Posted on 03/15/2002 8:06:39 AM PST by cogitator
Excuse me if I get this wrong, but isn't this "understanding" subjective to the interpretation of said data.
It would be interesting to know how much this project cost the taxpayers.
And I thought my freezer needed defrosting?!
It's ammusing that they tack on the extra significant figure when they are pretty much taking a wild guess. Must be some conversion from metric or something.
That reminds me of the time I was working at the refinery dumping bags of chemicals into a big mixing tank.
The bags were labeled:
40 lbs.
18.1437 kg.
Awesome. Also they are not down to bedrock, so there is more to the record if they can reach it.
This project didn't cost the U.S. taxpayers anything (it's a British Antarctic Survey project).
Yes, but as I noted in the comment, the deeper they go the more the record gets smeared. The last few meters of the GISP core (Greenland) weren't really useful. I think it's because the ice is moving, and near the bedrock it's somewhat anchored, so the ice layers get "stretched".
Still, it's quite an accomplishment, and this is a great dataset for comparison. It might help figure out why some Antarctic areas are cooling and some areas are warming. (Then again, it might not.)
LOL - What a bunch of idiots they were, huh?
Everybody knows that 40# = 18.143696 kg! 8^)
That's what they try to do. It helps to have a definitive date to help fix some of the layers in time. Volcanic eruptions deposit ash and high sulfur content in the ice. Counting layers and finding signals from the Krakatoa/Krafla/Tambora/Thera (Santorini) eruptions helps indicate if the layers in the ice are truly annual or not.
Palaeo Environment (Ice Cores)
Paleo Slide Set: Low Latitude Ice Cores: High Resolution Records of Climatic Change and Variability in the Tropics and Subtropics (has a picture of ice core layers)
That's actually quite easy. Glacial ice has bubbles of air under pressure in it. If you put it in a glass of water, as it melts it pops and fizzes, and is supposedly very entertaining. (I've only heard this, haven't actually seen it demonstrated.)
It's nice to see such precise use of words like "infinite" from scientists.
Being in Alaska,I have the opportunity to observe ice and snow on a seasonal basis. One thing I have noticed is that sediments get moved out after a while; they migrate out of the ice leaving pure ice behind as the snow recrystallizes over and over. Of course their core sample is fairly long, almost 2 miles, so it probably does show layering with fair definition. But at depth there would be time for the ice to purify itself. If they can count half a million layers, that in itself is remarkable.
In other words, they are not there to learn, they are there to prove, and that affects their interpretations and conclusions.
I think that's a jaded comment, sorry. Most of the work done on the cores will be basic research: measuring the oxygen isotopes, conductivity, sulfur content etc. in each layer, and then analyzing that data. Correlating it with known causes, known cycles and seeing what doesn't fit. Then the job of science is to try and figure out what doesn't fit and finding a way to make it fit.
I think the guys doing the drilling and analyzing the core won't be in the business of interpreting. That'll be left to the folks back home in their warm comfy offices.
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