BPRC
Byrd Polar Research Center
Named in honor of one of America's most famous explorers, the Byrd Polar Research Center (BPRC) is recognized internationally as a leader in polar and alpine research. BPRC is an integral part of the School of Earth Sciences. There are over 60 scientists at BPRC conducting research that focuses on the role of cold regions in the global climate system.
Research themes include:
- climatic reconstruction of glacial and post-glacial times
- polar ice-sheets: dynamics, history and ice-atmosphere interactions
- high-latitude landform evolution, soils and hydrology
- geologic evolution of Antarctica
- history of polar exploration
Scientists at the Byrd Center are reconstructing past climate by studying chemical records preserved in ice cores collected from glaciers in Greenland, China, Peru and Antarctica. Fossils provide important evidence for much older changes in climate and plant fossils collected in the Transantarctic Mountains indicate that parts of the southern continent were once forested. Research on the neotectonic deformation of the Antarctic plate entails global position system (GPS) measurement of crustal motions, fault mapping from field and geophysical surveys, and stress measurements from boreholes. Environmental studies include programs in Alaska and Russia that are concerned with hydrologic and geochemical cycles in permafrost terrains and interactions with the biosphere. Modern processes such as the motion of the great ice sheets and the circulation of storm systems around Antarctica are being studied with sophisticated computer models and with satellite-borne sensors capable of imaging the surface through cloud cover and during the long polar night.
BPRC is also home to the newly constructed United States Polar Rock Repository. The repository contains over 7000 rock samples from Antarctica and the Arctic. In addition to geologic specimens this collection includes associated materials such as field notes, annotated photos and maps, analytic data, paleomagnetic cores, thin sections, and microfossil mounts. This repository is an important resource to scientists around the world.