Antarctic Sounds & Ice Core Science | Taylor Glacier

Описание: From November 2015 to January 2016, a team of scientists spent 7 weeks on Taylor Glacier in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, drilling ancient ice cores in a "blue ice zone." The ice here is from ~10,000 to 130,000 years old!

For an overview of the science that comes out of ice cores from Taylor Glacier, read this press release: https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/...

Along the way, once the science was done, the team found a fun way to stay entertained: dropping pieces of ice down 70-90 meter deep ice boreholes. The resulting sounds are absolutely bizarre and captivating, and have been seen millions of times in a few "viral" videos...

The sounds from the boreholes:
1) As the ice scrapes down the hole, the Doppler effect decreases the sound frequency,
2) “Ricochet” or “gunshot” 💥 is the sound of the ice hitting the bottom and the sound coming up the hole at varying speed (in addition to sound coming straight up the hole, some of the sound waves start bouncing off the walls and thus have to travel further),
3) A “heartbeat” ❤️ set by the speed of sound (320 m / second) as the sound reverberates up and down the hole.

For a full analysis of the sounds by a University of Rochester acoustics expert, read here: https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/...

For a video on these sounds and Peter's ice core research, check out this interview with University of Washington News:    • Ancient ice and viral videos in Antarctica  

Head to Peter's website for more: http://peterneff.weebly.com/


This science project was funded and supported by the US National Science Foundation.