We had the privilege of visiting the US Army Corps of Engineers Permafrost Research Facility outside Fairbanks yesterday.
Permafrost Research Center, Fairbanks AK
Inside the Permafrost Tunnel, Fairbanks AK
Matthew Strum, a physical earth scientist, talked to us about his work, the permafrost tunnel and -- most importantly -- water. He reminds us that in order to understand climate science and what is happening in the Arctic and Antarctic, we must understand water. Listen to his fascinating comments about water in the attached audio file.
Gerty Ward & Matthew Strum in the Permafrost Tunnel
Water is a most unusual substance! Like all matter, it exists in three states, or phases: solid (ice), liquid (water) and gas (water vapor or humidity). However, water is the only substance known to exist, naturally, in all three phases on Earth. Think about that!
Water has another fascinating property...ice floats! That is, its solid phase is less dense than its liquid phase. This property makes water really weird. These two features, 3 phases on Earth and ice floating, indicate that water is a very special substance. Matthew Strum calls it "the life force."
This summer I will be joining the Beaufort Gyre Expedition helping Andrey Proshutinsky, Rich Krishfield and their collaborators to collect data on several properties of ocean water. They hope that by examining what is happening to the water in the Beaufort Sea, they can help model some of the changes happening to our Earth.
I look forward to telling you many more fascinating things about ---- water.
Gerty Ward says, see you soon!