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THWAITES WILD CARD This Unstable Glacier—With Its Potentially Disastrous Effect on Sea Levels—Is Starting to Show Its Hand

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VOL. 101 | NO. 3 Ancient Assyrian Aurorae MARCH 2020 A Ski Resort Report New AGU Medalists THE THWAITES WILD CARD This unstable glacier—with its potentially disastrous effect on sea levels—is starting to show its hand. FROM THE EDITOR Editor in Chief Heather Goss, AGU, Washington, D.C., USA; [email protected] Editorial Manager, News and Features Editor Caryl-Sue Micalizio The Threat at Thwaites Science Editor Timothy Oleson Senior News Writer Randy Showstack News Writer and Production Associate Kimberly M. S. Cartier he best—or at least most entertaining—thing I learned News and Production Fellow Jenessa Duncombe from this issue is that glaciers tend to behave “like Production & Design pancake batter on a frying pan.” Ted Scambos offers T Manager, Production and Operations Faith A. Ishii that description in this month’s cover story, “Diagnosing Senior Production Specialist Melissa A. Tribur Thwaites” (page 18). Editorial and Production Coordinator Liz Castenson Scambos is the lead scientific coordinator for the U.S. side Assistant Director, Design & Branding Beth Bagley of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC). Senior Graphic Designer Valerie Friedman Graphic Designer J. Henry Pereira Launched in 2018, this large research initiative hosts eight teams studying the past, present, and future of Thwaites, one Marketing of Antarctica’s most unstable glaciers. The problem with Director, Marketing, Branding & Advertising Jessica Latterman Thwaites, and the West Antarctic region generally, is that it’s Assistant Director, Marketing & Advertising Liz Zipse Marketing Program Manager like pancake batter sliding around in too much oil—as it loses Angelo Bouselli Senior Specialist, Digital Marketing Nathaniel Janick mass from both above and below, ocean water is creeping in Digital Marketing Coordinator Ashwini Yelamanchili underneath and reducing the friction between the ice and the bedrock, allowing it to slide freely over the water. The more it flows, the faster it may calve ice, and scientists have serious Advertising worries that this will create a runaway situation called marine ice sheet instability. Display Advertising Dan Nicholas [email protected] It will not surprise you that a catastrophic collapse at Thwaites could have alarming effects Recruitment Advertising Heather Cain on sea level rise worldwide. That’s why the ITGC teams are spending four austral summers [email protected] drilling into the ice, collecting bedrock samples, and building model after model to help the Science Advisers experts get a grip on what is happening there. Geomagnetism, Paleomagnetism, Julie Bowles Of course, there are challenges that come with studying unstable ice at the bottom of the and Electromagnetism world, and sometimes you must address them by blowing up things in Texas. On page 4 (“Con- Space Physics and Aeronomy Christina M. S. Cohen Cryosphere Ellyn Enderlin trolled Explosions Pave the Way for Thwaites Glacier Research”), read about one of the ITGC Study of the Earth’s Deep Interior Edward J. Garnero teams trying to study the bedrock underneath the ice. They can “basically create X-ray images Geodesy Brian C. Gunter of the landscape” by detonating explosives near the surface of the glacier and mapping how History of Geophysics Kristine C. Harper the seismic waves propagate, says the lead scientist on the team. If you’d like to learn more Planetary Sciences Sarah M. Hörst Natural Hazards Michelle Hummel about how bedrock affects glaciers generally, head to page 13 (“What Lies Beneath Is Import- Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology Emily R. Johnson ant for Ice Sheets”) to meet some researchers gaining insight into glaciology and ice vulner- Seismology Keith D. Koper ability by reconstructing the topography under Antarctica back 34 million years. Tectonophysics Jian Lin Elsewhere in the issue, we hope you’ll turn to page 14 (“Understanding Our Environment Near-Surface Geophysics Juan Lorenzo Earth and Space Science Informatics Kirk Martinez Requires an Indigenous Worldview”) to learn about ice—this time in Alaska—from a different Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Figen Mekik perspective. Raychelle Daniel, of Yup’ik descent, describes the consequences of conducting Mineral and Rock Physics Sébastien Merkel science and creating science policy without the unique contributions of the Indigenous people Ocean Sciences Jerry L. Miller Education immersed in the environment. Daniel’s article was the excellent conclusion of a weeklong Eric M. Riggs Global Environmental Change Hansi Singh series of articles on diversity perspectives published at Eos.org. Find the entire series at bit. ly/ Hydrology Kerstin Stahl Eos - diversity. Tectonophysics Carol A. Stein See you all next month. Atmospheric Sciences Mika Tosca Nonlinear Geophysics Adrian Tuck Hydrology Adam S. Ward Earth and Planetary Surface Processes Andrew C. Wilcox Atmospheric and Space Electricity Yoav Yair GeoHealth Ben Zaitchik Societal Impacts and Policy Sciences Mary Lou Zoback ©2020. AGU. All Rights Reserved. Material in this issue may be photocopied by individual scientists for research or classroom use. Permission is also granted to use Heather Goss, Editor in Chief short quotes, fi gures, and tables for publication in scientifi c books and journals. For permission for any other uses, contact the AGU Publications Offi ce. Eos (ISSN 0096-3941) is published monthly by AGU, 2000 Florida Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20009, USA. Periodical Class postage paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mailing offi ces. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Member Service Center, 2000 Florida Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20009, USA Member Service Center: 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Eastern time; Tel: +1-202-462-6900; Fax: +1-202-328-0566; Tel. orders in U.S.: 1-800-966-2481; [email protected]. Submit your article proposal or suggest a news story to Eos at bit.ly/Eos-proposal. Views expressed in this publication do not necessarily refl ect offi cial positions of AGU unless expressly stated. Christine W. McEntee, Executive Director/CEO EARTH & SPACE SCIENCE NEWS // Eos.org 1 CONTENT 24 28 18 Features Cover Story 24 Hackathon Speeds Progress Toward Climate Model Collaboration 18 Diagnosing Thwaites By Wilbert Weijer et al. By Javier Barbuzano Meet the small army of computational scientists who This Antarctic glacier is rapidly losing mass. An proved 50 heads are better than one. international team is digging into the ice to figure out just how bad the situation is. 28 Filling the Gaps in Ocean Maps On the Cover Sledges carry scientific equipment and other supplies during By Xiaoming Liu and Menghua Wang a full camp move for a project team of the International To complete the picture, this team is figuring out how Thwaites Glacier Collaboration on 25 December 2019. Credit: the data puzzle pieces fit together. Joanne Johnson 2 Eos // MARCH 2020 CONTENT 6 14 Columns From the Editor AGU News 1 The Threat at Thwaites 34 Medalists Honored at AGU’s Fall Meeting 2019 News Research Spotlight 4 Controlled Explosions Pave the Way 48 Reconstructing 150 Million Years of Arctic Ocean Climate for Thwaites Glacier Research 49 Explaining the Missing Energy in Mars’s Electrons 5 Interstellar Visitors Could Export Terrestrial Life 49 Observational Data Validate Models of Sun’s to Other Stars Influence on Earth 6 Modern Farming Kick-​­Starts Large Landslides 50 How Are Microplastics Transported to Polar Regions? in Peruvian Deserts 51 Improving Estimates of Coastal Carbon Sequestration 7 Here’s What Your Favorite Ski Resort May Look Like 52 Stored Nutrients and Climate Warming in 2085 Will Feed More Algal Blooms 8 Ancient Assyrian Aurorae Illuminate Solar Activity 52 Timing Matters for Rockfall Estimates 9 The Eternal Nile Is Even More Ancient Than We 53 Modeling the Subsurface Hydrology of the Greenland Thought Ice Sheet 10 Bikini Seafloor Hides Evidence of Nuclear Explosions 11 Atmospheric Rivers Have Different “Flavors” Positions Available 12 Pre- Inca​­ Canal System Uses Hillsides as Sponges to Store Water 54 Current job openings in the Earth and space sciences 13 What Lies Beneath Is Important for Ice Sheets Postcards from the Field Opinion 57 Teaming up with archaeologists in Florida. 14 Understanding Our Environment Requires an Indigenous Worldview 16 Integrating Input to Forge Ahead in Geothermal Research AmericanGeophysicalUnion @AGU_Eos company/american-geophysical-union AGUvideos americangeophysicalunion americangeophysicalunion EARTH & SPACE SCIENCE NEWS // Eos.org 3 NEWS Controlled Explosions Pave the Way for Thwaites Glacier Research here’s remote, and then there’s Ant- ence Foundation and the United Kingdom’s hot water is necessary to melt the ice, said arctic remote. Natural Environment Research Council, con- Steven Harder, an explosion seismologist at T Thwaites Glacier, located over 1,500 sists of eight different projects. One of those the University of Texas at El Paso. “The lim- kilometers from McMurdo Station, falls is Thwaites Interdisciplinary Margin Evolu- itation becomes the amount of fuel you can squarely in the latter camp. An international tion (TIME), an endeavor to better understand transport to the field.” collaboration is currently studying this noto- the boundaries (the margins) of the glacier. In 2018, Harder and his colleagues experi- riously unstable glacier and the significant The size of Thwaites dictates how much ice is mented with another technique, one that sea level rise that would result from its col- flowing into the sea, said Slawek Tulaczyk, a didn’t require any drilling
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