Feeling Blue: What the Blue Ice Areas in the Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica, can tell us about the past and future of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Seminar

The Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica, protrude from the Antarctic Ice Sheet and act like a paleao-environmental ‘dipstick’ for the Antarctic Ice Sheet.  Their presence also affects the ice sheet in a number of ways, including the formation of “Blue Ice Areas” where katabatic winds blowing off the ice sheet cause removal of the snow cover.  This seminar will review the ways in which the Mountains can inform us of the behaviour of the past ice sheet, and help to establish how the ice sheet may behave in the future.