464 research outputs found
S1E7: What is it like in the most remote, harsh and spectacular locations on Earth?
No full textIn Part 1 of this two-part podcast, “The Maine Question” asks what it’s like in the most remote, harsh and spectacular locations on Earth? Anyone with a thirst for adventure has likely dreamed of seeing the South Pole, Mount Everest, or the massive ice sheets of Greenland. Paul Mayewski has done all of that and more. Here, he talks with host Ron Lisnet about his adventures during his 55-plus expeditions in extreme locales. Mayewski, a scientist, explorer and director of the University of Maine Climate Change Institute, estimates he’s lived about four years’ total in a tent or under the stars in remote regions. His devotion has resulted in groundbreaking discoveries about climate change. In this podcast, Mayewski talks about preparing locally and globally for what’s in store
S1E8: What’s it like living and doing research in the world’s most remote locations? (part 2)
No full textIn Part 2 of this two-part episode, Mayewski recalls drilling ice cores on glaciers and living in a tent for weeks while it’s minus 50 degrees C. In addition to sharing exciting adventures, Mayewski talks about the tremendous power and responsibility of the media to report on climate change. While climate change has become politicized, Mayewski says climate science is fact-based and that it’s important to be a fact-based society. Although he believes the climate has already entered a period of instability, Mayewski says he’s optimistic about how the world could evolve
S6E1: What happens if Mount Everest loses all of its snow and ice?
No full textNo place on earth can escape the effects of climate change, not even Mount Everest. The highest glacier on the world’s tallest mountain — the South Col Glacier — is rapidly disappearing. A new University of Maine-led study found that the glacier is losing several decades of ice and snow accumulation annually due to human-induced climate change.
These findings are the latest from the 2019 National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition, led by UMaine Climate Change Institute director Paul Mayewski. In this episode of “The Maine Question,” Mayewski and UMaine Ph.D. candidate Mariusz Potocki, both co-authors of the new study, elaborate on the findings and their implications for mountaineering and the glacier stored water on which more than 1 billion people depend to provide melt for drinking water and irrigation. They also describe what it takes to conduct research on the rooftop of the world
S3E7: Did climate impact WWI, Spanish flu casualties?
No full textIncessant torrential rain and cold air over Europe from 1914 to 1919 likely increased the number of people who died during World War I (22 million) and the Spanish flu pandemic (50 million). Alex More and Paul Mayewski from the Climate Change Institute connected data from climate science, history and public health to make the discovery. The colleagues say the once-in-a-century climate anomaly may have been caused by dust and explosives from the war that impacted the local atmosphere. As we anticipate another wave of COVID-19, More says we should be mindful of the interconnectedness of human-caused climate change, environmental conditions and disease
Upper Rennick Glacier Ice Massfluctuation Study
No full textGlacial geologic mapping conducted during the 1974-75 field season revealed that at least two glacial events have affected the upper Rennick Glacier region: an older Evans glaciation probably correlative with a major expansion of the east antarctic ice sheet, and the Rennick glaciation, which since the end of the late Wisconsin has been in a retreat phase (Mayewski, Attig, and Drewry 1979). Ice surface reconstructions suggest that (1) in the area of the current Rennick Glacier grounding line, approximately 120 kilometers inland from its current terminus, Evansice was at least 1,000 meters higher and Rennick ice as much as 600meters higher than today, and (2) the glacier\u27s grounding line ex-tended at least 98 kilometers, and as much as 43 kilometers, farther north during the maximum stages of these glaciations,respectively (Mayewski et al. 1979). Retreat from the maximum position held by Rennick ice continues to be characterized by inland migration of the Rennick Glacier grounding line and adjustments in the size and dynamics of local alpine glaciers(Mayewski et al. 1979), plus the lowering of lake levels and changes in the size of snow patches (Mayewski and Attig 1979)
A New Multielement Method for LA-ICP-MS Data Acquisition from Glacier Ice Cores
No full textTo answer pressing new research questions about the rate and timing of abrupt climate transitions, a robust system for ultrahigh-resolution sampling of glacier ice is needed. Here, we present a multielement method of LA-ICP-MS analysis wherein an array of chemical elements is simultaneously measured from the same ablation area. Although multielement techniques are commonplace for high-concentration materials, prior to the development of this method, all LA-ICP-MS analyses of glacier ice involved a single element per ablation pass or spot. This new method, developed using the LA-ICP-MS system at the W. M. Keck Laser Ice Facility at the University of Maine Climate Change Institute, has already been used to shed light on our flawed understanding of natural levels of Pb in Earth’s atmosphere
A model for archaeologically relevant Holocene climate impacts in the Aegean-Levantine region (easternmost Mediterranean)
No full textA repeating pattern of multi-centennial-scale Holocene climate events has been widely (globally) documented, and they were termed Rapid Climate Change (RCC) events. Non-seasalt potassium ion (K+) series in Greenland ice cores provide well-constrained timings for the events, and a direct timing relationship has been inferred between these events and the frequency of northerly cold polar/continental air outbreaks over the eastern Mediterranean Sea through gaps in the mountain ranges along the northern margin of the basin. There also appears to be a remarkable timing agreement with major archaeological turnover events in the Aegean/Levantine region. Yet no physically consistent assessment exists for understanding the regional climatic impacts of the events around this critical region. We present a simple 2-dimensional Lagrangian model, which yields a broad suite of physically coherent simulations of the impacts of frequency changes in winter-time northerly air outbreaks over the Aegean/Levantine region. We validate this with existing reconstructions from palaeoclimate proxy data, with emphasis on well-validated sea-surface temperature reconstructions and a highly resolved cave speleothem stable oxygen isotope record from Lebanon. Given that the RCCs were clearly marked by negative sea surface temperature anomalies in the region, we find that the predominant climatic impacts of this winter-time mechanism were “cold and wet,” in contrast with intercalated “warmer and more arid” conditions of non-RCC periods. More specifically, the RCCs are found to be periods of highly variable conditions, with an overall tendency toward cold and wet conditions with potential for flash flooding and for episodic snow-cover at low altitudes, at least in the lower-altitude (lower 1–1.5 km) regions of Crete and the Levant. The modelled winter-anomaly process cannot address underlying longer-term, astronomically forced trends, or the relatively warm and arid anomalies in between RCCs. The latter require further study, for example with respect to potential (summer-time?) extension of evaporative subtropical conditions over the region. Finally, our results imply that the “amount effect” observed in Levantine cave δ18O (and precipitation or drip-water δ18O) may not reflect the conventional concept related to temperature-dependent fractionation and Rayleigh distillation. Instead, it appears to arise from a complex and somewhat counter-intuitive mixing, in shifting proportionalities, between advected (external) and evaporated (Mediterranean) moisture
Spaulding, Nicole; Bohleber, Pascal; Sneed, Sharon; Clifford, Heather; Korotkikh, Elena; Kurbatov, Andrei V.; Handley, Michael; More, Alexander F.; Mayewski, Paul A. 2021, "Colle Gnifetti Ice Core - ICPMS Li record - Climate Change Institute - University of Maine"
No full textSpaulding, Nicole; Bohleber, Pascal; Sneed, Sharon; Clifford, Heather; Korotkikh, Elena; Kurbatov, Andrei V.; Handley, Michael; More, Alexander F.; Mayewski, Paul A. 2021, "Colle Gnifetti Ice Core - ICPMS Li record - Climate Change Institute - University of Maine."
Arcadia data release AY2020-21, Grant AC4190
Can High-Altitude Ice Masses in Temperate Areas Provide Useful Climatic Records?
No full textSince 1979 we have been conducting a program of glaciochemical sampling and analysis in selected portions of the Indian Himalayas. The primary purpose of this work has been the retrieval of data that are of specific use in assessing the signal expressed by the chemistry of air masses entering the Himalayas. The techniques used for this purpose provide data sets for the following: chloride, sodium, reactive iron, reactive silicate, reactive phosphate, nitrite-plus-nitrate, ammonium, pH, oxygen isotopes, deuterium, microparticles, total β-activity, density and scanning electron microscopy. The results of this work appear in a series of papers (Lyons and others 1981, Lyons and Mayewski 1983, Mayewski and others 1981, 1983, 1984 and Goss and others 1985). In summary this work demonstrates: (1) problems encountered in high-altitude ice-core recovery, (2) effects of percolation on chemical records, (3) specific requirements necessary for the retrieval of unaltered glaciochemical records from Himalayan glaciers, (4) potential spatial variability of chemical species concentrations and interpretation of this with respect to time series, (5) usefulness of various glaciochemical indicators as applied to relative dating (seasonality) and air mass tracking, (6) specific details of the chemical and physical properties in Himalayan ice, and (7) recommendations for future Himalayan ice-core studies.</jats:p
Journey Into Climate: Exploration, Adventure and the Unmasking of Human Innocence
No full textIn this collection of adventure stories and restored period photos, authors Paul Andrew Mayewski and Michael Cope Morrison tell their personal experiences going to some of the Earth\u27s most remote and challenging places, the scientific discoveries they made there, and their journey from a gradualist viewpoint-thinking that humanity was an inconsequential observer in a slowly changing climate-to the realization that we are deeply, irrevocably involved in the short- and long-term fate of a temperamental climate capable of dramatic changes in a matter of only a few years. They tell of discovering the worldwide reach of industrial emissions and their effects on climate, Civilization, ecosystems, and our individual quality of life; the remarkable success of the Clean Air Act and the Montreal Protocols; and some of the effects that can clear up in weeks or months-and others only over centuries.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/fac_monographs/1055/thumbnail.jp
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