< Back | Home

Professor of geography and anthropology Harry Jol stands at the Antarctic research facility in late 2006. Researchers flew by helicopter over McMurdo ice shelf and sound to Victoria Valley, where they camped for two weeks to conduct their work.

Professor explores Antarctic desert

Jol presents findings of two-week trip to South Pole

By: Tara Bannow

Posted: 1/29/07

Many UW-Eau Claire faculty members have participated in nationally recognized research projects, but none of them have spent two weeks camping on the world's southernmost continent.
Harry Jol, professor of geography and anthropology, recently returned from Antarctica's Dry Valley, where he, along with professors from universities in London and New Zealand, studied the internal layers of sand dunes.
He presented his findings Friday to a group of about 50 students, faculty, staff and community members.
The goal of the research was to understand the structure, age, composition and evolutionary activity of the underground layers, Jol said, adding the information could be used in comparing Antarctica's dunes to those of other deserts and possibly those on Mars.
"One of the ideas was that the internal structure of the dunes on the Dry Valley are filled with ice," Jol said. "We had samples taken from those layers. If similar, dunes on Mars will also have water."
"If you take a look at the images of the Mars dunes and the images of (Dry Valley), you basically can't tell them apart," he said, displaying similar images of both sites.
Researchers selected the area because it is the only dry, desert environment in Antarctica with sand dunes, Jol said.
Kent Syverson, professor of geology, said he believes the Dry Valley is an important time capsule of global climate change because its desolate location has kept humans from modifying it for millions of years.
"Areas like this that are so sensitive to changes can be used to find the canary in the mine, so to speak," Syverson said. "Maybe the dunes are moving now and hadn't so much before."
The team utilized equipment called Ground Penetrating Radar, which works by emitting electromagnetic radio waves into the ground, Jol said. The waves reflect off subsurface layers and transfer the information to the computer by means of an antenna.
"It's very similar to going to the hospital and having an X-ray or an MRI done," Jol said. "The difference is that with GPR we're learning about layers beneath the ground rather than layers of the body."
The project marks the first time people were able to observe the internal layering of the dunes by looking at images of them, Jol said.
"We were able to see into the dunes tens of meters deep, which we did not expect," Jol said. "We were stunned to find that the thickness of the sand and orientation of the layering were different than anyone thought, which changes the interpretation of the area."
Junior Ellen Chase, who has taken several of Jol's classes, said Jol understands the importance of hands-on research in trying to learn about the physical world.
"I guess I would say that what's cool about Harry is that he's interested in what students want to learn and shapes his syllabus around what students are interested in," she said.
"Who knew? I didn't even know there was sand in Antarctica."