radar antenna across the ground. In the following photo, the radar antenna is the orange box and it has been placed in a sled for easy pulling. The blue cable coming from the antenna is attached to a data collector (computer) at the other end which can display the incoming radar signal.



Because the antenna maintains contact with the ground, but the resulting image is rectangular, it will need to be corrected for the changes in topography. Here are processed GPR images without the topographic correction. These were collected perpendicular to the main axis of the dune.



Once the profiles are corrected for topography, we can start to see how the layers beneath the surface of the dune are really oriented.



We also collected GPR data along the axis of the dune.

April 14, 2011

It snowed this day along the Front Range.

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Mystery Volcano May Have Triggered Mini Ice Age!

Have you heard about the year without a summer? 1816? Scientists may have found out why the years preceding 1816 were also colder than usual. This from NPR:

"Global warming may be making some people nervous now, but from 1810 to 1819, people worried because the Earth was colder than usual.

For an entire decade, the Earth cooled almost a full degree Fahrenheit. In fact, 1816 was known as the year without a summer. And until recently, scientists weren't quite sure why everyone was shivering.

The chill of 1816 has long been blamed on an Indonesian volcano called Tambora, which erupted the year before. But no one could figure out why the years before Tambora's eruption were also colder than usual.

Now, newly uncovered evidence in the ice of Antarctica and Greenland suggests that yet another volcanic eruption may have contributed to the worldwide dip in temperatures."

NASA instruments find water molecules on the moon

Updating the jencarta.com website. Needs a facelift - but that will have to come later!

Interesting story on the Antarctic Sun website...

No longer the exception
New study: Antarctica has been warming at a rate comparable to rest of the world
From University of Washington and NASA press releases
Posted January 23, 2009

Scientists studying climate change have long believed that while most of the globe has been getting steadily warmer, a large part of Antarctica — the East Antarctic Ice Sheet — has actually been getting colder.

But new research shows that for the last 50 years, much of Antarctica has been warming at a rate comparable to the rest of the world. In fact, the warming in West Antarctica is greater than the cooling in East Antarctica, meaning that on average the continent has gotten warmer, said Eric Steig, a University of Washington (UW) External Non-U.S. government site professor of Earth and space sciences and director of the Quaternary Research Center External Non-U.S. government site at the UW.

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GPR profiling in Indiana

There were apparently more than 15,000 people at AGU in San Francisco this year. I attended and mostly visited posters - an easier way to see as much current research as possible and a better way to talk with the scientist. More later...