WARM ATLANTIC UNDERWENT LARGE & RAPID TEMP CHANGES DURING LAST GLACIAL PERIOD.

Julian Sachs and Scott Lehman have have shown that temperature in the warm subtropical Atlantic Ocean fluctuated repeatedly by up to 9 degrees Fahrenheit from 60,000 to 30,000 years ago. This is the first clear evidence that the warm Atlantic, like the polar Atlantic, was undergoing very large and very rapid temperature changes during the last glacial period. Published in SCIENCE (22 Oct).

CU Press Release

Email Scott Lehman

MOUNTAIN RESEARCH STATION GETS ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY DOME.

A domed astronomical observatory should be in place at INSTAAR's 9,500 foot-elevation Mountain Research Station by early October as a result of a cooperative effort involving four Boulder groups.

CU Press Release
Mountain Research Station

Email Station Director William Bowman

INNOCENTS ON THE ICE.

John Behrendt writes a Colorado Book Award Winner about a 1957 expedition to Antarctica. "A richly detailed insider's look at the realities of the last real exploration of the Earth. It shows all the complex glory and trouble of high-tech exploration in the 20th-Century: Personality conflicts, tensions, pratfalls and the transcendent experience of setting foot on unknown lands." Michael Parfit, scriptwriter for the IMAX film Antarctica

Book summary
University Press of Colorado (search on author: Behrendt)

Email John Behrendt

CONNECTING SCIENCE TO ALASKAN NATIVES WITH $1 MILLION OUTREACH GRANT.

Scott Elias is developing an interactive computer program for Alaskan middle school students to interest them in science and show them that natural sciences don't necessarily conflict with traditional American Indian views of nature.

FRESHWATER FLOOD COOLED ATMOSPHERE AT END OF ICE AGE.

A team led by Donald Barber and including four other INSTAAR scientists finds that a catastrophic draining of two gigantic glacial lakes in Canada's Hudson Bay region some 8,200 years ago may have caused the most abrupt, widespread cold spell on Earth during the last 10,000 years. Published in NATURE (July 22).

COLUMBIA GLACIER RETREATING AT RECORD PACE.

Tad Pfeffer et al. show that the fastest moving glacier in the world, the Columbia Glacier in Alaska, has increased its speed from 25 meters to 35 meters per day in recent months.

HUMAN IMPACT ON AUSTRALIAN MEGAFAUNA.

Gifford Miller, Beverly Johnson and others have found that the earliest humans who peopled Australia some 55,000 years ago may have inadvertently disrupted the continent's food chain by burning vast areas of native vegetation, resulting in the extinction of most large animal species. Published in SCIENCE (vol. 20. No. 7).

NIWOT RIDGE LTER GETS $4.2 MILLION RENEWAL GRANT.

An INSTAAR-led study of long-term ecological changes in an alpine region west of Boulder will continue for at least six more years as a result of a $4.2 million renewal grant from the National Science Foundation.

INSTAAR HOLDS OPEN HOUSES.

Scott Elias and other INSTAAR's are coordinating two open houses to showcase a variety of research conducted from Greenland to Antarctica. About 500 area students will attend the Nov. 20 open house for K-12 students, said Scott Elias, an INSTAAR researcher coordinating the events. The Nov. 21 open house is free and open to the general public.

ANTARCTIC ICE CORES SHOW YOUNGER DRYAS COOLING NEAR END OF LAST ICE AGE.

James White et al have analyzed an ancient Antarctic ice core that indicates an abrupt climate warming about 12,500 years ago, an event previously thought to have primarily influenced climate in the Northern Hemisphere. Changes in stable isotope ratios -- an indicator of past temperatures in the Taylor Dome ice core from Antarctica -- are almost identical to changes seen in cores from Greenland's GISP 2 core from the same period.