Glaciologists Dorthe Dahl-Jensen and Joergen Peder Steffensen Visit USTC
On April 13th, Professor Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, an eminent glaciologist and an academician of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences, along with Professor Joergen Peder Steffensen from the Niels Bohr Institute of Denmark and Professor Pavel Talalay of Jilin University, visited USTC and delivered a report which presented new results of the Greenland ice cores research at the Hefei Master Forum.
Before the report began, Professor Talalay briefly introduced the latest achievement of the 2019 Chinese Antarctic expedition——a sample of the bottom bedrock obtained by penetrating the 200-meter ice shelf in Antarctica, which aroused great interest of the audience.
In the report, Professor Dahl-Jensen introduced the profound study of the Greenland Ice Sheet carried out by an international research team she led. Glaciers carry messages from paleoclimate like a series of filing cabinets, which hold an irreplaceable position in environmental research. The Greenland Ice Sheet is the second largest freshwater carrier only after the Antarctic continent. Since most of the continents are distributed in the northern hemisphere, ice from the Greenland Ice Sheet is highly possible to reflect the climate of the ancient continent. Valuable information on the evolution of ancient climates is obtained through ice cores drilled from Greenland at depths of thousands of meters. In consideration of the general trend of global warming, this knowledge about climate evolution can help us predict what may occur in the future of our planet.
Professor Dahl-Jensen. (Image by Office of International Cooperation)
Afterward, Professor Steffensen shared several interesting stories about how to get ice cores in Greenland. The story about how they dragged the research camp to a new drilling point 400 kilometers away using a sleigh, for instance, and how they used a large balloon to build a spacious and sturdy ice core drilling laboratory under ice and snow, deeply interested the present. He also elaborated on an innovative method for the extraction of an ice core without breaking its integrity.
In following Q&A session, the two professors had an in-depth exchange discussion with the teachers and students, and gave patient and meticulous answers to the questions raised by the audience. The lively and vivid lectures given by the two professors showed the unique charm of glacier research.
This is the first time that the two professors visited USTC. They were planning to cooperate with the Laser Laboratory for Trace Analysis and Precision Measurements at USTC, utilizing the unique atomic trap trace analysis method for the radio-krypton dating of the Greenland ice cores.
Professor LU Zhengtian from the Laser Laboratory for Trace Analysis and Precision Measurements at USTC was photographed with Professor Dorthe Dahl-Jensen and Professor Joergen Peder Steffensen. (Image by Office of International Cooperation)
Professor Dorthe Dahl-Jensen is the director of the Center for Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute and a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences. She is an expert in ice core research, paleoclimate reconstruction and the history and evolution of the Greenland Ice Sheet. As a major member of several international organizations such as the International Partnership in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS), she has participated in and led numerous well-known international cooperative ice core drilling and research projects like NGRIP, NEEM, and EPICA. She has been awarded the Louis Agassiz Medal (2014, by European Geosciences Union), Descartes Prize (2008, by European Union) and Vega medal (2008, by Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography).
(Written by WU Qiran, edited by YE Zhenzhen, USTC News Center)
中文链接：
http://news.ustc.edu.cn/2019/0418/c15884a378682/page.htm
