Going Further

Variations

You may want to explore other GeoMapApp climate activities such as Global Change in Local Places—available online in the Earth Exploration Toolbook. This chapter uses pollen and spore data from sediment recovered off the coast of Antarctica to understand past climate conditions. It also includes a section on the LGM and its effect on vegetation distributions in North America.

Now that you have learned how to use GeoMapApp to study ancient ice streams you have the skills needed to perform other valuable research work in the Ross Sea area. Remember how you differentiated between glacial lineations and iceberg furrows in part two? The grounded bergs that detached from the leading edge of the ice have also left us clues about ocean circulation. By reviewing the direction of the furrow's arcs you can infer the direction of the ocean currents around Antarctica. Compare your results to modern charts that depict the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Based on your findings was the ocean current at the last glacial maximum (LGM) moving in the same direction as it is today?

You may also be interested to use Google Earth to look for other places where MGSLs occur on land. Start your search by taking a look at reconstructions that show northern hemisphere maximum glacial extent. A good one to review can be found at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center

While written for younger students, this hands-on activity, from ANDRILL, will help students to visualize the ice / seafloor interface and the concept of a grounding line. When Ice Meets Sea (Acrobat (PDF) 3.6MB Jan15 15)

Other Data

The Marine Geoscience Data System offers additional educational modules that use GeoMapApp. GeoMapApp is a predecessor to Virtual Ocean and it uses the same datasets. Visit educational modules for more ideas and information.

Related Case Studies

Other EET chapters that explore ocean coring and / or use GeoMapApp include:

Global Change in Local Places—Upload core data from the recent SHALDRIL expedition to Antarctica into GeoMapApp and investigate Antarctica's past climate and species distribution. Uses GeoMapApp.

Exploring Seafloor Topography—Explore a timeline about how we have learned about the oceans. Construct a profile across the Atlantic Ocean and create 3-D visualizations of the seafloor. Uses GeoMapApp.

Climate History from Deep Sea Sediments—Locate potential core, log, and seismic data to map the marine sediment biostratigraphy. Search for a specific planktonic foraminifera that prefers warmer ocean conditions. Uses GeoMapApp.

Life in Extreme Environments—Create topographic profiles of the ocean floor to explore the structure of a spreading center. Learn about the life forms found in these extreme environments and investigate the conditions affecting them. Uses GeoMapApp.

Cool Cores Capture Climate Change—Interpret indicators of climate change recorded in sediment cores, make predictions about core profiles based on known climate change processes, and analyze cores from the Southern Ocean floor near Antarctica.

Within the EET there are several related case studies that explore the the causes and / or impacts of climate change. These lessons could be used to develop a complete unit on the topic.

Is Greenland Melting?—Explore working conditions on the Greenland Ice Sheet, measure melt area extents and rate of glacial movement with My World GIS.

Understanding Carbon Storage in Forests—Compare field collected data with results produced by a forest biomass model to understand the process and challenges scientists face when doing terrestrial carbon cycle research.

Exploring Regional Differences in Climate Change—Produce and analyze graphs to compare climate predictions among U.S. states through the year 2100.

Whither Arctic Sea Ice?—Animate thirty years of sea ice images, measure the ice extent each year, and then graph and analyze the results.

Exploring NCAR Climate Change Data Using GIS—Use ArcGIS to visualize and analyze NCAR climate change scenario.

Using NASA NEO and ImageJ to Explore the Role of Snow Cover in Shaping Climate—Use ImageJ to explore and animate satellite images of reflected short wave radiation, snow cover, and land surface temperature downloaded from the NASA Earth Observation (NEO) website. Then use NEO's Image Composite Editor (ICE) to observe, graph, and analyze the relationship between these three variables.

Envisioning Climate Change Using a Global Climate Model—Run climate modeling software to visualize how temperature and snow coverage might change over the next 100 years.