Some pictures and brief descriptions of our activities in Kangerlussuaq
Our facilities |
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Our home and laboratory in the Kangerlussuaq International Science Support (KISS) building- the picture was taken at 11 pm. While we were in Kanger, the sun set around midnight and rose again around 2 pm, so it was never fully dark.
The lower picture shows the laboratory at KISS. Andrea is running gas samples through a Picarro G2201i gas analyzer. The Picarro simultaneously measured CO2 and CH4 concentrations and the C isotopic composition of both gases. In the background, Daniel is titrating alkalinity, which provides important information on the species of inorganic carbon (CO2, H2CO3, HCO3, and CO3) in the water. All of this information will be used to evaluate how much CO2 may be consumed by weathering reaction, and/or released as the ice sheet retreats. |
Some field activities:Pore water sampling |
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The upper image to the left is the Sandflugtdalen, a large sandy outwash plain called sandurs. This particular sandur is the focus of a study in review in Journal of Hydrology (Dueurling et al.).
The second picture is the sandur below KISS. The people near the river show the scale of these large sand deposits.In the bottom picture on the left, Jon and Philip set up a string of piezometers to measure differences in the head (~pressure) between the river and the pore water in the active layer – that part of permafrost that thaws and refreezes every year. These pressure differences determine if water is flowing from the river to the river bank or from the bank to the river. Above, Philip and Ellen collecting water samples from the active layer. This experiment is designed to evaluate the amount of water that exchanges between the river and pore water, what kind of chemical reactions occur in the pore water, and potential changes in river water chemistry result from exchange of water. |
Gas sampling |
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| Andrea collecting gas samples at two sites along the Watson River. Two major techniques are used to collect the gas. One uses floating chambers – the two green “hats” floating on the river in the top image. These chambers seal approximately 3 liters of air above the river and allow the gases to evade from the river into the chambers. The gases are then either extracted by a syringe connected to fitting and preserved in gas tight glass bottles, or the CO2 concentrations are continuously monitored using a CO2 analyzer. The analyzer is kept in the small Tupperware box in the foreground of the lower picture. The other gas-collection method is a headspace extraction in which water is pumped into 500 ml bottles to overflowing and sealed. 60 ml of water is replaced with CO2 free air, allowed to equilibrate, then extracted into a syringe and injected in a gas tight bottle for subsequent analyses in the lab. | |
Life in the field |
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The upper image shows the long hike into Lake Helen watershed. Estimated 7 miles round trip (Daniel’s fitbit showed we climbed over 150 stories).
A well deserved lunch break prior to starting the sampling of Lake Helen watershed. |
