Quick Dips

The Byrd Man of Wellington

Victoria University geologist Gary Wilson had a special reason to attend the rededication of the Byrd Memorial on Mt Victoria recently -- he had just been offered a prestigious fellowship named after the famous US explorer, Rear Admiral Robert Byrd.

Wilson's work supports a new theory that over the last several million years the Antarctic ice sheet has melted to a large extent and re-formed several times. The conventional view says that the ice sheet was relatively stable over that time.

The volatility of the Antarctic ice sheet has an important bearing on current debates over the extent to which global warming could lead to rises in sea levels. If the ice sheet is prone to melting, then world sea levels are more likely to rise with warming of the planet caused by the greenhouse effect.

Wilson will spend a year at Ohio State University, examining material brought up by drilling through the ocean floor in the McMurdo Sound area, and will also spend time on the ice.