2014_11_27_CIE_antartida

Delia Rodríguez PhD from the School of Sciences of the University of Navarra participates together with several Chilean scientists in an expedition to the Union Glacier, in Antarctica. The stay, one of the largest scientific expeditions to date, will take place during a month in which the researchers will be able to focus on several scientific projects. During this time, Delia Rodríguez, together with Dr. Francisco Fernandoy, from the Universidad Andrés Bello, focused on reconstructing the Antarctic climate and determining the magnitude of environmental changes in the past. From Urdániz,

"The Union Glacier is a place that is under observation of the world academic community due to its location core topic between a zone with dramatic warming and another more stable one located in the interior of Antarctica," he explained. He also pointed out that the research they are carrying out "focuses on studying recent climate changes in this region since, unlike what happens in the Antarctic Peninsula, we believe that the climatic evolution of this portion of territory is much more moderate or stable."

"To do this, we drilled into the glacier layer with a special drill and extracted ice cores at depth. The study of their characteristics and their analysis is one of the most direct tools for correlating past climate with atmospheric transport routes and the transport of elements and chemical compounds," he added. Thanks to these analyses, they will be able to estimate changes in air temperature, snow accumulation, particle transport in the atmosphere, among others.

Delia Rodríguez, a native of Urdániz, did her doctoral thesis at the department of Chemistry and Edaphology of the School of Sciences of the University of Navarra. Her work was based on the study of the soils of the Señorío de Bértiz Natural Park. At present, he is working at the Andrés Bello University in Chile.

The joint scientific polar station "Glaciar Unión" is one of the three closest to the South Pole, together with the American base of Amundsen-Scott and the Chinese base of Kunlun. It involves the Chilean army, navy and air force and the Chilean Arctic high school .