The Driest Place on Earth
Antarctica is one of the most fascinating places on the planet. Not only is it the least explored continent, but it is also the world's largest desert! Most people don't think of Antarctica as a desert because of its large ice sheets, but the definition of a desert is a region that receives less than 250 mm (9.8 in) of precipitation per year, and Antarctica receives an average of 170 mm (6.7 in) of precipitation per year.
One of the driest places in Antarctica is the McMurdo Dry Valleys, an area that receives only 100 mm (3.9 in) of precipitation per year. Because of the intense cold and extremely low humidity, it hasn't rained in the Dry Valleys for nearly 2 million years: the small amount of annual precipitation comes exclusively in the form of snow, which is quickly evaporated or blown away by the dry wind. The McMurdo Dry Valleys are the driest place on Earth, and the environment there is the closest we have to the environment on Mars. Because of this, the area is incredibly important for scientists in the quest to determine whether there might be life on Mars.
Ever since I learned about the McMurdo Dry Valleys, I have wanted to visit them. However, this is an incredibly difficult prospect. The only valley that is open to tourists is Taylor Valley, and visiting this area requires weeks of travel on an ice-strengthened ship, a ten-minute helicopter ride from the ship, and a special permit. The only ship that satisfies these requirements is the Ortelius, which ventures to the Ross Sea every two or three years. And because it was my dream to visit Taylor Valley, I scheduled my entire sabbatical so that I could head to the Ross Sea on Ortelius.
Usually the McMurdo Dry Valleys are completely dry, with soil and rocks on the ground and white glaciers in the background, frozen in time as they spill into the valley. However, we had the craziest luck when we visited: there had been a couple of snowstorms before we arrived, and somehow the snow hadn't been blown away. This was incredibly rare, and our expedition team suggested that we may have been the only humans in living history who visited the valley while it was filled with so much snow!
There is a lot of research being done in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in a variety of fields. Scientists are studying glacial melt, climate change, bacteria, soil ecology, human impacts, chemical concentrations in lakes, seal populations, and other areas. Much of this research is publicly available via the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Project's website.
And while a lot of this was invisible to our eyes, we were able to see something fascinating during our visit to Taylor Valley: a mummified seal corpse. Throughout the McMurdo Dry Valleys, there are the remains of several seals that died of hunger or starvation and became mummified due to the dry, cold weather. Scientists have studied these mummified seals and discovered that their presence has had an affect on microbial communities in the soils beneath them. This showed that biological changes could occur much more quickly than anticipated in such harsh conditions.
Sample Problems
1. Read through some of the research highlights from the McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER Project to get an idea of the types of research being done.
2. Read through parts of the project summary from the McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER Project to see an example of a scientific academic paper.
3. Look at the various graphs and figures in the project summary. Which skills from an algebra class would be useful in creating or understanding reports like these?
4. Which skills from a statistics class would be useful in creating or understanding reports like these?