July 21, 2019

It’s Melting: Science on Ice

Glaciologist Elizabeth Case of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University’s Earth Institute takes us out near Juneau, Alaska, to study and live on the shifting ice.

By Steve Mirsky

Flying over a glacier near Juneau.

Steve Mirsky

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Welcome to Scientific American’s Science Talk, posted on July 21, 2019. I’m Steve Mirsky. And while much of the lower 48 is sweltering, things are somewhat cooler in Alaska. Not as cool as they should be, but anyway. Back in January, we brought you part 1 of a report from the ice fields near Juneau. Part 2 is coming up. But I’m gonna play part 1 again first for anyone who missed it or wants to get a refresher. And the beauty of podcasts is: if you wanna jump ahead to part 2, just skip ahead 10 minutes.

PART 1: Elizabeth Case is a graduate student studying glaciology at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, part of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. In the summer of 2018 she headed out onto the ice fields near Juneau, along with her mentor, Columbia earth scientist Jonny Kingslake, as part of the Juneau Icefield Research Program, or JIRP. She brought her trusty recorder and sent back audio. She mentions Seth Campbell, he’s at the University of Maine and is the director of JIRP. She also brings up Bradley Markle, who’s a postdoc at Caltech, and Wilson Clayton, formerly an environmental engineer and visiting faculty member at JIRP. Here’s part 1 of her story of doing science on the ice ... on the ice. REST OF PART 1

Here's Part 2

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PART 2

And this past week, just before she headed out onto the ice again, I spoke to Elizabeth Case about last year and the plans for this trip.

UPDATE

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