AAAS; What We Know – about Climate Change, Antarctica

Terra Nova Bay, Northern Victoria Land, Antarctica. Photo © B. Luyendyk

The AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) recently issued a web page and a short booklet (http://whatweknow.aaas.org ) addressing issues revealed in the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes) over the past few months. One of the main goals of their statement is to address the misunderstanding among the general public that there is significant debate in the Climate Science community about the basic tenets of Climate Change. This is not true. The debate that is occurring surrounds science questions on processes and predictions among other topics, not that Climate Change is happening, is a significant threat and that humans are causing it.

FORCE Team explores Ford Ranges, Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica

Hercules from VXE-6 unloads FORCE team, Marie Byrd Land,

Antarctica, December 1989. Photo © B. Luyendyk

Our work focused in on the Fosdick, Phillips and Chester Mountains in the northern Ford Ranges. Earlier geological parties had visited some locations we worked in before but many had not. We were the first to stand on many of the outcrops.

Our main focus of work was in the metamorphic massif of the Fosdick Mountains named after Admiral Byrd’s good friend Raymond Fosdick. Sledge parties from Byrd’s expeditions reached these mountains in 1934 and 1941. Geological parties explored the surrounding mountains in 1966 through 1969. New Zealand geologists visited various portions of western MBL in 1978-79 and 1987-88. The western regions of MBL including the Ford Ranges are vast, comparable to southern California in area but not climate! Because of the size of the region the earlier explorations were of a reconnaissance nature.

The FORCE Expeditions (Ford Ranges Crustal Exploration) 1989-90, 1990-91

Tucker, Steve, Cain, Dave, Bruce and Christine, Put-In day to Ford Ranges.

Photo © Bruce Luyendyk   

White Ocean of Ice deals with investigation of plate tectonic history in the Southwestern Pacific. Our team of geologists sought out information on the separation of the New Zealand subcontinent on the Pacific Plate from the main continent of Antarctica – the Antarctic Plate. The result of that separation created the modern South Pacific Ocean basin.

We knew from oceanographic studies that this sea floor had formed since about 80 million years ago but we did not know how and when that process started and led to the drifting of New Zealand away from West Antarctica. Research in New Zealand by members of our team and many others revealed some facts, but did they match observations is Antarctica? Those were few and difficult to make. We decided to go to Antarctica to find answers to these questions. The U.S. National Science Foundation supported our research.

Our work focused in the Ford Ranges of Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica, a location that was believed once joined with New Zealand. We learned from several lines of evidence that the whole process of plate breakup brewed for more than twenty million years. It began close to 105 million years ago before separation took off.

We also studied a very special variety of metamorphic rocks (rocks transformed by intense heat and pressure) in the Fosdick Mountains of the Ford Ranges. We found that these rocks had been exhumed from many miles deep in the Antarctic crust as the plate breakup process got underway. This was a result of stretching between the plates. Upper levels of crust thinned and allowed the lower levels to rise up and create the mountains. Research in this mountain range continues today by geologists at Colorado College.