Adolfo Eraso, chemist and doctor in Geology, has spent practically all his life studying the bowels of glaciers. He has participated in numerous expeditions to both poles , today much less frequent due to budget cuts, and he claims to feel ‘like a duck on the high seas’ in his Madrid office when he is not on one of his adventures .
Together with Mª del Carmen Domínguez (Karmenka), a mathematics teacher, Eraso launched the Glackma (Glaciers, Criokarst and Environment) project, which uses glaciers as natural indicators of the evolution of global warming . To do this, they have installed a network of sensors that monitor different parameters related to the loss of ice mass from glaciers (known as glacial liquid discharge) and are located at different latitudes in both hemispheres.
The measurement stations have been operating since 2001 and record time series with intervals of just one hour, generating a volume of 8,760 data per year and parameter measured in each station. “We take about twenty different parameters,” Eraso explains, “but the main one is the specific flow –volume that comes out of the glacier- referred to each square kilometer of area. This gives us an idea of the amount of water – which used to be ice. – which is losing, and also allows us to compare different types of glaciers. “
Preliminary results already indicate that glacial discharge is immediate and very sensitive to any variation in environmental temperature, thus corroborating the idea that, indeed, ice masses are good indicators of global warming . “Between 1987 and 2001, the specific flow measured in the station that we have in the Spanish base in Antarctica doubled, that is, twice as much water came out of the glacier. And in the following three years the amount doubled again” , the researcher tells us.
Man, responsible for the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere
The rate at which polar ice melts is no accident, and scientists have this well-studied relationship. “Continental ice is formed from snow. When a new snowfall falls on the ice, air remains trapped inside in the form of bubbles, and by studying them we can know what the composition of the atmosphere was like when the snowfall in question fell. And how As a result, we have rebuilt the Earth’s climate, “explains Eraso.
” Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached a minimum in glacial times of 130 ppm (parts per million) and in warm interglacial times it rose to 220 ppm. And that has worked until the 19th century. It reached 300 ppm for the first time in 1910, and it has continued to rise due to human activity. Now we have already exceeded an average value of 400 ppm and this continues to increase increasingly. My hypothesis is that the function of the increase in population on Earth fits perfectly with that of the increase in carbon dioxide.”
The secrets of the glaciers
Adolfo Eraso’s activity has not been limited to exploring the surface of the glaciers but, as a good speleologist, he has also visited them from the inside. But before diving into the ice, the researcher discovered his passion when he went down wells with his caving school in Navarra. “You came to an impermeable stratum in which there were underground rivers, and when taking the temperatures I realized that they were increasing. To explain this phenomenon, I applied the Joule effect , which analyzes the mechanical behavior of heat. The circulation of these Rivers is turbulent, so energy is generated, and this produces the observed temperature increase. “
His surprise came when, years later, he discovered that the inbred water is at zero degrees, and that its temperature does not rise despite the Joule effect. The researcher has a theory: “turbulent energy is not used to increase sensible heat, but to increase latent heat of transformation. In other words: to melt ice . That is why it is always kept at zero degrees, and instead of rising the temperature increases the flow “.
Projects interrupted by cuts
Science has been one of the great affected by the economic crisis , and its impact has been noted in research as current as those studying climate change or the melting of the poles. Due to the cuts, Eraso has not embarked for the poles for three years, and although the sensors installed in them continue to measure without rest, it is useless if there is no one who can go to collect the data.
Given the abandonment of the institutions, Eraso and Karmenka have been established as a non-profit association and are trying to continue their research through crowdfunding . On the Glakma website you can find all the information about their project and find out about the options to support them.
