Collaborative Research in IPY: Abrupt Environmental Change in the Larsen Ice Shelf System, a Multidisciplinary Approach - Marine and Quaternary Geosciences

摘要：该奖项支持在南极半岛前拉森B冰架下方和周围地区进行地质研究的研究巡航。2002年冰架的解体，加上该地区独特的海洋地质，使人们有可能了解导致冰架崩塌的条件。作为反映海洋和大气条件的气候变化的领头羊，冰架也阻碍了极地地区关键地区的冰川流动。它们的崩塌导致冰川涌动，并可能导致全球海平面迅速上升。该项目通过确定：1)12.5万年前Eemian间冰期气候变暖、海平面上升时，Larsen B冰架的大小；(2)大冰期南极半岛冰原的形态及其退缩；3)全新世期间其他冰架的形成和消失导致拉森B冰架稳定的原因；4)对冰架边缘动力学的控制，特别是地表融化和海洋过程的作用；5)大型冰架破裂后沉积物通量的变化，包括生物成因和岩石成因。更广泛的影响包括通过研究项目和研讨会进行研究生和本科教育；通过电视纪录片和网站向公众宣传，并与来自比利时、西班牙、阿根廷、加拿大、德国和英国的科学家进行国际合作。这项工作也具有重要的社会意义。提高我们对冰架在变暖世界中的行为的理解，将改善海平面上升的模型。该项目得到了美国国家科学基金会国际极地年（IPY）研究重点领域“了解极地地区的环境变化”的支持。

AbstractThis award supports a research cruise to perform geologic studies in the area under and surrounding the former Larsen B ice shelf, on the Antarctic Peninsula. The ice shelf's disintegration in 2002 coupled with the unique marine geology of the area make it possible to understand the conditions leading to ice shelf collapse. Bellwethers of climate change that reflect both oceanographic and atmospheric conditions, ice shelves also hold back glacial flow in key areas of the polar regions. Their collapse results in glacial surging and could cause rapid rise in global sea levels. This project characterizes the Larsen ice shelf's history and conditions leading to its collapse by determining: 1) the size of the Larsen B during warmer climates and higher sea levels back to the Eemian interglacial, 125,000 years ago; 2) the configuration of the Antarctic Peninsula ice sheet during the LGM and its subsequent retreat; 3) the causes of the Larsen B's stability through the Holocene, during which other shelves have come and gone; 4) the controls on the dynamics of ice shelf margins, especially the roles of surface melting and oceanic processes, and 5) the changes in sediment flux, both biogenic and lithogenic, after large ice shelf breakup. The broader impacts include graduate and undergraduate education through research projects and workshops; outreach to the general public through a television documentary and websites, and international collaboration with scientists from Belgium, Spain, Argentina, Canada, Germany and the UK. The work also has important societal relevance. Improving our understanding of how ice shelves behave in a warming world will improve models of sea level rise. The project is supported under NSF's International Polar Year (IPY) research emphasis area on "Understanding Environmental Change in Polar Regions".