The beginning of the 4th International Polar Year (IPY) was officially announced in Paris in March. The IPY comprises an ambitious program of international research that will run until 2009 to promote the study of the polar regions of our planet, the Arctic and the Antarctic. It draws on the traditions of the previous editions of the International Polar Year (1882 and 1932) and the International Geophysical Year (1957). This will be the first time that Spanish institutions have been involved in the campaign, which is promoted by the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). It is an historic opportunity for scientists to push the boundaries of research into the polar ice caps and to better understand the global influence of geological and climate processes in the Polar Regions.

Angelo Camerlenghi, a geologist from the Department of tratigraphy, Paleontology and Marine Science at the UB, is the coordinator of SVAIS, one of five scientific projects developed in Catalonia as part of the IPY. Camerlenghi is a research professor at the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) and a member of the UB Marine Geosciences Research Group, which is directed by Miquel Canals from the UB Faculty of Geology and the Barcelona Science Park. An expert in geological oceanography, geology and the geophysics of plate margins, particularly in the Polar Regions, Camerlenghi has also studied the properties of the sediments – gas hydrates, etc. – that cause instability in submarine talus deposits. In July and August 2007 he will be on board the BIO Hespèrides to study the Svalbard continental margin in Fram Strait in the Arctic Ocean. His research will form part of the SVAIS project.

2007 marks the 125th anniversary of the 1st International Polar Year, which was a milestone for researchers and explorers alike. So what are the scientific benefits of studying the poles?

There can be no doubt that the global climate is changing. However, climate fluctuations in the past were far more dramatic. In order to understand the current situation and make provisions for the future – the most important aspect from a political perspective – we must understand how the natural climate system works. This can be thought of as examining a patient with certain symptoms in order to prescribe the correct treatment. To understand the “physiology” of the climate system we must look back millions of years and examine how the system worked long before man walked the Earth. The poles provide more useful information than the equator because it is at these extremes of the Earth that the most fundamental climatological phenomena are played out. The Polar Regions are important as they regulate much of our climate system. The ice caps resist natural (non-anthropogenic) warming. We are currently in a short period with a warm natural climate, between two cold periods. The duration of this type of climate fluctuation is 100,000 years (approximately 80,000 of these make up a glacial period and 20,000 are characterized by a warm climate). The ice caps that survive during these warm periods are found in Antarctica and Greenland, as well as some smaller ones in Iceland. The analysis of ice in these regions will reveal information about the atmosphere, the climate, the temperature, the level of carbon dioxide and metals a million years ago, which is the approximate age of the thickest ice found in Antarctica. In Greenland this limit is 400,000 years. Without this ice we would know far less about the history of the Earth’s climate. The glacial history of Antarctica began 30 million years ago and the Arctic ice cap appeared three million years ago. Antarctic studies are invaluable as they allow scientists to identify the processes that were at work during the glacial periods in the Arctic and Northern Europe. The Antarctic is larger and more remote, but we know far more about the continental margins of the Arctic. The poles are the engine behind oceanic circulation and the heat transferred by large expanses of water to the North and South Poles condition the Earth’s climate. This is why temperatures vary to such an extent at the same latitude across the different continents.

What is the scientific aim of the SVAIS project?

SVAIS will study the climate and environmental changes that affected the sea bed in the south-western Svalbard Islands from approximately three million years ago up to the most recent thaw between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago. Our current knowledge suggests that the North Pole began to cool three million years ago, which formed the ice sheets now found in Greenland. This was the last great climate change in the Earth’s history. The ice cap was approximately half a kilometre thick at this point and covered much of Northern Europe, Canada and the Arctic, reaching the bed of the Bering Sea, the North Sea and the continental shelf of Norway. If we disregard global warming induced by human activity, the Earth has actually grown progressively cooler during the last 65 million years. The Antarctic began to cool between 35 and 40 million years ago and underwent similar processes 15 and 3 million years ago. By examining the natural evolution of the oceanographic and glacial systems during the warmest periods in history we will be able to better understand the changes caused by human action and the likely developments in the near future.

Why study the sea bed in Fram Strait?

The Svalbard Islands in the Arctic Ocean are situated in a strategic location. They are separated from Greenland by Fram Strait, which is the only channel in which the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean meet the warmer waters of the Atlantic. There is also a small exchange of water via other channels (the Bering Strait in Alaska, the islands of Northern Canada, etc.) but the water is shallower in these areas and the volume displaced is much smaller. In Fram Strait we will study the movement of ice sheets in the past glacial periods, when the Bering Sea was a huge, kilometre-thick sheet of ice. We know that the slope which begins at the edge of the continental shelf drops as far as the abyssal depths at 3000 metres. Scientists as yet know little about the topography of this area, which is linked with major marine slides in the past. The glaciers that were once present left large sediment deposits containing material that had been eroded further inland and which have accumulated due to the effects of gravity and marine slides. SVAIS will produce bathymetric charts of the area to determine the topography of the sea bed, using specific criteria to identify the locations of these glacial deposits. Though it seems difficult to believe, we in fact know very little about the relief of the sea beds, which account for two thirds of the Earth’s surface: we know more about the topography of Mars than the submarine relief of the Earth itself. The continental margin of Norway is also the largest reservoir of petroleum and gas in Europe. The area is commonly affected by build-ups of gas hydrates, which can cause instability at the sea bed. Glaciers are also one of the most significant contributors to marine slides, and the area has witnessed some of the most spectacular episodes of this phenomenon anywhere on the planet. For example, a marine slide that took place in Storegga in Norway 7000 years ago caused a tsunami that generated waves dozens of metres high that reached the coast of Scotland and the North Sea.

What technology will be used to study the marine subsoil of the Arctic Ocean?

Seismic prospecting will be used to examine the marine subsoil: the reflection of sound waves reveals the areas covered by the old glacial sediment. We will also collect detailed topographic data on the sea bed along the continental margin and as far as the abyssal plains. The ship BIO Hespèrides will carry new equipment designed to extract sediment samples of up to 12 metres long, which will be used to date the glacial events and identify what type of material was transported by the ice sheets, the type of organisms that lived on the sea bed, etc. This will give us a comprehensive overview of the oceanographic and climatic changes that took place during the period in question and will improve our understanding of the Earth’s climate system. Our team does not make climate predictions, which is the work of experts in the field of climate modelling. For example, we know that the warmest period in the Earth’s climate history, which was very similar to the present climate, occurred approximately 400,000 years ago, and climate modellers must know exactly what happened during that period: the sea level, glacial movement, etc. The answers we provide through research programmes enable experts to define the parameters required to make future climate predictions.
 
What other institutions are taking part in the SVAIS oceanographic campaign?

The SVAIS project will be developed by a multi-disciplinary international team of scientists. Geologists from the UB will carry out geology, sedimentology and geophysics studies. Participants will include Antoni Calafat, an expert in the flow of sediment particles in sea water, Roger Urgeles, an expert in geotechnics and submarine slides, and Isabel Cacho, who will focus on the chemical composition of planktonic and benthonic organisms. Ecology and the stratigraphy of microscopic organisms (coccoliths, foraminifera and diatomites) will be studied by geologists from the University of Salamanca. Joan Grimalt, from the Institute for Chemical and Environmental Research, part of the Spanish Research Council (CSIC), will perform a study to calibrate and compare parameters on past climate records. The project will also benefit from the participation of geophysicists from the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OEG) in Trieste, who will carry out more detailed seismic surveys as part of the Italian contribution to the IPY during 2008, and experts from the Universities of Svalbard and Tromsø (Norway), who will provide valuable geological knowledge to support the research effort in this area.

Other UB experts will be involved in various projects as part of the IPY program. As well as participating in SVAIS, Roger Urgelés, from the Department of Stratigraphy, Paleontology and Marine Geosciences, will also form part of the team working on the SEDCLIM project directed by Carlota Escutia (Spanish Research Council, University of Granada), which will study the evolution of the eastern Arctic ice cap and climate change in Antarctica. Urgelés will analyze the physical properties of the sediment in this area, primarily to establish the degree of consolidation and resistance to shear stress and to determine the maximum force to which the sediment has been submitted in the past. Francesc Sabater (Department of Ecology) will analyze dissolved nutrients and biogeochemical cycles in benthopelagic coupling in the Antarctic waters of the Weddell Sea, as part of the CLIMANT project directed by Enrique Isla (Institute of Marine Sciences, CSIC). Emma Suriñach, Juan José Ledo, Pilar Queralt, Àlex Marcuello and Anna Martín (Department of Geodynamics and Geophysics) are taking part in the EPPASOC project, led by Jesús Galindo (University of Granada) and designed to examine the deep structure of the continental margins and ocean pathways in the northeast Antarctic Peninsula (Bransfield Strait and Drake Passage).

As well as promoting scientific work, the International Polar Year places a particular emphasis on education and the dissemination of scientific information on the Polar Regions. One of the most important projects is the exhibition “Trapped in the Ice: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition”, adapted by the Caixa Catalunya Foundation and organized by Jerónimo López, President of the Spanish Committee of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). It will be shown at the Maritime Museum in Barcelona from 15 October to 23 September 2008. The exhibition, which will be shown at the Maritime Museum in Barcelona from 15 October to 23 September 2008, is a homage to the epic survival story of Ernest Shackleton and the crew of the Endurance, which became trapped in an ice floe in the Weddell Sea in January 1915. An advertisement published in 1913 in The Times warned of a journey fraught with danger and fit only for the most intrepid: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of winter. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.”