https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/7-expeditions-could-reveal-some-earth-s-biggest-secrets-2019-ncna954011
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7 expeditions that could reveal some of Earth's biggest secrets in 2019
From exploring a buried Antarctic lake to drilling into a fault line,
geophysicists have a lot in store this year.
Jan. 2, 2019, 5:19 PM EST / Source: Live Science
By Adam Mann
This past year brought tons of fascinating new information about our
planet. But as scientists gaze into their crystal balls, they can see
that this year is also sure to contain exciting surprises. Here we take
a look at the seven most highly anticipated geophysics and Earth science
expeditions, missions and meetings of 2019.
Inspecting Thwaites Glacier for cracks
Next summer, a major expedition will head to West Antarctica's Thwaites
Glacier. As part of a $25 million research collaboration between the
U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United Kingdom's Natural
Environment Research Council (NERC), more than 100 scientists from
around the world will study the giant glacier, which acts something like
a cork holding back other enormous ice masses. Should the glacier begin
to collapse, these masses could slide into the ocean and melt,
contributing to sea level rise.
"Satellites show the Thwaites region is changing rapidly," William
Easterling, NSF assistant director for Geosciences, said in a statement.
"To answer the key questions of how much and how quickly sea level will
change requires scientists on the ground with sophisticated equipment
collecting the data we need to measure rates of ice-volume or ice-mass
change." [Photos of Melt: Glaciers Before and After]
Creating amazing new ice maps
In September 2018, NASA launched the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation
Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), a space-based observatory peering at the poles.
The mission measures the changing thickness of individual patches of ice
from season to season, and can detect increases and decreases as small
as a 0.2 inch (0.5 centimeter).
Since its launch, the satellite has been collecting a terabyte of data a
day and has already produced one of the most detailed maps of
Antarctica's ice. Some initial results appeared at the annual meeting of
the American Geophysical Union in December 2018 "and the data looks
spectacular," physical geographer Michael MacFerrin of the University of
Colorado in Boulder, told LiveScience. ICESat-2 will "help revolutionize
our real-time views of ice sheets, sea ice and the polar regions in
general," he added. "Folks are really excited to work with this dataset
once it's out, and I suspect there will be first papers coming out
before the end of this year in 2019."
Drilling into the cause of an earthquake
Off the southwest coast of Japan, deep below the Pacific Ocean, sits the
Nankai Trough, an active subduction zone where one plate of the Earth's
crust is slipping beneath another. It is one of the most seismically
active places on the planet, responsible for the 8.1-magnitude Tōnankai
earthquake that rocked Japan in 1944. This year, the Nankai Trough
Seismogenic Zone Experiment (NanTroSEIZE) began drilling into the fault.
It is the "first [expedition] to drill, sample and instrument the
earthquake-causing, or seismogenic portion of Earth's crust, where
violent, large-scale earthquakes have occurred repeatedly throughout
history," according to the mission's website.
Rocks collected next year will be analyzed to see how slippery or solid
they are, allowing researchers to "understand more about the conditions
that might lead to an earthquake on these type of fault," wrote team
member John Bedford of the University of Liverpool on the expedition's blog.
Measuring the forest and the trees
On Dec. 8, NASA launched the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation
lidar (GEDI) experiment to the International Space Station. The
instrument will be mounted on the outside of the station so it can peer
down at our planet and produce incredibly detailed 3D observations of
Earth's temperate and tropical forests.
GEDI will aim to answer several fundamental questions, including how
much carbon is stored in trees and how deforestation could affect
climate change, according to the mission's website. This will in turn
help researchers model how nutrients cycle through the forest ecosystems
and, because forest heights affect wind patterns around the globe, more
accurately predict weather, according to the GEDI website.
Exploring a buried Antarctic lake
As you read these words, scientists in Antarctica are drilling into a
subglacial lake buried 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) beneath the West
Antarctic Ice Sheet. Known as Lake Mercer, the body of water is
completely disconnected from the rest of the world's ecosystems.
Researchers are eager to explore the system and learn more about the
organisms that are living there, according to the mission's official
website.
Once the drill reaches the body of water, "equipment will be lowered
into the hole to collect samples, take readings, and photograph a
subglacial world never before seen by human eyes," according to the
site. [Extreme Life on Earth: 8 Bizarre Creatures]
Learning the history of coral reefs
Coral reefs are beautiful yet endangered underwater habitats. Pollution
and ocean acidification — caused when oceans absorb carbon dioxide
released into the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels — are
threatening reefs all over the globe.
Beginning in September of next year, a team of researchers will drill
into up to 11 locations beneath the oceans around Hawaii, looking to
pull up samples from fossilized coral reef systems. These reefs, which
will span 500,000 years of recent geologic history, will help answer
critical questions about the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
and Earth's temperature during this period, and how coral reefs reacted
to and recovered from large-scale changes, according to the mission's
website.
The expedition, named the Hawaiian Drowned Reefs expedition, is being
run by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD), an
international body that conducts scientific drilling missions.
Exploring the deep biosphere
For the last 10 years, scientists with the Deep Carbon Observatory have
been digging into Earth to learn more about what's buried beneath our
feet. In December, they announced new findings about the "deep
biosphere," a subterranean reservoir of uncatalogued organisms that
could dwarf the amount of life on our planet's surface. Next October, at
an international conference in Washington, D.C., the organization will
highlight its last decade of research and look forward to 10 more years
of exciting expeditions.
Researchers at the meeting will present information on "the nature and
extent of carbon in Earth's core, the nature of the whole Earth carbon
cycle and how has it changed over Earth's history, and the mechanisms
that govern microbial evolution and dispersal in the deep biosphere,"
according to its website.
Originally published on Live Science.