The Bates Club of Antarctica<\/h5>\n
This is Part 1 of a series about Bates alumni who spent this winter in Antarctica.<\/p>\n
Part 2: If you give a seal a camera<\/a><\/p>\n Part 3: Fossils and beach volleyball on a glacier<\/a><\/p>\n Part 4: The secrets of the lakes<\/a><\/p>\n Part 5: It’s a whale’s world<\/a><\/p>\n \n<\/section>\n Each week in this series, we\u2019ll introduce you to different alumni and their projects, asking what it\u2019s like to live and work on the bottom of the world.<\/p>\n Up first:\u00a0Glaciers move, advance, and retreat over time. How does temperature affect their travel, and what can the last ice age tell us about today\u2019s climate change?<\/p>\n In December and January, Brenda Hall \u201990 and Allie Balter \u201914 set off into a remote spot in the Transantarctic Mountains to find out. They spent weeks taking samples of rock and algae in an effort to figure out where the glaciers of 20,000 years ago went.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re interested in how the ice sheets there have changed in the past and how that relates to changes in climate over time,\u201d Balter says.<\/p>\n Brenda Hall \u201990, a professor in the University of Maine School of Earth and Climate Sciences; Allie Balter \u201914, a graduate student in the same school; and two UMaine undergraduates, Laura Mattas and Tyler Pollock.<\/p>\n Allie Balter ’14 samples a boulder using a hammer and chisel in the Royal Society Range during the 2016\u201317 season. (Courtesy of Allie Balter)<\/p><\/div>\n Balter became interested in the Arctic when Professor of Geology Mike Retelle took her on a research trip to Svalbard, above the Arctic Circle. The frozen Arctic sparked something: \u201cI decided I really loved glaciers and how climate has changed in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n For Balter, two. For Hall, 28.<\/p>\n Image via Google Maps<\/p><\/div>\n The team set up three camps in the Royal Society Range in the Transantarctic Mountains, south of Australia and New Zealand. It\u2019s one of the few places on Antarctica not covered by kilometers-thick layers of ice \u2014 but it used to be.<\/p>\n University of Maine student Laura Mattas takes a selfie after a helicopter dropped off her team following a day trip. (Courtesy of Allie Balter)<\/p><\/div>\n Says Balter:\u00a0\u201cFirst go you first go to Christchurch, New Zealand. You get your extreme cold weather gear, a big puffy red jacket and fleece pants.<\/p>\n \u201cThen, you get on a plane along with other scientists. You go to McMurdo Station, the biggest U.S. research station. It\u2019s kind of like a little town; there are a cafeteria, dorms, and places to get all your field equipment, tents, sampling equipment, and sleeping bags. You spend about a week there getting your gear for the field ready to go. There\u2019s a bunch of trainings.<\/p>\n \u201cYou then take a helicopter to the site in the mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n Brenda Hall ’90 and UMaine undergraduates Laura Mattas and Tyler Pollock take notes about a boulder they’re about to sample. (Courtesy of Allie Balter)<\/p><\/div>\n Retreating glaciers are like conveyor belts, Balter says: Rocks and algae slide to the end of the glacier and are deposited in its trail, leaving records of where the glacier was. \u201c9,000-year-old algae embedded in the sand give you a good idea of where the glacier used to be.\u201d By taking samples, the UMaine team hopes to determine how far a particular glacier advanced during the last ice age and how temperature correlates to the glacier\u2019s movement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe end of the last ice age is a particularly good example of rapid global warming, and it may give us a better indication of what may happen to the ice sheet as our climate warms today,\u201d says Balter.<\/p>\n The UMaine team’s campsite at Roaring Valley in the Royal Society Range. On the left is a cook tent; on the right a Scott tent, whose design dates back to the early 20th century. (Courtesy of Allie Balter)<\/p><\/div>\n The group slept in Scott tents, a style of tent that dates back to the first South Pole expeditions in 1912.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d wake up at maybe 7 in the morning, make oatmeal for breakfast on our cookstove, and hike anywhere between two and 12 miles to take rock and algae samples,\u201d Balter says. \u201cAt the end of the day, we\u2019ll carry all those back to our tent, and for dinner we\u2019d have frozen meats and cheese and pasta.\u201d<\/p>\n Mattas and Pollock walk at the edge of Trough Lake towards the margin of Koettlitz Glacier. (Courtesy of Allie Balter)<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cIf the wind\u2019s not blowing, there\u2019s no noise at all,\u201d Balter says. \u201cThere are no animals and no trees and vegetation. It feels like you are on Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n And in some places, it\u2019s not all that cold; temperatures hover at or above freezing during the Antarctic summer. \u201cIt\u2019s warmer there in January than it is in Maine,\u201d says Hall.<\/p>\n Balter curates a\u00a0blog<\/a>\u00a0of the team\u2019s research.<\/p>\n Bates Club of Antarctica: If you give a seal a camera<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe question<\/h5>\n
The team<\/h5>\n
The Bates connection<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/03\/DSC01235.jpg\")
<\/a>Number of trips to Antarctica<\/h5>\n
The place<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/03\/Screen-Shot-2018-04-05-at-9.28.00-AM-900x636.png\")
<\/a>How to get there<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/03\/image-3.png\")
<\/a>The research<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/03\/image-5.png\")
<\/a>The implication<\/h5>\n
Antarctic living<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/03\/image-4.png\")
<\/a>The sound of silence<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/03\/image-6.png\")
<\/a>Learn more<\/h5>\n
Read more about Bates alumni in Antarctica<\/h5>\n