Antarctic Research Centre

Last updated
Antarctic Research Centre
Parent institution Victoria University of Wellington
Established1972;50 years ago (1972)
FocusResearch in sedimentology, glaciology, paleoclimatology and Antarctic affairs.
DirectorAssociate Professor Robert McKay
AddressCotton Building, Kelburn Parade, Kelburn
Location
Wellington
,
New Zealand
Website https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/antarctic

The Antarctic Research Centre (ARC) is part of the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington. Its mission is to research "Antarctic climate history and processes, and their influence on the global climate system. [1] The current director of the Antarctic Research Centre is Associate Professor Robert McKay. [2]

Contents

Directors

History

In December 1957, geology students Barrie McKelvey and Peter Webb along with biologist Ron Balham conducted an expedition to the then unexplored McMurdo Dry Valleys via the Royal New Zealand Navy Antarctic support ship HMNZS Endeavour. This expedition formed the basic for the annual Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expeditions, which continue to the present day. Since this first expedition, over 400 staff and students have travelled to the continent.

The Antarctic Research Centre was established in 1972 as a part of the Department of Geology at Victoria University. The institutes first director was Professor Peter Barrett, who remained for 35 years before stepping down from the role in 2007. [4] The centre won the New Zealand Prime Minister's Science Prize in 2020. [5]

Research

Research conducted at ARC focuses on climate change, including the analysis of ocean floor sediment cores and ice cores, and glacial modeling. [1] Researchers from ARC have studied different factors that impact polar ice, including CO2 levels [6] [7] and oscillations in the Earth's orbit. [8] [9]

Antarctic Expeditions

The ARC conducts annual research explorations, known as the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expeditions (VUWAE), into Antarctica. The first expedition, which explored the McMurdo Dry Valleys, was undertaken on December 30, 1957, by Peter Webb and Barrie McKelvey, two third-year geology students. [4] [10] Since then, students and staff have made annual expeditions to conduct research in areas such as glacial history and climate change. [11]

Expedition leaders have named a number of features in the area, including Eureka Spurs and Ghent Ridge.

Researchers that have been involved in VUWAEs include Harold Wellman, who discovered the Alpine Fault. [12]

Expedition reports have been digitised by the New Zealand Electronic Text Collection. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria University of Wellington</span> Public university in New Zealand

Victoria University of Wellington is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McMurdo Dry Valleys</span> Snow-free valleys in Antarctica

The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a row of largely snow-free valleys in Antarctica, located within Victoria Land west of McMurdo Sound. The Dry Valleys experience extremely low humidity and surrounding mountains prevent the flow of ice from nearby glaciers. The rocks here are granites and gneisses, and glacial tills dot this bedrock landscape, with loose gravel covering the ground. It is one of the driest places on Earth and has not seen rain for nearly two million years.

McKelvey Valley is a valley between the western part of the Olympus Range and the Insel Range, in Victoria Land, Antarctica. It was named by the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition (VUWAE) (1958–59) for B.C. McKelvey, a geologist of the Victoria University of Wellington, who, with P.N. Webb, undertook the first geological exploration of this area (1957–58), and was again in Wright Valley with the VUWAE in 1958–59.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Naish</span> New Zealand scientist (born 1951)

Timothy Raymond Naish is a New Zealand glaciologist and climate scientist who has been a researcher and lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington and the Director of the Antarctic Research Centre, and in 2020 became a programme leader at the Antarctic Science Platform. Naish has researched and written about the possible effect of melting ice sheets in Antarctica on global sea levels due to high CO2 emissions causing warming in the Southern Ocean. He was instrumental in establishing and leading the Antarctica Drilling Project (ANDRILL), and a Lead Author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report (2014).

Mulock Glacier in Antarctica is a heavily crevassed glacier which flows into the Ross Ice Shelf 40 kilometers south of the Skelton Glacier in the Ross Dependency, Antarctica.

Barwick Valley is an ice-free valley north of Apocalypse Peaks, extending from Webb Glacier to Victoria Valley in Victoria Land, Antarctica. It was named by the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition (VUWAE) (1958–59) for R.E. Barwick, summer biologist with the New Zealand party of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1956–58) who worked in this area in 1957–58 and as a member of the VUWAE, 1958–59.

Turnabout Valley is a partially deglaciated valley between Finger Mountain and Pyramid Mountain, in the Quartermain Mountains, Victoria Land. Named by the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition (VUWAE), 1958–59.

Frame Ridge is a small straight ridge in the central part of Brown Peninsula, Victoria Land, Antarctica. It is located just north of the small, central lake on the peninsula and extends northward down to Tuff Bluff. It was named by the New Zealand Antarctic Place-Names Committee for Alexander Oswald Frame of Aberdeen, Scotland, a paleontology technician with the New Zealand Geological Survey and Victoria University of Wellington who discovered samples of significance during an expedition to the area, 1964–65.

Topping Cone is an exposed volcanic cone near Cape Crozier, located 1.75 nautical miles (3.2 km) northwest of the summit of The Knoll in eastern Ross Island. Named by New Zealand Antarctic Place-Names Committee (NZ-APC) for W.W. Topping, geologist with Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition (VUWAE) which examined the cone in the 1969–70 season.

Richardson Hill is an ice-free hill in Antarctica, rising above the ice of Island Arena on the north side of the Darwin Mountains. It was mapped by the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition (VUWAE) (1962–63) and named for Professor L.R. Richardson of the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, an active supporter of the university's Antarctic expeditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Barrett (geologist)</span> New Zealand geologist

Peter John Barrett is a New Zealand geologist who came to prominence after discovering the first tetrapod fossils in Antarctica in 1967.

Richard Irving Walcott is a New Zealand geologist known for his work on plate tectonics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christina Riesselman</span> American paleoceanographer

Christina Riesselman is an American paleoceanographer whose research focus is on Southern Ocean response to changing climate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Bertler</span> Antarctic researcher

Nancy Bertler is an Antarctic researcher, who has led major initiatives to investigate climate history using Antarctic ice cores, and best known for her leadership of the Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution Programme (RICE). She is an associate professor at the Antarctic Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natalie Robinson</span> Antarctic, climate and atmospheric researcher

Natalie Robinson, an Antarctic researcher, is based at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand. She led the final two K131 Science Events on the sea ice of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaun Hendy</span> New Zealand nanotechnology researcher

Shaun Cameron Hendy is a New Zealand physicist. He is currently a professor at the University of Auckland and was the first director of Te Pūnaha Matatini, a centre of research excellence in complex systems and data analytics. During the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand, he led a team of scientists developing mathematical models of the spread of the virus across the country that influenced the government's response to the outbreak.

Joanna Kidman is a Māori sociology academic of Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti Raukawa descent and as of 2019 is a full professor at Victoria University of Wellington.

Roger Alan Cooper was a New Zealand paleontologist, known as a leading expert on the fossil zooplankton of the early Paleozoic and the paleobiology of Zealandia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Levy (paleoclimatologist)</span> New Zealand climate scientist

Richard Levy is a New Zealand glacial stratigrapher and paleoclimatologist with expertise in microfossil analysis. As a principal scientist at GNS Science he has been involved in international and New Zealand environmental research programmes focussing on the evolution of the Earth's climate and building an understanding of the role of greenhouse gases in causing anthropogenic climate changes, in particular those impacting global sea levels. He has had extensive experience in scientific drilling, leading major projects, including the ANtarctic geological DRILLing (ANDRILL) Program in Antarctica. Since 2018, Levy has co-led the government funded NZ SeaRise programme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rob McKay (scientist)</span> New Zealand scientist

Robert Murray McKay is a paleoceanographer who specialises in sedimentology, stratigraphy and palaeoclimatology, specifically gathering geological evidence to study how marine-based portions of the Antarctic ice sheet behave in response to abrupt climate and oceanic change. He has been involved in examination of marine sedimentary records and glacial deposits to show melting and cooling in Antarctica over the past 65 million years and how this has influenced global sea levels and climate. This has helped climate change scientists overcome uncertainty about how the ice sheets will respond to global warming and how this can be managed effectively in the 21st century. He has participated in international projects including ANDRILL and the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), led major New Zealand government-funded research teams and has received several awards in recognition of his work. Since 2012 McKay has been an associate professor at Victoria University of Wellington and from 2019, director of the Antarctic Research Centre.

References

  1. 1 2 "Home - Antarctic Research Centre." Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 2010. http://www.victoria.ac.nz/antarctic/default.aspx. Retrieved 2011-10-22.
  2. ↑ Robert McKay, Victoria University of Wellington, 2020. https://people.wgtn.ac.nz/robert.mckay
  3. ↑ "Tim Naish - Antarctic Research Centre". Victoria University of Wellington. 15 July 2011. Retrieved 11 Nov 2011.
  4. 1 2 "History - Antarctic Research Centre." Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 2010. http://www.victoria.ac.nz/antarctic/about/history.aspx. Retrieved 2011-10-22.
  5. ↑ The Evolution of Antarctic Research. Victoria University of Wellington, 2020. https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/science/about/news/the-evolution-of-antarctic-research
  6. ↑ Gibson, Eloise (July 4, 2009). "Alarm grows over big melt in Antarctica". New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 11 November 2011.
  7. ↑ Golledge, N. R.; Kowalewski, D. E.; Naish, T. R.; Levy, R. H.; Fogwill, C. J.; Gasson, E. G. W. (2015). "The multi-millennial Antarctic commitment to future sea-level rise". Nature. 526 (7573): 421–425. doi:10.1038/nature15706. PMID   26469052. S2CID   205246177.
  8. ↑ Naish, Tim R.; Woolfe, Ken J.; Barrett, Peter J.; Wilson, Gary S.; Atkins, Cliff; Bohaty, Steven M.; Bücker, Christian J.; Claps, Michele; Davey, Fred J.; Dunbar, Gavin B.; Dunn, Alistair G.; Fielding, Chris R.; Florindo, Fabio; Hannah, Michael J.; Harwood, David M.; Henrys, Stuart A.; Krissek, Lawrence A.; Lavelle, Mark; van der Meer, Jaap; McIntosh, William C.; Niessen, Frank; Passchier, Sandra; Powell, Ross D.; Roberts, Andrew P.; Sagnotti, Leonardo; Scherer, Reed P.; Strong, C. Percy; Talarico, Franco; Verosub, Kenneth L.; Villa, Giuliana; Watkins, David K.; Webb, Peter-N.; Wonik, Thomas (18 October 2001). "Orbitally induced oscillations in the East Antarctic ice sheet at the Oligocene/Miocene boundary". Nature. 413 (6857): 719–723. doi:10.1038/35099534. PMID   11607028. S2CID   4335866.
  9. ↑ Patterson, M. O.; McKay, R.; Naish, T.; Escutia, C.; Jimenez-Espejo, F. J.; Raymo, M. E.; Meyers, S. R.; Tauxe, L.; Brinkhuis, H. (2014). "Orbital forcing of the East Antarctic ice sheet during the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene". Nature Geoscience. 7 (11): 841–847. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.719.335 . doi:10.1038/ngeo2273.
  10. ↑ VUWAE Reunion Programme. Victoria University of Wellington, 2007. http://www.victoria.ac.nz/antarctic/pdf/VUWAE_Reunion_Programme.pdf
  11. ↑ nathan, simon (2005). Harold Wellman:a man who moved New Zealand. Victoria University Press.
  12. ↑ "Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition (VUWAE) Reports". nzetc.victoria.ac.nz. Retrieved 2020-05-28.

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