To the Ends of the Earth: Looking for Climate Change Answers at the South Pole

Stony Brook graduate student Thomas Reilly at one of the seismic stations at the South Pole.

The South Pole is the southernmost point on Earth. It is one of the two points, along with the North Pole - separated by approximately 12,000 miles in all directions - where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface.

Though it is a barren desert of snow that boasts some of the lowest temperatures in the world, Weisen Shen, an assistant professor in the Department of Geosciences, and a small team of Stony Brook researchers braved one of the planet's most remote locations in search of answers to combating a dangerously increasing world climate and rising sea levels.

Shen's current project, supported by the National Science Foundation, focuses on the ice sheet and the geology underneath the ice near the South Pole. The goal is to gain knowledge to better predict the future behavior of the ice, and with it, the potential effects of global warming.

"We want to gain more knowledge about Antarctica because it's a continent that is fully covered by ice and there is very limited direct access to what's beneath it," said Shen. "It's remained quite mysterious and it's been very difficult to gain direct knowledge about its geology, ice trays and tectonics."

Shen said the fact that the continent is covered by thick ice sheets plays a critical role in a warming climate.

The research team installing a seismic station.

"The atmosphere and the oceans are getting warmer and warmer, and there is always a concern that the ice sheet of Antarctica will melt, which would significantly change sea level," said Shen. "Anyone who lives by the water as we do on Long Island and in the New York area know the concerns of sea level change. Antarctica plays a central role in predicting how our sea level will change in the next decades."

In late 2023, Shen was part of a six-person team that also included Stony Brook graduate students Thomas Reilly and Siyuan Sui, a seismic engineer and two truck drivers/mountaineers. The team stayed at the South Pole for about six weeks, after enduring an arduous weeklong journey to get there.

Shen's team placed seismic sensors on top of the ice to record surface vibrations of the earth caused by remote earthquakes and ambient noise.

"If we energized the signals those sensors received, we can trace and map them into physical and compositional quantities of what's beneath the surface of the ice," he said. "In this case, we can learn about the variation, the thickness of ice, and what is right beneath the ice surface, whether it's a hard rock, water or softer sedimentary rocks that can absorb water."

Shen described a typical day that starts with a hot breakfast at the South Pole Station. "And then we pack all the gear we'll need."

The destination might be a four-to-six-hour drive. "We'd just drive out depending on how far we need to drive and deploy or retrieve the sensors along the way," he said. "Sometimes we'd have to drive 200 miles from the pole. On the way back we might have to camp out if we couldn't get back to the station within 12 hours. So we'd boil some water and eat and sleep in tents on top of the ice."

Loading nodes onto one of the trucks.

Since the team was there during the Antarctic summer, the temperatures were around -25 degrees Celsius (-13 Fahrenheit), much more tolerable than the -60 C (-76 F) it can reach in the winter.

Despite the physical challenges, Shen described his experience as "fantastic," in part because of the community at the pole.

"There's a South Pole community that you can rely on and you haveto rely on. There were people from all over the United States and around the world," he said. "But it's also physically demanding because of the cold environment, and it can be risky. When you drive vehicles there you have to really know your instrumentation and be vigilant with maintenance. We had a great supporting team but you still have to be very cautious."

Shen said the hardest part of the adventure was being away from his wife and two children, especially during the holiday season.

"You have very limited internet connection at the South Pole back home and it was hard to connect," he said. "Of course I missed my family and friends. I also missed about a month of teaching."

Shen will return to the South Pole later this year to follow up on his previous research.

"This trip will be shorter," Shen said. "We learned a lot last year and we'll know how to be more efficient."

Shen said the project sits in a niche area that illustrates the university's effort to support such research, noting another project with the Turkana Basin Institute in Africa, one of the hottest places in the world, where they also sent some seismic nodes. "As in Antarctica, they have a great staff and provide invaluable logistic support," he said. "And now we are lucky to be able to do important work in one of the coldest parts of the world. It's fascinating to work in such a great environment with people from different backgrounds and to experience something that is vastly different from what we are doing here in New York. I am very proud to be part of this."

- Robert Emproto

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