| Summary: | Completing work they began last November, University of North Dakota geomorphologist Dr. Jaakko Putkonen and a student team soon head again to one of Antarctica's remotest ice free valleys. The expedition is funded by the National Science Foundation. They leave Wednesday and will be in Antarctica for about two months. Putkonen, a well-established expert in polar and high-mountain landscapes, will be accompanied on this trip by a hand-picked team of UND students: Ted Bibby, a PhD candidate in geology and an experienced cold-climate trekker; Collin Giusti, a UND undergrad who's going on his second Antarctic mission; and first-timer Erin Hoeft, a UND geology undergrad from Two Harbors, Minn., who jumped at this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join the expedition. "Our mission this time is to collect more data and more samples and to go to places where we couldn't get the last time we were there (in December 2010-January 2011)," Putkonen, who's conducted research in several of the world's remotest, coldest locations, including Antarctica and Greenland. The research aims to describe changes in the Antarctic landscape over time; some of that may reflect natural climate change while other indicators may help scientists understand more about human-generated climate change. Interesting twist "We'll have to use a tortuous, cumbersome route to the field site," Putkonen said. "Since we don't have helicopters there this year, we will have to go there in a small airplane and land on the ice sheet, and hike quite a bit farther to our various sites; it's real strenuous work." "It's a physically punishing trip because you're working 2500 meters above sea level in a truly rough landscape," said Putkonen, whose previous research missions include time in the high Arctic and in the Himalayas. "We all have to prepare physically for several months for this expedition, using stationary bikes and weights at the UND Wellness Center," said Putkonen, who has stayed fit for all of his professional career so that he can accomplish his ...
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