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Professor travels to Antarctica, studies climate |
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Tuesday, 05 June 2007 |
by CHRIS ZALUSKI Active Image | Special to The Appalachian
Dr. Ellen A. Cowan, a geology professor, traveled to Antarctica for three months to study the effects of global warming.
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Associate Editor for Online Operations
A 12-million-year-old rock sits on the counter of geology professor Dr. Ellen Cowan’s office.
The rock’s journey to Appalachian State University has been long and exhausting, as it was a kilometer beneath Antarctic ice nearly six months ago.
However, the time and energy spent in retrieving rocks similar to Cowan’s may prove invaluable to understanding the future of the Earth’s climate.
“You
won’t know what could happen in the world if you don’t know what’s
happened before,” Cowan said. “That’s why we say we’re drilling back to
the past.”
Cowan is just one of 150 scientists involved in Antarctic Geological
Drilling, otherwise known as ANDRILL. Cowan’s involvement in the
program allowed her to travel to Antarctica for three months to study
glacial sediments.
Cowan said the program, which will last until 2009, is innovative in
its ability to combine conventional drilling technology with the
ability to drill on a moving ice shelf – a combination that has never
been achieved in the past.
The technology allowed ANDRILL to pull to the surface over 1,200 meters
of rock, with some of the oldest samples believed to date 12 million
years.
Once the rock samples are retrieved, scientists from the United States,
Germany, Italy and New Zealand take the samples back home to study.
Through the program’s research, clues have been found regarding global warming.
“I am pretty sure that we are looking at an increase in sea level that
will come from losing the ice in Antarctica. I think that’s inevitable.
That’s the future,” Cowan said. “The question that is really relevant
for humans is how fast that will happen.”
Through her research, Cowan can see clues about how the Earth’s
temperature has changed in the past – clues that may help to predict
the future.
“We know what happens in a natural cycle,” she said. “What we don’t
know is what happens when we’re in a situation that we’re in now.”
Alex D. Ullrich, an Appalachian alumni and soon-to-be geology graduate
student at the University of Florida, has helped Cowan in studying the
rock samples.
Ullrich took a trip to Alaska in 2004 with Cowan to retrieve rock
samples and study them for clues of the weather’s impact on the Earth.
“There needs to be more of an emphasis on the changing environment and where we’re heading,” Ullrich said.
Ullrich said his Alaskan expedition and the ANDRILL project have similar goals.
“It’s all tied to understanding the climate and how it’s changing,” he said.
This change has caused concern for Cowan, who said something needs to
be done in order to increase awareness and plan for the worst.
“We need to – in our government – recognize the potential problem and
try to figure out what we expect the effects to be,” she said.
Cowan said preparing for the effects of global warming has to start in governments because the cost is so great.
However, preparing for the worst is something the federal government has yet to do, said State Rep. Cullie M. Tarleton.
“I don’t think that there is enough emphasis by our federal government [on potential effects of global warming],” Tarleton said.
Like Cowan, Tarleton believes awareness needs to increase in order to solve any potential problems.
“I don’t think disaster is inevitable,” Tarleton said. “I think there
is enough time to turn the tide, but it’s going to take government,
industry and society all working in tandem.”
Nonetheless, planning may not be enough to save areas such as North
Carolina’s Outer Banks, which, Cowan said, could be directly affected
by a rise in sea level.
Cowan said as more data is received and processed, more questions arise.
“We pretty much know what happens when the Arctic warms up,” she said.
“We don’t know what happens when North Carolina warms up.”
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