text:
News aggregator
Poseidon Visits (and Seismic Oceanography)
Poseidon's Zodiak on the way over to exchange supplies.
A few years ago, it was realised that seismic provides a method of directly observing the mixing processes, as the different water layers have sufficiently different seismic velocity and salinity for reflections to be generated at their boundaries: we have already seen reflections in the water column of our data, probably from boundaries between North Atlantic water and warmer, more saline Mediterranean water. However there have been relatively few studies of these processes using traditional oceanographic and seismic techniques, a deficiency being rectified by the deployment of XBTs at regular intervals during our cruise.
A successful exchange on medium-high seas!!
In addition to deploying ocean bottom seismometers to record our seismic shots, the German research vessel F.S. Poseidon has been carrying out oceanographic measurements, mainly using CTD casts (conductivity-temperature-depth), which provide more information than XBTs. As a result they had several XBTs left over. These they transferred to us this morning: Poseidon came within about 1 km of the Langseth and sent the XBTs over in a small boat. A real bumpy ride!
Goodbye, until we meet in Vigo!Tim Reston
University of Birmingham
Poseidon: OBS deployment update
Today the Poseidon is recovering eight OBH to download the data they recorded and redeploy them elsewhere within the 3-D box. It will be exciting to see the first OBH data! We won't see the rest of the data until the remaining OBS and OBH are recovered in August and September.
Despite being in the same area, here on the Langseth the science party hasn't seen the Poseidon since our first day passing them on the way out to sea from Vigo. However, this may be because we are all busy below deck in the main lab (with no windows) processing data!
Marianne Karplus
8th June
Underway and beginning to collect data
Donna Shillington
Map in the main lab showing planned profiles. The ones we've already completed are in green
*Follow our progress on the "Survey Area" page as we update the sail lines every ~4 days.
The Source
Marine reflection seismology involves actively generating soundwaves (rather than waiting for earthquakes as in many other types of seismology). The ideal seismic source is as close to a "spike" as possible. Sound waves from the source travel into the Earth, where they reflect off sedimentary layers as well as hard-rock surfaces. The returning reflections are recorded by over a thousand hydrophones (underwater microphones that gauge pressure changes created by the reflected seismic waves) in the streamers that we have been deploying for the last four days.
The source consists of a series of air guns of varying sizes, which are hung at a depth of 9m (~30 feet) below large inflatable tubes. The tubes are 60m (~200 feet) long and each has 9 active air guns (10 with one to spare). In our case there are two sets of air guns being towed 150m (~500 feet) behind the ship, that alternately fire. To create a strong source that is as spike-like as possible, the guns are carefully arranged and fire almost simultaneously. The air is released from the chamber of the air gun, creating a 3300 cubic inch bubble pulse, which collapses to create the sound waves.
Orientation of the streamer and gun arrays being towed by R/V Langseth.
The red circles indicate the location of the gun arrays.
Langseth: The paravanes are out!
Role-Reversal (and Some Fun) at AGU
Francesco Fiondella is normally behind the scenes writing web stories, developing audio slideshows and videos for the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). But at this year's annual American Geophysical Union (AGU), the tables were turned for a brief moment. He was video ambushed by climate scientist Andrew Robertson and forced to explain a poster he made with me and fellow IRI'er Brian Kahn about unconventional ways scientists can communicate with the public online. The poster covers our experiences with an "Ask Me Anything" session on the popular social news site, Reddit.com; creating a Storify to curate the online conversations that took place during our recent State of the Planet conference on Twitter and Facebook; and using Projeqt to create a visual story about the IRI's work in drought-stricken West Africa.
Earlier that day, Fiondella had interviewed Robertson on his research on improving the prediction capability of water availability in the Himalayas to help water resource managers make better planning decisions. That interview inspired Robertson to see if he could give Fiondella "a taste of his own medicine."Video Ambush
Click here to view the embedded video.
Andrew Robertson Interview
A River Runs Through It: Predicting Floods in the Midwest
By Elisabeth Gawthrop, Climate and Society '13
Three of North America's major rivers run through the Midwestern U.S. In the spring of 2011, major flooding in region caused an estimated $3 billion in damages and killed seven people. Although scientists cannot predict exact precipitation amounts for a given season, they can attempt to predict the odds that a given season will have below average, average, and above average precipitation. If forecasts show an increased likelihood for above average precipitation, the odds of flooding usually increase, too. The International Research Institute for Climate and Society's Andrew Robertson studies how climate variability across multiple timescales, from daily to decades, affects these forecasts. Using the American Midwest as a case study, Robertson and his colleagues at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia Water Center analyzed the relationships between flooding events and weather and climate patterns on multiple timescales over the 20th century. Find out more about how Robertson and his colleagues are trying to improve flood prediction in the Q&A below and stop by his talk at AGU.
How do El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) interact to make climate patterns more or less favorable for precipitation in the region?
We have analyzed recurrent daily atmospheric circulation patterns, attempting to link these daily patterns to patterns of longer time scales and covering wider regions and, separately, to extreme floods. We found some weak but statistically significant linkages between weather patterns associated with both floods and ENSO/MJO patterns. La Niña, the cool phase of ENSO, tends to cause a large-scale pattern that's more conducive to creating the conditions that lead to floods the Midwest. We also found that an active MJO event tends to lead to cause an atmospheric "wave" that passes over the Midwest two weeks following the event. This wave is also conducive to floods. Even though we have a century of records, it's too short to say much about relationships with the PDO, a phenomenon that shifts over a period of decades as opposed to the monthly and seasonal fluctuations of ENSO and MJO.What is the skill of your results? Will forecasters be able to incorporate more of these longer time scale variabilities into seasonal forecasts?
The prospects for improved seasonal forecasts are limited because the ENSO linkage is weak. There are better prospects for eventually developing "seamless" forecasts in which forecast information is combined together and capitalizes on the MJO relationships. Particular combinations of ENSO and MJO could lead to better "forecasts of opportunity" in situations where both ENSO and MJO impacts are reinforcing each other.Is there a human-induced climate change signal that could change these relationships in the future?
The century-long record of floods does not reveal an increasing trend toward more frequent extreme floods over the Midwest signature. Many of the flood events occurred in the early and midcentury, with fewer at the end of the twentieth century.Why did you focus on precipitation from March through May in the Midwest in particular?
The spring season over the Midwest is a time of heightened flood risk, due to potential confluence of factors conducive to floods. Combinations of snow melt, high ground saturation, and strong interactions between Gulf of Mexico moisture and slow moving cyclones that can occur in the spring lead to increased likelihood of flooding events.Want more news from the AGU Fall Meeting? Follow IRI on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
Clues from Last Ice Age May Hint at Drying Ahead for Some Regions
In the spectacular collapse of ice sheets as the last ice age ended about 18,000 years ago scientists hope to find clues for what regions may grow drier from human caused global warming. In a talk Thursday at the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting, Aaron Putnam, a postdoctoral scholar at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, painted a picture of earth's dramatic transformation as seen in climate records extracted from ancient cave formations, ice cores, lake shorelines and glacial moraines.
Earth came out of the last ice age in two phases, triggered paradoxically by the cooling of waters in the North Atlantic Ocean, said Putnam. In phase one, the stratification of North Atlantic waters pushed Earth's wind and rain belts south. The winds caused carbon dioxide to out-gas from the Southern Ocean, rapidly heating the Southern Hemisphere by 16,000 years ago. In phase two, with the evening of temperatures in the polar oceans, the wind and rain belts returned north. By 14,700 years ago, the Northern Hemisphere begins to rapidly warm, bringing the planet as a whole out of the ice age.
The first interval made normally dry regions wet, and wetter regions, dry, and then the situation reversed 2,000 years later, said Putnam. In the U.S., lake levels in the mid-latitudes swelled as the jet stream pushed south bringing more rain. Lake Lohantan in Nevada and Lake Estancia in New Mexico reached their highest levels about 16,000 years ago, research by Lamont's Wally Broecker suggests. At the southern edge of the tropical rain belts, Lake Tauca in Bolivia reached its maximum extent at the same time. Meanwhile, the monsoon rains in Asia were failing, leaving evidence of drought in Hulu Cave near Nanjing, China, and Venezuela's Cariaco Basin. Antarctic ice cores also show evidence of less vigorous vegetation growth in the northern forests. "These are massive changes that are happening," said Putnam.
The rapid retreat of glaciers in New Zealand suggest that the Southern Hemisphere warmed quickly once the Southern Ocean started to release carbon dioxide. Moraine dating by Putnam and his Lamont colleagues, Joerg Schaefer and Michael Kaplan, show that glaciers were biggest at 17,800 years ago. In just 2,000 years, the ice retreated close to where it is today and temperatures warmed 3 degrees Celsius, their research shows. (Another degree of warming would happen by the onset of the Holocene 12,000 years ago)
Today, with the North Atlantic now warming, Putnam and his colleagues expect the chain of events to reverse, with wind and rain belts shifting north. "We should anticipate that the dry lands and deserts of the Northern Hemisphere will become drier, which has implications for water resources," he said. "Monsoons could pick up in South Asia and Venezuela."
Further reading:
Aaron Putnam's account of trekking through the Bhutan Himalaya in search of glacial moraines New York Times, November 2012
Study Adds New Clue to How Last Ice Age Ended
Answer to What Ended the Last Ice Age May Be Blowing in the Winds, Paper Says
The Meaning of Water
What is the meaning of water? In my everyday life, water is a given. Even this year, when at least one quarter of the US has been stricken by drought, water continues to flow from the tap and my family is unaffected by its scarcity. I remember the California droughts of the 1970s, when my brother and I shared bathwater, I learned not to flush so much, and water was rationed. Even still, our very sustenance, our wealth was not threatened by the lack of water. In Mongolia, as in many other developing countries, people depend on water not just to slake their thirst but to sustain their livelihoods. Mongolian herders must bring their animals to a water body daily. In times of drought, most lakes dry up, leaving only a few "permanent" lakes available to dozens of herders and thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of animals. Steppe lakes also serve as virtual "gas stations" for migratory birds and waterfowl – they are hotspots of diversity. Without water, animals perish, food disappears, and people and ecosystems suffer. In a semi-arid region like the steppe, water allows people and ecosystems to transform solar energy into a mobile and flexible product via photosynthesis and primary consumption by livestock. In Mongolia, water is energy.
As part of our new project, we will be collaborating with Avery Cook-Shinneman (University of Washington) to use lake sediments to reconstruct the ecology of lakes and livestock during the Mongol Empire. Lake sediments can provide a broad array of proxies for past ecosystems. We plan to use some of these proxies to estimate past water quality and a relatively new proxy, Sporormiella, to assess the numbers of livestock present during the Mongol Empire. This summer, my student John Burkhart and I visited a number of lakes near the Orkhon Valley, seat of the Mongol Empire, to recon possible sample sites. In the process, we learned to appreciate the role of permanent lakes in Mongol herders' livelihoods.
Before leaving for Mongolia, we had worked with Avery to identify more than a dozen lakes to recon. We were going to collect water and surface sediment samples from each lake to assess their potential. But upon our arrival in the Orkhon region, we quickly learned that those lakes no longer existed. The decade-long drought that might be only ending in 2012 had left only a few permanent lakes; we noticed much standing water along the highway compared to 2010. Though the large lakes we identified on Google Earth were starting to fill up again, the fact that they had dried up during a recent drought suggested they had dried up in the past, leaving only an intermittent record of past ecology. We began visiting local herders homes ("gers") to inquire about permanent lakes.
We had used this approach before to look for old trees but Mongolians are no better than Americans at identifying old trees. They always point you to the biggest, most beautiful tree and claim it's the oldest – when in fact the scraggliest, ugliest tree is usually much older (Editor's note: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder). But in the case of lakes, these Mongolian herders were true scholars. Ask any old herder about where to find permanent lakes, and they will tell you in detail the characteristics of all lakes in their region – when they thaw, when they freeze, what kind of plants grow around it and in it, and how likely it is to dry up. I should not have been surprised – their life and livelihood depends on their knowledge and careful management of these lakes.
This kind of ecological knowledge is not new. Mongolians have cultivated knowledge of lakes for millennia. The first permanent lake we visited was less than 5km away from an Uyghur fortress dating to the 8th century.
Oceans of Ancient Wood and Coming Full Circle
We have just made it back to Ulaanbaatar after 11 days of in-country travel and field work. While being a bit field worn from working on a lava field for 6 days, we are simultaneously thrilled and in good spirits. It is a bit too early to say, but it seems that Summer 2012 in Mongolia was a success*. It certainly felt like a success to me on the day we came full circle from 2010.
Amy, John, and Sanaa were a day ahead of us and, with John being down with a case of Chinggis' revenge, Amy and Sanaa spent a full day on the lava field revisiting and re-visioning how we would sample over the following week. The hopeful goal was to collect enough wood to push the chronology near 2000 years in length while having enough samples over the last 1000 years to be able to say something with statistical significance. Sanaa and Amy intensely studied where to find wood and what pieces might be from an earlier era. They accomplished this while collecting 24 cross-sections of deadwood. It was an impressive and hugely helpful first day.
It was necessary to study the characteristics of the deadwood and its geographic distribution across the lava field because, honestly, our first discovery is pretty much the definition of, "a blind hog will find an acorn every once in a while". During Amy's and Sanaa's first day of discovery in 2012, Sanaa came up with the term 'ocean' for the large, open areas of lava that are virtually devoid of trees. Because the ocean as a whole can be considered a kind of desert, we found that term 'ocean' was correct: this part of the lava field truly resembled a desert. Thus, over the course of our fieldwork, the first verse and drifting characteristics of A Horse with No Name came to mind. The heat was hot. There were plants and birds and rocks and things. Oh yeah, there were a few rocks.
Together we learned that it was on the margins of these oceans that we could find what appeared to be ancient wood. It wasn't until the penultimate day, however, that we had any sense of what we had accomplished.
Being 5 days in and having collected ~150 pieces of deadwood, we were all a bit burnt, literally and figuratively. Though we had sunscreen and hats, it wasn't quite enough. We all looked a bit beety. We were also running on fumes. Constantly hiking on jumbled and sharp pieces of lava jars the body and mind. So, on Day 5 we set out for a low-pressure 'cleanup' of the lava field. Almost anything we collected that day would be bonus material.
We decided to head towards some of the sample locations from 2010 to see if we could find some of the oldest pieces. Many of the oldest pine cross-sections from 2010 were not GPS'ed due to time, energy, and the afterthought nature of that collection. So, on Day 5 in 2012 we wandering an area we mostly missed in 2012 while at the same time trying to recollect the hazy afternoon in 2010.
About 45 minutes to an hour in, we had our first success. We re-discovered 'The Logo Tree'. While the day on the lava field in 2010 is still very hazy in my mind (due to my state of being in day 3 of undiagnosed and untreated tonsillitis), the sharpest memory of that day is The Logo Tree.
In 2010 The Logo Tree symbolized the potential for this site. We had spotted some Siberian pine trees, a species I did not see during my first brief visit to this site in 1999 with Gordon Jacoby, Baatarbileg Nachin, and Oyunsanaa (Sanaa) Byambasuren. This tree, though dead, captures many of the characteristics of old trees (charismatic megaflora) while also having the weathered, 'stressed' form of trees living on the edge of survival. These trees are often the ones tree-ring scientists use to reconstruct past climate. The Logo Tree screamed, "I, and many other pines like me, are ancient. You might better pay attention. This area could be filled with xylemite."
So, it was with great joy that on Day 5 of 2012 The Logo Tree was re-discovered. Many picture were taken. Champagne corks were unleashed (in the form of taking the top off our water bottles and taking a swig of water). It certainly lifted me to a higher energy state.
We then spent much of the next few hours scouting for more samples from 2010 and passing through what can be considered a pine graveyard, an area filled with much deadwood and ancient, stunted pine trees.
A specific goal on Day 5 was to locate the oldest piece from 2010, a sample dating to the middle portion of the first millennium of the Common Era. Having not yet found it as the day was drawing to a close, we decided to narrowly focus on finding that piece. We wandered. We scratched our heads. We saw a horse with no name. And then…and then, we hit an area with signs of our past chainsaw work.
Could it be? Might that be The One?
Yes, it had to be. See, that sample, The Eldest of 2010, sits near my desk. It is within arm's reach in case of impromptu lab tours. I know that sample. The Elder is a bit oval with a characteristic hole that makes it easier to carry or hold up with two fingers. This seemed to be it.
The joy and shock of this confirmation, of coming full circle, was that this log didn't look as old or as weathered as many of the pieces we had collected over the prior 4.75 days. It didn't look exceptional. It nearby cousin, cut 2/3rds of the up a dead stem, was equally unimpressive. Yet, The Elder's cousin dates to the late-1200s.
This particular re-discovery floated us for the remainder of the day and trip back to Ulaanbaatar. We cannot yet say with any certainty, but it seems we really hit our research goal. In fact, we are now concerned that we might have some pieces so old that they will not date – they might actually predate any long chronology we might build from this site. But, if this is a problem, we wish this kind of problem to all of our colleagues.
Now, to some scenes from the field:
*No living trees were harmed in the creation of this post
** respect
What Would Chinggis Do?
Saturday dawned a beautiful morning the air was crisp and cool, all of Mongolia had just gotten up at 4 in the morning to watch the opening ceremonies of the London Olympics, and traffic was light. It seemed an auspicious beginning for our 2012 field work. The opening ceremonies for our fieldwork had never run so smoothly: Baatar had arranged for our favorite driver, Chukha, to meet us at our hotel at 9am to get an early start. It would be a solid 6-8 hour drive to the first lake we wished to sample Oygi Nuur, 9am did not seem too early. Drs. Baatar and Sanaa plus an undergraduate student, Balja, packed Chukha's Russian military van at an astounding 7am (does Chukha really get up that early?) allowing us to leave Ulaanbaatar less than 36 hours after we arrived. It was truly unprecedented.
We made several stops on our way out of town, additional groceries, toothpaste, fuel, bar oil for chainsaws and a fruitless search for distilled water (why would we think we could get that here?) but we were still headed out of the smog bubble that is UB before noon. It was a bit later than I had hoped, but still remarkable given our previous trips when it had taken several days to resist the gravitational force of the city. As we left UB and the smog behind, we began to see small signs of the countryside: a few gers (circular felt tents), small herds of sheep for sale, and a couple of trucks loaded with wool. John, my new PhD student, even saw his first Mongolian horses. We could literally taste the Mongolian countryside.
But as we drove up the last rise out of the Tuul River valley, the van sputtered, then stalled. Things seemed routine Chukha was under the van in no time complaining of a loose battery connection. In 15 minutes we were back on the road. At the next rise, the van stalled again, and this time Chukha looked truly distraught. The rest of us piled out of the van, had a picnic lunch, and watched Mongolia clouds. Chukha emerged from under the van looking like his best dog had just died. He couldn't eat, didn't want to talk. His van had literally blown a gasket.
On our way back to UB, after a beer and a couple shots with Chukha, we did our best to keep our chins up. After all, what would Chinggis do? We would try again tomorrow. Until then, here's looking forward to dinner.
Chasing Ghengis Khan
People have been looking for 800 years. Looking for Chinggis Khaan, né Ghengis Khan. From the people searching for his birthplace to the people searching for his last resting place. After more than 800 years since his rise from the mountains of Mongolia, Chinggis lives on as a charismatic and almost mythical person. He seemingly rose from obscurity, quelled feuds between tribes, and created the largest land empire in world history. If you read beyond what you likely learned in high school or college, you will see his leadership skills were progressive and exceptional. You will learn that Chinggis has an influence on our world nearly 800 years after his death. From paper money to the pony express, from war strategy to the structure of the human genome, his life has touched generations of humans over the centuries.
When you begin working in Mongolia it is absolutely essential that you learn the importance of the man. Soviet communism attempted to quell his spirit and his importance in Mongolian culture. Mongolians were not allowed last names so everyone could be equal, so no one could trace their family history to the royal family. This, of course, did not work. In a culture that has songs and stories dating back centuries, if you, a native Mongolian, meet a stranger in the woods on the other side of the country and drink tea, break bread, and just lounge, you will soon break into a song that you and the stranger know from the depth of your soul. You will sing, smile, and enjoy a wonderful afternoon with this once distant, now close cousin. That kind of cultural bind does not break under any kind of political pressure. Perhaps it only made it stronger? See, in the late-1990s, soon after the fall of communism, Chinggis essentially rose from the ashes. He was everywhere in Mongolia – TV commercials for cell phones or a brand of vodka. And once you, as an outsider, spend considerable time in Mongolia, especially during Naadam and especially in the open Gobi steppe with people who still live as their ancestors did centuries ago, you understand the importance of the man and you will also begin to chase Chinggis. And, it is with this new project that our group of geographers, paleoclimatologists, ecologists, historians, and ecosystem modelers begin our pursuit of Chinggis Khaan.
Unlike other chasers who came before us, our search for Chinggis is not directly a pursuit of him as an individual. We understand he was an incredible leader who was the life force for the great Mongol Empire. Our pursuit is more contextual. We seek to understand the environmental conditions before, during, and after the rise of the Mongol Empire. In many ways, the success of the Mongol Empire is a historical enigma. At its peak during the 13th century, the empire controlled areas from the Hungarian grasslands to southern Asia and Persia. Powered by domesticated livestock, the Mongol Empire grew at the expense of farmers in Eastern Europe, Persia, and China. Two commonly asked questions of this empire are "What environmental factors contributed to the rise of the Mongols?, and "What factors influenced the disintegration of the empire by 1300 CE? . For a long time (centuries?), it was thought that drought partly drove the Mongols on their conquest in Eurasia. Luckily enough for us, a serendipitous collection of a few pieces of deadwood and old Siberian pine trees suggests essentially the opposite. Our collection of an annual record of drought, currently dating to the mid-600s CE, suggests that the early-1200s were unusually wet. Of course, these findings are very, very, very preliminary – we only have two trees through this time period.
So, with funding from the Lamont Climate Center, National Geographic Society, West Virginia University, and the Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems program of the National Science Foundation, we are headed back to Mongolia for a fourth straight year to scour the study site that yielded a 1,300 year record for more old, dead wood. With a combined crew from the National University of Mongolia, West Virginia University, and the Tree Ring Laboratory of Lamont-Doherty Observatory, Columbia University and the Earth Institute, we will spend 10 days in the field seeking, documenting, and collecting wooden gold, xylemite if you will.
Part of our crew will also spend about three days at upper tree line on a mountain in the western Khangai Uul (uul is Mongolian for mountain) updating and expanding the collection that suggested that it was warmer during the rise of the Mongol Empire. We are so excited. We have a great crew, will be spending our time mostly in one place, and will have some of the finest scenery in Mongolia in our eyes everyday.
Frankly, we are also excited about our larger project. We honestly do not know what the end results will be. The idea that wet conditions aided the expansion of the Mongol Empire is simply a hypothesis built upon ecosystem ecology, human ecology, and our preliminary results. See, energy is critical for human and natural systems to function, yet few studies have examined the role of energy in the success and failure of past societies. Increased rainfall on the Great Gobi Steppe should allow the grassland to capture more solar energy. Greater grass production logically would have allowed the Mongol Empire to capture, transform, and allocate this energy through their sheep, horses, yak, etc. In turn, this should have allowed greater energy from which Chinggis could develop a larger and more complex social, economic, and political system.
Feeding tree ring based climate history into an ecological model, we plan to investigate how past climate influenced grassland productivity, herbivores, and, thus, energy flow through the Mongol ecosystem. These data will be compared to historical records on the empire and sediment records from lakes that can estimate herbivore density.
Much has been made about the demise of cultures as a result of a downturn in climate or degradation of their environment. Our estimates of energy availability and environmental quality allows us to investigate whether the contraction of the empire was related to drought, cold, declining grassland productivity, or poor water quality associated with rapid urbanization and climate change.Thus, as part of our larger project, we will test the hypothesis that the arc of the Mongol Empire was influenced by the energy available to nomadic pastoralists for building a mobile military and governmental force sufficient to conquer and govern a significant portion of Asia and Eastern Europe.
We leave in less than two weeks. As happens each year around this time, memories of past trips are revived and we begin seeping back into the Monglish culture that develop on these trips. We look forward to re-uniting with colleagues like Baatarbileg Nachin and his students like Bayaraa. A highlight this year will be working alongside a Mongolian postdoc, Sanaa, who Neil met as an undergrad in 1998. It will be an honor and pleasure to work with Sanaa again. Mongol phrases and words are bubbling up from the depths of our grey matter. Mongolian music is spinning nearly full-time in one household; a soundtrack for this year's fieldwork is coming into shape.
We hope to catch a set of Altan Urag, a rising rock band in Mongolia. To us, they represent some of the cultural struggle in Mongolia today: "How to we maintain the qualities we are so proud of during the height of our empire, as new or external culture moves into our land?" and "As commercialization in the post-communism era (including a 'gold-rush' in the mining industry that created one of the fastest growing economies in the world) pushes and pulls us, how do we maintain who we are?" Altan Urag and young Mongolian artists are reaching back in their history for symbols and sounds that make them distinctly Mongolian. At the same time, these artists keep their eyes and ears open to the new possibilities of their larger world. Similar to how Chinggis melded European and Chinese technology to forge his great empire, many of today's young Mongolians blend their history with external elements to create a new Mongolia. We cheer these efforts on. We are big fans.
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory: Milestones in Climate Science
(Note: This feature first appeared in 2012; it was updated November 2015 for the Paris Climate Summit.)
Much of the modern understanding of climate has been shaped by pioneering studies done at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Starting in the 1950s and extending through today, researchers in oceanography, atmospheric physics, geochemistry and other disciplines have shown how natural climate cycles work; how carbon dioxide is now influencing earth's temperature; the hidden roles that oceans play in regulating climate; and, most recently, how ongoing rapid climate change is affecting nature and human societies. Here is a timeline of studies that have changed the way the world looks at climate.
1956: A theory of ice ages Maurice Ewing and William Donn, Science Maurice "Doc" Ewing, one of the world's most influential oceanographers and Lamont's first director, teamed with geologist Donn to propose that ice ages are driven by self-perpetuating natural cycles of freezing and thawing of the Arctic Ocean. This paper and two followups were seized upon in popular literature of the time to suggest that a new ice age would arrive soon. Although scientists' views shifted radically as more evidence came in, this initiated Lamont's tradition of studying large-scale climate swings.
1960: Natural radiocarbon in the Atlantic Ocean Wallace Broecker et al., Journal of Geophysical Research Wallace Broecker, one of the founders of modern climate science, showed how isotopes of carbon produced by natural and human processes could be used to map ocean currents that we now know form a series of global-scale loops. This led to an overarching model of the "Great Ocean Conveyor Belt" and the idea that changes in the conveyor may bring sudden, powerful shifts in the global climate.
1966: Paleomagnetic study of Antarctic deep-sea cores Neil Opdyke et al., Science By systematically examining Antarctic seabed sediments, Opdyke and colleagues showed that periodic shifts in earth's magnetic polarity could be used to accurately date sediment layers back beyond 2 million years—and thus climate shifts from those ancient times. Previously, the limit was only 25,000 years. This set the stage to test theories of climate change in deep time.
1973: Are we on the brink of a pronounced global warming? Wallace Broecker, Science This is the paper generally credited with coining the phrase "global warming" in scientific literature. The planet at that time was emerging from a decades-long natural cooling cycle, which Broecker postulated had been masking an ongoing warming effect caused by rising industrial carbon-dioxide emissions. Broecker predicted that as the cooling cycle bottomed out, global temperatures would rise swiftly. He was right.
1976: The surface of the ice-age Earth CLIMAP, Science CLIMAP, an international project in the 1970s-80s, reconstructed the world's sea-surface temperatures, and thus overall climate, during the last glaciation. The main evidence was deep-sea cores—many taken by Lamont scientists and held in the Lamont Deep-Sea Core Repository, the world's largest. It was the first comprehensive look at earth's temperature for a time markedly different from our own.
1976: Variations in earth's orbit—pacemaker of ice ages James Hays, John Imbrie, Nicholas Shackleton, Science In the 1920s, Serb mathematician Milutin Milankovic proposed that earth's ice ages coincide with cyclic changes in the eccentricity, axis orientation and wobble of the earth as it orbits the sun. The idea was long debated. This paper finally proved to most scientists' satisfaction that Milankovic cycles are real. Lamont's James Hays worked with two other giants of modern science: Brown University's John Imbrie and Cambridge's Nicholas Shackleton.
1978: The Marine oxygen isotope record in Pleistocene coral, Barbados, West Indies Richard G. Fairbanks et al., Quaternary Research This paper documented the magnitude and rapidity of sea-level rises when ice sheets and glaciers melted at the ends of several previous ice ages. Other Lamont researchers have followed with many more studies to the present quantifying past changes in sea level. These studies are key to understanding how current melting of ice may affect us in the near future.
1986: Experimental Forecasts of El Niño Mark Cane, Stephen Zebiak et al., Nature El Niño is earth's most powerful natural climate cycle, shifting precipitation and temperature patterns, to affect crops, disease outbreaks and natural hazards globally. Its physics and variable timing were long cloaked in mystery. Cane and Zebiak were the first to construct a model that explained how it worked, and could successfully predict an El Niño. This and related work led to forecasts that are now used worldwide to plan for crop planting, public-health initiatives and emergency relief efforts.
1986: Inter-Ocean Exchange of Thermocline Water Arnold Gordon, Journal of Geophysical Research In conjunction with earlier oceanographic work, laid out how differences in the temperature and salt levels in different layers drive the exchange of water between oceans, and, ultimately, affect climate over vast distances. Gordon and colleagues continue to work on questions of large-scale ocean circulation in Indonesia, the Southern Ocean and elsewhere.
1989: The role of ocean-atmosphere reorganizations in glacial cycles Wallace Broecker and George Denton, Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta This study explored the role of freshwater inflow into the northern North Atlantic, via melting ice, in governing the oceanic "conveyor belt," and its possible association with disruptions of currents that could cause sudden, large-scale climate changes. Followed by many other papers including 1992's Evidence for Massive Discharges of Icebergs into the North Atlantic Ocean During the Last Glacial Period (Gerard Bond et al., Nature).
1995: Temperature histories from tree rings and corals Edward Cook, Climate Dynamics Cook, now head of Lamont's Tree Ring Lab, showed how tree rings dating back as far as 1,000 years correlated with both modern instrumental records and marine corals to show anomalous warming during the 20th century in many parts of the world. Working from places ranging from Tasmania and South America to Mongolia, North America and Scandinavia, lab scientists have since published many more papers on how tree rings illuminate regional and global climate histories. These include a monumental drought atlas of Asia, published in 2010.
1995: Plio-Pleistocene African climate Peter de Menocal, Science This connected the evolution of humans with a shift toward more arid conditions in the east African climate after 2.8 million years ago. The change resulted in the development of open savannahs where newly upright human hunters are thought to have thrived. It was one of the early papers suggesting climate's basic effects upon humans. Many uncertainties persist about early human evolution, but many scientists continue investigations of the evolution-climate link.
2000: Climate change and the collapse of the Akkadian Empire: evidence from the deep-sea Heidi Cullen, Peter de Menocal et al. Geology The sophisticated Akkadians ruled the Middle East until 4,200 years ago, when their empire suddenly collapsed. Heidi Cullen (who later became a popular TV personality covering climate) linked it with an abrupt 300-year drought, using layers of dust found in seabed deposits. This helped nourish the emerging awareness of how environmental change may affect societies. Later related Lamont papers include a 2010 study exploring the collapse of southeast Asia's Angkor culture, and other Asian societies, also apparently due to drought.
2002: Global sea-air CO2 flux based on climatological surface ocean pCO2, and seasonal biological and temperature effects Taro Takahashi et al., Deep-Sea Research Part II Based on some 940,000 measurements taken over four decades, Taro Takahashi and colleagues mapped for the first time on a global scale the exchange of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and oceans—a flux that plays a key role regulating climate. This was followed by papers including 2009's Reconstruction of the history of anthropogenic CO2 concentrations in the ocean (Samar Khatiwala et al., Nature), which indicated that since 2000, the world's oceans may have begun losing their ability to absorb rising human emissions of carbon.
2004: Long-Term Aridity Changes in the Western United States Edward Cook et al., Science Tree rings showed that an ongoing drought in the U.S. Southwest paled in comparison to one during an unusually warm period about 1,000 years ago. It suggested that the region is vulnerable to disastrous drying due to global warming. An influential 2007 paper followed, led by climate modeler Richard Seager: Model Projections of an imminent transition to a more arid climate in southwestern North America," Science. This added evidence that the region will dry significantly in the 21st century–a transition now probably already underway.
2008: In Situ Carbonation of Peridotite for CO2 Storage Peter Kelemen, Juerg Matter, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences With the recognition of the problems caused by rising carbon dioxide, Lamont scientists in several disciplines have been among the first to look into possible ways to capture and store emissions. This paper documents efforts to use natural chemical reactions within deep-earth rocks in Oman to "freeze" emissions into underground reservoirs. Projects by other researchers are looking into piping emissions into the seabed off the U.S. Northeast, or using rocks common on the U.S. mainland.
2011: Civil conflicts are associated with the global climate Solomon Hsiang et al., Nature In the first study of its kind, Hsiang and his colleagues linked periodic increases in civil conflicts to the arrival of El Niño. The study found that the characteristic hotter, often dryer weather in certain areas doubled the risk of warfare across some 90 tropical countries, and accounted for a fifth of worldwide conflicts in the past 50 years. There is now speculation (though no proof) from studies done at Lamont and elsewhere that El Niño cycles themselves could be intensified by rising global temperatures in the future.
2012: The geological record of ocean acidification Bärbel Hönisch et al., Science Lead author Bärbel Hönisch and her colleagues showed that the world's oceans are turning acidic at a rate unprecedented over at least the last 300 million years, apparently due to reactions with human emissions of CO2. This could affect marine ecosystems, and may already be having effects in regions such as the U.S. Pacific Northwest.
2015: Climate Change in the Fertile Crescent and implications of the recent Syrian drought Colin P. Kelley et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences This study asserts that a record 2006-2010 drought in Syria was stoked by climate change–and that the drought in turn helped propel Syria and surrounding nations into the vast war that has evolved into one of the worst disasters of modern times. It made worldwide headlines, and has become one of the most highly cited pieces of research linking ongoing climate trends with drastic consequences for humanity.
2015: Contribution of anthropogenic warming to California drought during 2012-2014 A. Park Williams et al., Geophysical Research Letters With record-breaking drought devastating California starting in 2012, many scientists began looking at whether global warming was playing a role. Bioclimatologist A. Park Williams and his colleagues showed that while natural factors probably caused the lack of rainfall, global warming played a measurable role in the drought by drying out soils further. The study was instantly seized by politicians and others as hard evidence that climate change is already affecting agriculture, economy and environment in the United States.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Transitions: Climate, Fire, and Forests in Mongolia
The silence you may have heard since our last post was the sound of microscope lights flickering, measuring stages gliding, brains grinding, numbers crunching, and poi dogs pondering. We wrapped up all planned field work last summer for our research grant on climate, fire, and forest history in Mongolia. We have transitioned from the field-intensive portion of the grant to the data and publication phase of the scientific process. We have presented research in various meetings and settings and have earnestly begun to put our findings to our peers to begin the publication process. We are also transitioning to a new vein of research in Mongolia that gets to the title of this blog. It has been a long time coming.
First, Dr. Amy Hessl was inspired by the forest in transition on Solongotyin Davaa. This is the famous forest where global warming was first reported in Mongolia. High elevation forests are rare to burn. So, the thought that a landscape with wood that has been on the forest floor for more than 100o years became an important part of Amy's summary on "Pathways for climate change effects on fire: Models, data, and uncertainties".
Next, Amy led a slew of us in a publication summarizing our initial findings of fire history from the northern edge of the Gobi Steppe to Mongolia's border with Russia near Sükhbaatar City. With the glaring exception on Bogd Uul, this paper, "Reconstructing fire history in central Mongolia from tree-rings", gives a quick glimpse into the fairly persistent fire regime across central Mongolia over the last 280-450 years.
NPR recently finished a series of reports on the environmental and cultural transitions currently happening in Mongolia as a result of climate change and the massive mining boom underway. The post that caught our attention was the one on "Mongolia's Dilemma: Who Gets The Water?" Water has been a focus or the Mongolian-American Tree-Ring Project (MATRIP) since the beginning (see MATRIP's major publications on this subject here, here (get the streamflow data here), here, here). So, we are happy to announce that this rich vein of research has continued with the fire history research grant by first filling an important gap in the MATRIP network and then having several manuscripts on this subject in revision or review.
One paper that we are quite excited about is an analysis of drought variability across Mongolia's 'Breadbasket'. We were taken aback in throughout the last three field seasons by the large-scale revitalization of Mongolia's agricultural sector. It was surprising to see center-pivot irrigation and large tracts of fields in northern Mongolia. This cultural change is intended to transition Mongolia towards agricultural independence for its growing population. Our analysis highlights important differences in drought variation for the eastern and western portions of the breadbasket region. Stay tuned!
Finally, we are headed back to Mongolia this summer to begin pilot work on new research currently funded by the Lamont Climate Center, The National Geographic Society, and West Virginia University. As hinted in our last post, we will begin field work to determine if there was a warmer and wetter climate during the rise of Chinggis Khaan's Mongol Empire.
Really – stay tuned!
More Rain & More Horses Leads to a Stronger Chinggis? It is a thought!
Amy Hessl is featured on National Geographic radio about our team's discovery of ancient deadwood that suggests the rise of Chinggis Khaan was associated with increased rainfall. Listen to learn more.
the devil shivered in his sleeping bag
By Neil Pederson
As discussed in the previous post, the first half of the field season would be the scientific highlight of the 2011 field season. While we had highlights later on, in terms of finding new stuff, that was it. We knew that would be a highlight because we had a fairly good idea of what was coming next. To our delight, we would be heading back to the small mountain village called Bugant. This is a delight because the family we stay with on trips to the northwestern Khentii Moutains are exemplary in terms of Mongolian generosity.
We knew that we would immediately not only be served fresh tea and plenty of candies and snacks upon our arrival, we also knew that no matter what time ae arrived we would be served a meal. We arrived at about 9 pm and, sure enough, by 9:45 we were fully into our meal.
As always, it was a fun and spirited meal. All the extended family came to visit with us and each other:
We looked forward to the next day's field work because we were going to one of the most interesting forests we've seen in Mongolia – it was an intact, old-growth forest….
However, not all scientific fieldwork is full of exploration and discovery like those fueled by sawdust and mosquito wings. Sometimes, quite often actually, scientific research is monotonous. Even in the field. The work ahead, while in beautiful places, was akin to making the doughnuts. We had to go back to areas we had sampled before, install plots and just core whatever trees fall in those plots. There would be no bird-dogging or seeking out great old trees. What fell in our plots, randomly-located so that they best represented the average forest, ended up being our study trees. Ah, we are not complaining. It is just not as thrilling as the hunt. It feels almost industrial – industrial ecology.
We were a bit leery of this forest as well. When we last sampled in 2009, it turned out to be a cold and wet visit. 2011 turned out to be very much the same. In fact, it turned out to be wetter and colder. It definitely had us shivering in our sleeping bags.
We had expected to complete our work in the first day at the site pictured above. But, after a couple passing showers that were fairly heavy for Mongolia, the temperatures dropped quickly and, well, we started getting cold. We were prepared for this, but somehow this day got to us. We really started shivering and making mistakes. When you start making mistakes when you are cold and wet, that is a good sign to call things off. Not much good can come from continuing. What one can expect is potentially bad data, more mistakes and more mistakes that could become dangerous. So, we called it a day and went fishing.
OK, Baljaa went fishing. Specifically, he went wood fishing. It is a method commonly used to gather firewood in areas with little wood. As you can see, Baljaa, despite being a Mongolian cowboy with more than a hundred horses [he's a good catch, ladies!], struck out. Time to call in the pro:
As you can see, Baatarbileg is still the master!
What did we cook with this wood? Our clothes, of course:
Actually, the fire and wonderful soup for dinner warmed us up. I do not think the devil actually shivered in his sleeping bag.
The next day turned out to be sunny and we finished off this site. We did get one new discovery: a Mongolian lizard. It got so used to being held, or perhaps it was so hungry from the previous cool, wet day, it itself 'fished' for food while being held:
The next day found us heading back to the 'cement patio' site. This is a favorite site for us as we had a wonderful Mongolian cookout in 2009. What we had forgotten was how far back we had driven into the Khentii Mountains to find this site.
Talk about monotonous [and desperate…like the beginning of 2011, we were desperate in 2009 to find a goldmine site], we drove 20 km on the road below just to find this site. You can hear below how we had forgotten how far back we drove in 2009.
We hit the slopes as soon as we re-discovered the cement patio; it took about 3 hrs of driving to get to this spot. I had not been up this slope yet as I sampled a different slope in 2009. When Amy said it was steep, I really didn't know what she meant. As you can see, the slope was nearly a 40% slope:
While in the midst of conducting this industrial ecology, the sky decided to open up again. However, the storm didn't seem as serious as the prior day and we hunkered down for about 20 minutes. Sure enough, the storm passed as we completed most of our work at this site.
The views from this site are pretty spectacular.
Indeed, it is such a special forest that we will have a special post regarding the state and potential future of this part of the Khentii Mountains.
We headed down the mountain back to the patio and found an incredible patch of berries. There were two types of currants and one type of blueberry. It was delicious. In fact, as it was Chuka's birthday (our other driver in 2009 and 2011), we gathered as much fruit as possible and re-created our 2009 cook out night to celebrate Chuka. It was a fantastic night until yet another thunderstorm crashed the party and sent us scurrying for the tents. All in all, it was a pretty great night.
There is not too much to report for now about this site. It is definitely another old-growth site that Amy has already written about. We saw some amazing specimens for the main conifer species in Bugant and hiked some cool ridges. We saw wolf and bear scat. We were lucky to spend time in that exceptional Mongolian Wilderness. Here are a couple more pictures.
Celebrating the end of the Antarctic field season
We decide today is the last day for our camp, and we pack up and drive back to our base camp, the Central Transantarctic Mountain camp (CTAM). A sadness in a way, because it was our cozy home for a week. We ate, slept, and joked around here night after night. Also, we realize that packing up camp represents the end of the field season, except for one more day. For the last day of work we will fly by helicopter to the Achernar area from the CTAM camp.
The last day at Mount Achernar. We use the helicopter to go near the southernmost part of the area, near the Lewis ice tongue, which comes off the East Antarctic ice sheet. After a long day, we collect our last samples, and wait for the helo to pick us up – the end of the field work for this season. We realize we had a very successful field season. Not one day of work was lost at either Mt Howe or Mt Achernar (a very rare experience for Antarctica). We think about how we accomplished our goals in terms of getting to both remote sites and collecting samples.
Back at CTAM camp, we scramble to get all our stuff packed up ready to be shipped back to McMurdo. They are closing the CTAM camp for scientific work in a week because they need to take everything down by the middle of February. The middle of February represents the end of the field work for everyone in Antarctica. It starts to get too cold, and the sun starts setting in some areas farther north. People start to go home then and McMurdo gets ready for the winter.
We all fly back to McMurdo. A bed and running toilets (!) for the first time since we left for our camping trips. Also, the dorms have dark curtains that go over the windows. So, darkness, a bed, and a toilet – who would have known life can get so good!
Mike Kaplan (Lamont)
Glacial deposits: A clue to reconstructing the history of the Antarctic ice sheet
We set out on the snowmobiles with all the sleds to Mount Achernar with all our stuff. After about three hours we reach the site (crossing the flagged crevasse zone with no problem). We are joined by a fifth team member, Tim Flood, a Professor at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin. Tim has expertise in petrology or rock composition. So, we will have one additional person for the Achernar part of the trip.
At first we only find 'blue ice' to set up camp. Blue ice gets its name mainly because – in contrast to the typical situation of having a layer of snow on top of the ice sheet – there is only ice. The snow layer that normally covers the top of the ice sheet is blown away where the winds blow pretty fast and consistently. This means there is no good place for camp right in the Achernar area because all the blue ice is a sign of strong winds. We decide to back up a few miles to where the snow starts again and camp a little but away from Mount Achernar. This means we will have a 'daily commute' to get to where we want to work, but at least we have a nice place to live for the week. It is less windy where we decide to set up camp and a nice layer of snow in which to pitch the tents and walk around. Blue ice is very difficult to walk on – it is just what it sounds like – walking on ice!
We set up camp. Unlike at Mount Howe, here each person will have their own tent. In addition, we set up the bathroom tent and a huge kitchen tent, named the 'Arctic oven.' The arctic oven will act as a kitchen and dining area. It is about 25 feet long, enough to be comfortable. And, when we have two stoves going inside, the temperature gets up to a comfortable 60 degrees or even higher (hence, its name); comfortable enough to start peeling off all our jackets while eating. Two little speakers that Tim picked up in an airport, attached to ipods, means we even have a stereo system in the arctic oven cook tent.
The first day we drive out to where we want to work. It takes about an hour and a half each way by snowmobile. This is quite a bit of time. In addition, the glacier deposits we want to study are much larger in area compared to at our first site at Mount Howe. It is not practical for us to drive everywhere and get to all the places by walking. We realize we will need to utilize the helicopter from nearby CTAM. So, the next week or so we alternate: a "snowmobile day" when we commute by snowmobile from camp to the field site and "helo days". On the helo days, the helicopter flies out to our camp (a short flight by helicopter from the CTAM camp) picks us up, takes us exactly where we want to go around Mount Achernar, and then at the end of the day, comes back out to bring us back to our camp. All these trips only take the helicopter folks about 75 minutes in total each day, given how fast they go.
We spend the next 8 days or so doing the same sort of work as at our first site Mount Howe. We map the glacier deposits (how red or oxidized are they – how do their elevations changes? How do the deposits themselves change in terms of shape and composition and other characteristics?). Mike K and Mike R (with occasional assistance from others) collect samples for the surface exposure dating, so they can eventually figure out how old all the deposits are. Kathy, Nicole and Tim study the composition and types of glacier rocks and sediments left behind.
Similar to our finding at Mt Howe, we find pronounced changes in the glacier moraine deposits around Mt Achernar. This indicates there are likely deposits of different ages, left behind at different times by the ice sheet when it was bigger. All the team members continue to collect samples that will be analyzed later in the lab.
Mike K, Kathy, Mike R, Nicole and Tim
How to cross a crevasse zone on the Antarctic ice sheet
We are back at the CTAM (Central Trans Antarctic Mountain) camp.
Over the last several days we take stock in that we accomplished the first major goal of our trip. That is, to study the glacier deposits at Mount Howe, the southernmost rock outcrop on Earth. We found (what we think are) deposits left behind by the ice sheet when it was bigger, at several different time periods in recent Earth's history. We can tell in a preliminary way, before we have carried out the laboratory work back home, that the glacier deposits must be of different ages because they are different 'colors' – red for more oxidized (rusted). They also show other signs of varying in age such as the weathering of the rocks and landforms, which increases away from the ice sheet (=older). This means that there will be a record of the glacier leaving behind different types of rocks over a period of time, likely well before the last ice age. It was an important goal to find such deposits for our sampling.
We quickly regroup our stuff over the next few days at the CTAM camp and start to get ready for the next major camp move, to Mount Achernar. For this stage of our trip, which is only about 25 kilometers from the CTAM camp, we are hoping to get there by snowmobile. We will use 4 snowmobiles pulling 6 sleds (two snowmobiles will pull two sleds each). This will allow us to move our entire camp, set it up for more than a week near the site, work, and then come back to CTAM after 8 days or so. However, there is a small problem. There is a crevasse shear zone in the ice sheet between the CTAM camp and Mount Achernar. So, we must figure out where to cross the crevasse zone. We do this two ways. First, we take a helicopter trip from CTAM for an hour (they are quick) to scope out or reconnaissance the area (a "reconn"). On the helicopter, we think we figure out where we might be able to cross the crevasse zone. The helicopter trip also allows us to see the whole area of Mt Achernar and where we want to camp. Camp ideally has to be on a snow patch so we can stake the tents down and in a spot not too windy.
The second way we figure out how to cross the crevasse zone is to go to it, by snowmobile on just a day trip from CTAM (another "reconn"). Mike R (Roberts), our mountain guide, shows us how to link the snowmobiles by ropes, in case one falls into a crevasse. We also put on climbing harnesses and rope ourselves to a second set of ropes between the snowmobiles. This is so that if we fall in, we can either climb out or be pulled out by others.
We get to the crevasse zone which starts at about 15 miles from the CTAM camp. The first few crevasses seem quite bad – each about 2 to 5 feet cross. Although they all seem to have natural 'snow bridges' that cross the top of the crevasse, which we can drive across, we need to be confident that they will not collapse due to the weight of the machine. Mike R slowly investigates each crevasse we cross to see how strong the overlying snow bridges are and how wide each crevasse is. After about an hour, we start thinking maybe there are just too many crevasses (every few hundred feet we are finding another one) and it would take too long to figure out how to get across the entire crevasse zone. Mike R suggests we park and get off the snowmobiles, link up with ropes and slowly walk for a while to see how much longer the bad crevasses continue. This seems easier at the moment then stopping and starting the snowmobiles every time we reach another crevasse. To our surprise, the crevasses quickly get smaller and disappear just as we start walking! We did it ! We found a reasonable and quick way to get across the crevasse zone which is less than a 1 mile wide at its bad part. We put flags next to each one so that we can easily see where they are when we come back through on the way to Mount Achernar site to do our work.
Mike Kaplan, Kathy Licht, Nicole Bader and Mike Roberts
Moraines and spaghetti in the Transantarctic Mountains
The first day of geologic work at our Mt Howe field camp. We start walking on the moraines (piles of debris left by a glacier, just like around NY, Indiana, Wisconsin, where we are from) and we have to put on crampons. These are spikes that go on the bottom of our boots. This is because the moraines are really hummocky to walk on and right under just a few inches of dirt is ice, making us slip and slide and do more leg splits than we can remember!
But, we quickly identify roughly where we think the ice was during the last ice age. We can do this because the deposits are 'grey' in color as they do not have time to oxidize (like rust on a car). The stuff left behind by older ice ages is red in color – because it has had time to oxidize. We start collecting our first samples. Kathy and Nicole collect material to figure out the type and chemistry of the glacier deposits left behind, which will help tell them which way the ice must have been moving in the past and what kind of rocks it brought up from below. Mike K and Mike R start measuring the elevations of all the glacial deposits and more important start collecting samples from the tops of large boulders. These samples will help us figure out the time at which they were left behind. Once back home, we will use a method called cosmogenic surface exposure dating. We will use our lab facilities at Lamont-Doherty Earth Obsservatory to date the rocks, using the cosmogenic nuclides Beryllium-10 as well as Helium-3.
Over the next 6 days or so, both teams just systematically collect samples from each set of ridges or moraines that the ice sheet left behind in the past. The idea is that each distinct moraine ridge represents a different time period or glacial period when the ice sheet was bigger. The weather holds up well, an important fact when you are only a couple hundred miles from the South Pole. The temperature remains about -10 to 0 during the day. Anytime the wind picks up thought, the wind chills causes it to get colder fast. Often exposed skin has to be covered quickly. Only a few days are cloudy, otherwise the sun adds a little bit more warmth. Fortunately, the tents are warmer, especially when we run the coleman stoves. So, eating dinner is way more comfortable than being outside.
Mike K., Mike R., Kathy and Nicole


text:
CEDARTOWN, Ga. (AP) -- Authorities say two teenagers have been arrested in the stabbing death of a 27-year-old woman who was attempting to deliver pizza in suburban Atlanta.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (http://bit.ly/LtZPYk ) reports that 18-year-old Cadedra L. Cook and a 15 year old were arrested Friday after a short foot chase.
Cedartown Assistant Police Chief James Newsome told WSB-TV that two officers were conducting a traffic stop around 9 p.m. Thursday when they heard screaming. The officers went toward the direction of the screams and found Elizabeth Rae Hucheson with multiple stab wounds.
Newsome says Hucheson was taken to Polk Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.
Police believe the two suspects called in an order for a pizza and then ambushed Hucheson when she arrived at a home on Thompson Street in Cedartown.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I really want to use this plugin, a client wants it on their website with all the extensions. But first I'm testing with the TwentyTwelve WordPress Theme and really I have two days trying to make it work ...
Actually, Sell Media v 1.9.2 works with this theme (TwentyTwelve)?.
After setting up my account in Paypal Sandbox and do some purchases, I do not receive anything, nor link to download or confirmation email, nothing!, It seems that the listener URL does not bring back the information. Even in Payments no purchases appear. Since I have lost 2 days with this I would not want to throw everything and go with another plugin...
Note that in a first test, it worked, but the link received give me a 404 error page, after two test, stopped working at all. I also did tests with the live mode, all well in Paypal, but no link on the page Thanks or Dashboard.
FYI, I'm setting the Permalink in Post Name mode.
Thanks, Carol


text:
You're not Jewish!? I'm quitting. I only work here because I thought "us" Jews were running this town. WTF, Dan?
Isn't it enough that ZOG conned my parents into having all three of their sons circumcised, Josh? Do we have to go to Temple too? You don't even go to Temple!
if "temple" means "bar," then we all qualify.
time for friday services right about now, actually.
So you only hire BAD Jews? Veddy EEntedestingk. She also says without irony that "Women Are Stupid", and links to "David Duke, PhD" on her list of Favorites, along with something called "Ziopedia", by which route you can connect to all the other kooks in the kookerama. I'll bet Pat Buchanan and Thomas Sowell are so proud to be on her list.
am i the only one disappointed cause the links in dan's post didn't link to pictures of his nose, hair, and circumcision scar?
that would have been funny...
I've decided friday happy hour would be so much better if bars gave out challah.
mmm challah.
It's posts like these that get me through my workday. How much longer till "temple"?
Since my mom is cathlic and dad is jewish, which secret world dominating conspriacy group do I belong to? I'm very concerned and I want to start going to the meetings. Are breeders allowed? What benefits do I get?
Oy Vey?
Maybe they thought your real name was "Weiner".
I know, i will ask Ad-roc, MCA, and Mike D in about 4 hours
Alison Bechdel isn't Jewish either, but I like her anyway.
Alison Bechdel isn't Jewish either, but I like her anyway.
Maybe they said Jewish, and just meant gay. Common typo, I suppose. (/sarcasm)
As a Canadian, I'd like to apologize for this blogger's existence.
@5, No, you're not the only one who is disappointed. That would have been funny, not to mention X-rated.
Wow. Dan, you didn't know you were "behing the radical homosexual movement"? You should pay more attention to these geniuses.
How come the radical homosexual movement gets all the press? I'd like to read about the people behind the ordinary, ho-hum homosexual movement.
No way that site was serious. No freakin' way.
Dan, why do you call yourself Catholic? I thought you were atheist/agnostic?
Dan, why do you call yourself Catholic? I thought you were atheist/agnostic?
urip sxcz rgea ndckmhgf ujdiphae qtmuafjv cyjdlbot
qgynbtwc fcokzpu lndgporc emaoswy hbmzjfey upvcekbnl gtsyoil http://www.hqmy.nzdfrexv.com
Comments Closed
In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 45 days old).


text:
Before and After: A $2 Woven Basket Gets a New Look
Sometimes you see a $2 basket at a yard sale that is not quite what you are looking for, and you buy it anyway because it's only two dollars. Then you take it home and add your own DIY spin to it and you're all set. That's what happened with this DIY basket idea. The transformation is a pretty colorful one.


text:
I know this sounds ridiculous, but I keep getting an error telling me that I cannot insert a duplicate key when trying to delete records in my database. My code is is quite basic
using (var scope = new TransactionScope())
However on the
SubmitChanges() right after the
DeleteAllOnSubmit(dataBaseEntries) command, I keep getting the exception "Cannot insert duplicate key in object." I have tried breaking this up into two separate transactions, and even using
DeleteOnSubmit() with a
foreach loop and even removing the insert statement. No matter what, I get this error. This has really stumped me because I am not inserting any records, I am deleting them. Any advice?
UPDATE: Upon removing the key constraint that was giving me trouble seemed to work. But since I am not the creator of the database, this is not really the most desirable choice.


text:
Video Industry News Video Company News Technology Industry News Technology Company News Novelty Industry News Novelty Company News Gay Industry News Gay Company News Legal Industry News All Company News
Released: Jan 01st, 2006
Running Time: 85
Director: D Sparky
Company: Hustler Video
Cast: Nat Turnher, John E Depth, Anna Belle, Amerika, Nathan Threat, Victoria Allure, Amber Stylez, Ace (I), Mavrick, Krystal Wett, Dwayne Cumminz
Critical Rating: AAA 1/2
Genre: Gonzo
Solid selection of sexy black babes makes Black & Wild 18 a sure thing. Victoria Allure starts things off in fifth gear when she struts out to meet Nathan Threat wearing high heels and an itsy bikini, the bottom of which completely disappears into the crack of her giant booty.
But the hottest sex is between Amerika and Nat Turnher. She grinds on him like there is no other cock in the world - while Amber Styles pets them both. Krystal Wett and Anna Belle both turn out decent butt bouncing scenes, too.
Retailing: Add to other titles from this series.


text:
With a mid-height gusset, the Joules Kelly Welly offers a great fit for athletic calves. This waterproof boot is friendly to shapely, muscular calves. Made with a synthetic upper, synthetic lining and a hard-wearing rubber sole, this boot won't crack in cold weather.
Premier product - this product is not eligible for any discounts off the purchase price.
Dover Saddlery is proud to offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee on all of our products. We stand behind the quality of our products, and should you not be satisfied with your purchase, simply return it and we will refund, replace or exchange it for you.
100% Satisfaction Guaranteed - Your Money Back Any Time, for Any Reason.
Dover Saddlery understands your concerns regarding online security. We share in your concerns and therefore work hard with experts in the field to maintain a highly secure ordering environment. Along with our comment to security, we offer you a Secure Order Guarantee - this gives you 100% protection for your credit card transactions on Doversaddlery.com.
Our Secure Order Guarantee means that you will never have to pay any money related to unauthorized charges to your credit card account, as long as those charges are a direct result from a transaction on Doversaddlery.com.
How it works: If you experience credit card fraud, the Fair Credit Act specifies that your credit card company can hold you liable for no more than $50.00 in fraudulent charges to your account. Our Secure Order Guarantee will reimburse you for any amount up to $50.00 billed to you by your credit card company for unauthorized charges to your account, if those charges result from an order you placed with Doversaddlery.com. For this protection you must promptly notify your credit card company of fraudulent charges and follow their procedures as outlined in your credit card agreement.


text:
MC351 Product Brochures
Please note that Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view these files.
Please click on the Adobe logo below to install Acrobat Reader if necessary.
|File Size:
|MC351 & MC361 Series Brochure - Web
|MC351 Specification Sheet
Product Support
- Frequently Asked Questions
- How to Download and Install OKI Drivers
- Windows 10 Driver Compatibility
- Windows 8/8.1 and Server 2012 Driver Compatibility
- Windows 7 Driver Compatibility
- Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, Yosemite & Mavericks Driver Compatibility
- Citrix Ready Drivers
- Consumables News
- Recycling
- User Manuals


text:
I have a simple LINQ statement that builds a huge monster list of around 8 billion items. Each of the items is then looped through and an operation is performed on the item. The problem is that the foreach is not even run until the list is fully created. Is it possible to use LINQ and have it execute the foreach for each item as it builds it instead of waiting?
I am not doing anything in the list like sorting. Just straight list building.
Edit: This may seem wierd, but I have some database rows with several numeric values. I know that some arithmetic combination of those values yields a number I want, but am not sure which. Thus I created the following LINQ:
from I1 in Items
from I2 in Items
from I3 in Items
from I4 in Items
select new Item[] { I1, I2, I3, I4 }
).ToList().ForEach(x => CalculateValues(x);
I did the above statement for 1 item then 2 items and so on. My computer hung for a while at the 3 items with is about 28 million items.
I do know that this is inefficient, but I was going to do a quick program to run overnight.


text:
LulzSec hackers plead guilty to DDoS attack charges
Pair admit staging attacks on high-profile websites, but deny other charges.
Two members of the hacking group LulzSec have pleaded guilty to staging Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on a series of high-profile websites in the UK and United States.
Twenty-year-old Ryan Cleary from Wickford in Essex appeared at Southwark Crown Court earlier today along with 19-year-old Jake Davies from Lerwick, Shetland.
The pair admitted staging (DDoS) attacks against Sony, Nintendo, News International and 20th Century Fox's websites.
Cleary also pleaded guilty to charges related to hacking attacks against the US Air Force Agency's computers, according to a report on the Daily Telegraph.
However, both pleaded not guilty to allegations they had posted "unlawfully obtained confidential computer data" on The Pirate Bay and PasteBin websites and incited others to take part in similar activities.
The pair will stand trial, along with Ryan Ackroyd, 25, and an unnamed 17-year-old, in April 2013.


text:
7 Reviews
My Husband and I love this recipe. I serve the shrimp over lettuce with a lime cilantro dressing. Wonderfull!!!!
Well that's it... I have officially died and gone to Heaven!! these are superior! these shrimp are the most amazing shrimp I have ever eaten, I urge anyone who enjoys something spicy and really REALLY good to make these, you will be very glad you did!
A definite keeper!!! Everyone loved these!! I couldn't find habenaro, so used a lg jalapeno instead and it was the perfect amount of heat. Anymore, and they wouldn't have been as enjoyable. Made the sauce the night before my party, let it sit out until soft again, and spread it on before bbqing. Perfect blend of flavours, I can't wait to make it again soon!!!
I used olive oil instead of butter and it rocked!! My spouse was crying. I was congested but my sinuses are all clear. Added two more cloves of garlic, served it with a salad and we just loved it!! Thanks!
This recipe was awsome!! I use it most without the cumin, and use olive oil instead of butter. It goes great with grilled steak. All my guests love it.
I liked this recipe, but thought it was a little too hot. It tasted good, but it was really hard for me to get past the thermonuclear part. But that's just my preference...if you like really spicy food, this recipe is certainly for you!
Wow, use the right Habanero and this is just TNT! I served with salad and a little cottage cheese.


text:
Comparative info-graph between Hiroshima and Chernobyl's overall aftermath effects. This shot shows the causes of death
To see full info-graph: http://www.ginagrittner.com/nuclear-power/
keyboard shortcuts:
L or F like
post comment
Show and tell for designers
What are you working on? Dribbble is a community of designers sharing screenshots of their work, process, and projects.
Copyright © 2009–2016 Dribbble LLC. All screenshots © their respective owners. Shipped from Salem, Mass. USA.


text:
On my site, http://www.michaelhelenek.com, the top menu bar appears as it should on various browsers on my laptop. However, when I open my site on my iphone the top menu bar looks different and worse.
On the laptop, it shows the 3 pages (home, philosophy, contact). On the iphone there is a black box that reads, "menu", which needs to be clicked on to reveal the 3 menus items (home, philosophy, contact).
I would like to eliminate this black bar and have the iphone look like the PC.
I am a newbie to all of this. If anyone can advise, that would be appreciated.
Thank you,


text:
I know its a very vague description but the symptoms are these:
if I enable the plugin, even if I have disabled caching, my server load goes up like crazy, even if I am the only one currently browsing my site.
As soon as I disable the plugin everything is back to normal.
BUT it was running perfectly smooths just a couple of days ago.
What happened in-between?
As far as I can remember, I updated Debian with the latest patches, I updated W3 Total Cache, I added a new custom post type to my site and made some cosmetical changes. Nothing that could trigger this. Btw. caching to memcached.
Any idea what to check or how to trace this? It was more or less luck that I deactivated this plugin and saw that the load went down. It might not even be the plugin but an incompatibility of it with something else?


text:
Two variants of the new Microsoft commercial
Posted by Matt Burns (@mjburnsy)
Next Story
Yahoo Rolls Out New Template For SearchMonkey Results
The latest Microsoft commercial, dubbed I'm a PC, is a tad long at 1:01 for everyday time slots so there are two alternatives that you will more likely see on a daily basis. Same subject matter, just a little quicker at 31 seconds each.
Second one after the jump.
- Founded 1974
- Overview Microsoft is an American multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and personal computers and services. Its best known software products are the [Microsoft Windows line of operating systems](/product/windows), [Microsoft Office office suite](/product/microsoft-office), and [Internet Explorer](http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/download-ie) …
- Location Redmond, WA
- Categories Software, Video Games
- Website http://www.microsoft.com
- Full profile for Microsoft


text:
Hello, Hello. Sign In
Please enter a valid city, state or zip code
23 reviews | 4.5 out of 5
Originally bought the Panasonic kit with one base station and four peripheral handsets, but quickly found out I needed at least two more for our big house, which with regular phones now has 14 (who wants to either run for a call or drag a cordless around only for it to get lost?). The Panasonic cordless handsets are small, reasonable in appearance, and the chargers are small and can be mounted to a wall as an alternative. Reception is very good and there is no interference with my household wireless computer network, garage door opener, or wireless doorbells. More options for messaging, speed dialing, etc. then I will ever need. Supposedly good batteries that should be an upgrade over the ni-cad types of the past. As to price, not cheap but of course Walmart had the best price and very quick site to store delivery. Hopefully this technology and the phones' quality will get me through at least 7-10 years.
I had bought three different phones and returned them within the 30 days and finally settled on this one. The amount of features and the ability to do everything from the handset is great. Love the silent mode, so on the weekend I don't have someone calling me too early and waking me up. Also I love the ability to block certain phone numbers. I actually use that feature a lot. When you block a call they get a busy signal on their end. That way it doesn't say they are blocked, they just thunk you talk a lot. lol. You are also able to get 5 numbers on the redial mode, but it is 5 numbers from the handset you are using. Each one has the last 5 numbers, so they can be different. Keep the handbook and read it. there are a lot of features that I stumbled onto that I didn't even know I had. Totally worth the money and I am disabled and watch my money like a hawk. I also wanted to see how far I could walk outside before I got ANY static. I got approximately 50 yards before I had ANY static. If you are shopping for a phone and aren't quite sure what to get, because there are a lot of options, this phone will not be a disappointment.
I bought this as an add on to my current base phone (owned for many years) as an extension phone. Easy to "marry" to base--instructions are clear. Info such as speed dial automatically moves over to this phone without having to rekey it. Excellent sound quality.
I needed an extra handset for my current phone system. It was easy to set up and as soon as the batteries were fully charged it was ready for use. I've had the other Panasonic phone system for several years with no problems, and the intercom system works great while in a different part of the house.
Good range, very clear sound on and off speaker, comfortable to use.
Worked well for most of the initial 6 months. Lot of features so you have to read a lot. Not the most intuitive lay out but passable. Phone just froze up for listing incoming calls and moving through out some of the menu selections. Nothing seems to be able to stop this jam. Phone now basically useless.
I bought these phones as part of a 3 pack. Only one is in a phone jack.. the others just need to be plugged into an electric outlet. There is no interference of any kind. Each is as good as the next. Easy to set up. VERY happy with this purchase! May purchase one more handset for the garage!
It has been a struggle to find a phone that has good reception throughout our house and into the yard. This has such good coverage that one of the phones is in my husbands shop in a separate building in the yard a few hundred feet from the house.Clarity is great. "What a great phone system.
it did not work for me....
I bought this as a 5 handset package for our new 3500 square foot house. I have placed a phone in the family room, study, masterbedroom, den and rec room. I am buying one more handset today for a quest bedroom. No problems so far with any static. Highly recommended.
This phone has the worst battery life and clarity ever. I get about 3-4 hours of talk time on a full overnight charge. My cell phone has better reception and battery life than this phone. This is the second bad experience with a Panasonic phone. Never again for me.
About to purchase the 2 additional handsets. Very happy with this system. I did delete the phone book twice due to confusion with the caller list. I just need to get the hang of this system.
great features, the only problem is that 2 of the five handsets people have trouble hearing me on the speaker phone. three handset work great. would recommend to buy. great features.
Purchased as an additional unit for 4 unit system. Paired with the base unit almost immediately and works flawlessly.
This was an additional handset for an existing system we were already using & were pleased with. This handset works well.
Cannot beat this product - have used these for years. This was an order for more handsets.


text:
Book your room at Sleep Inn
Get an overview of this hotelHotel in Kernersville with free breakfast and 24-hour business center
Located in the heart of Kernersville, this hotel is within 12 mi (20 km) of All-A-Flutter Butterfly Farm, Old Mill of Guilford, and Bowman Gray Stadium. Oak Hollow Mall and International Home Furnishings Center are also within 12 mi (20 km).
Hotel Features
Along with a 24-hour business center, this smoke-free hotel has coffee/tea in a common area and a computer station. Free buffet breakfast, free WiFi in public areas, and free self parking are also provided. Additionally, free newspapers, a TV in a common area, and RV/bus/truck parking are onsite.
Room Amenities
All 104 rooms provide conveniences like refrigerators and microwaves, plus free WiFi and flat-screen TVs with cable channels. Pillowtop beds, coffee makers, and free weekday newspapers are among the other amenities available to guests.Would you like to give us feedback? Share it! Opens in a new window
Sleep Inn1406 Heartland Dr Kernersville NC 27284
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
A computer station is located on site and high-speed wireless Internet access is complimentary. A 24-hour business center is on site. Guests can enjoy a complimentary breakfast. This Kernersville hotel also offers coffee/tea in a common area, complimentary newspapers in the lobby, and complimentary use of a nearby fitness facility. Onsite self parking is complimentary. A total renovation of this property was completed in February 2014.
Sleep Inn is a smoke-free property.
- 24-hour business center
- Coffee/tea in common areas
- Free newspapers in lobby
- Computer station
- Free breakfast
- Free self parking
- Free WiFi
- Number of floors - 2
- RV, bus, truck parking
- Smoke-free property
- Television in common areas
- Total number of rooms - 104
- Free use of nearby fitness center
- Use of nearby fitness center (discount)
Family Friendly Amenities
- Free Wi-Fi
- Microwave
- Refrigerator
Available in all rooms: Free WiFi
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi
Free self parking, RV, bus, truck parking
Room Amenities
- Air conditioning
- Blackout drapes/curtains
- Cable TV service
- Coffee/tea maker
- Free weekday newspaper
- Connecting/adjoining rooms available
- Daily housekeeping
- Desk
- Flat-panel TV
- Free local calls
- Free long-distance calls
- Free WiFi
- Hair dryer
- Iron/ironing board
- Microwave
- Phone
- Pillowtop mattress
- Premium TV channels
- Refrigerator
Where to Eat
A complimentary buffet breakfast is served between 6 AM and 9 AM.
To make requests for specific accessibility needs, complete the "Special or Accessibility Requests" section of "Trip Preferences" when you book your hotel.
- Accessible bathroom
- In-room accessibility
- Roll-in shower
Hotel Policies
Minimum check-in age is 21
Check-in time starts at 3:00 PM
Check-out time is 11:00 AM
Payment types
- Pets not allowed
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
No elevators
Optional extras
- Fee for in-room wireless Internet: USD 0.00 (rates may vary)
- Fee for in-room high-speed Internet (wired): USD 0.00 (rates may vary)
- Cribs (infant beds) are available for an additional fee
- Rollaway beds are available for an additional fee
Hotel Name
- Sleep Inn Hotel Kernersville
- Sleep Inn Kernersville
We should mention
Children 18 years old and younger stay free when occupying the parent or guardian's room, using existing bedding. The property has connecting/adjoining rooms, which are subject to availability and can be requested by contacting the property using the number on the booking confirmation.