NSM Faculty and Students Conduct Research in Antarctica

In late January of this year, Julia Wellner, associate professor of geology, along with two students, Laura Taylor, a geology undergraduate, and Rachel Clark, a Ph.D. student in geology, set sail for a two-month Antarctic research cruise.

The cruise, funded by both the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Natural Environment Research Council in the U.K., was part of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, which studies the stability of the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica.

“As ice melts, the sea level rises,” said Wellner. “Thwaites is the most rapidly changing large glacier on the planet. So we were there to learn from it.”

“In many ways it was very different than what I thought it was going to be,” said Taylor, the only undergraduate on the cruise.

“While we’re there, we’re just constantly working as long as there isn’t bad weather,” said Clark, who was on her third research cruise. “We had a lot of surprises.”

It turns out, their research team discovered a small, previously unrecorded island.

“We checked the charts and the nautical guides and we weren’t able to find any record of that island,” said Wellner of the team’s discovery.

The team decided to name their new discovery, “Sif Island,” after the Norse goddess of Earth.

The research cruise will be featured in a documentary series entitled “Big Ice,” produced by Natural History New Zealand which will air in 2021.

Read more and see a video of their expedition.

Lastly, we hope you’ll join Dr. Wellner on Friday, September 18. She’ll be hosting the first ever NSM Movie Night, and it’s sure to be an exciting and educational event.