Antarctica Dispatch 4: Fieldwork begins, cue the seals

The scientists are sailing south toward Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier on the icebreaker known as the Nathaniel B. Palmer. The expedition is part of a five-year, international effort to try to determine how fast the massive glacier is melting as the planet warms and what that will mean for global sea level rise over the next century.

A Zodiac boat carries the researchers from the Nathaniel B. Palmer to the Schaefer Islands in search of seals for tagging.

Under the watchful eyes of local penguins, Bastien Queste, of the University of East Anglia, and Lars Boehme, of the University of St. Andrews, both in the UK, catch the seal they spotted before anesthetizing her to affix sensors to her head. The sensors will measure depth, temperature and salinity for roughly a year as the seal swims in the water around the Thwaites Glacier.

Sensor attached, the seal is ready to resume its normal life. The instruments are part of a range of methods and tools researchers are using to learn more about how changes in the water off West Antarctica may be melting the Thwaites Glacier.