Mar 29, 2011 11:44 GMT  ·  By

A collaboration of British researchers has just returned from a science expedition in the Antarctic Peninsula. They bring back interesting news about the behavior of the ice sheets at that location, which is one of the most likely on the globe to respond immediately to climate change.

The team, made up from experts at the University of Leeds and the Aberystwyth University, says that the enormous Antarctic Ice Sheet responds nearly immediately to global warming and other factors that may influence its development.

Geoscientists say that this makes the area extremely interesting. It is also one of the reasons why the region is being closely monitored by experts around the world. The ice sheets' size and location makes them even more important for scientists.

In the investigation the team conducted, experts determined that ices from the area covered the nearby James Ross Island several times over the past 25,000 years. After each such event, the ices retreated back to their original extent, before resuming the cycle.

The new data comes in very handy for explaining the extent and thickness this ice sheets reached over time. The information will also help scientists develop more precise computer models to simulate the contributions that Antarctica will make to global sea levels in the future.

Investigators studied the Ulu Peninsula, a portion of the James Ross Island that contains numerous “erratic” rocks. These are boulders and stones that have been moved from their respective points of origin, most often by glaciers .

During their 7-week stay in Antarctica, the scientists mapped 600 square kilometers of terrain, analyzing erratic rocks, and analyzing what may have displaced them from their points of origin.

Given that the island itself is of volcanic origin, the only place the glaciers that moved the stone may have come from is the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Researchers say that this is the only plausible explanation.

“Geologically, the Antarctic Peninsula is completely different to James Ross Island – so we know that wherever we find these erratic rocks we can be fairly sure that an ice sheet from the Antarctic Peninsula brought them onto the island,” explains Dr Jonathan Carrivick.

“It is then a relatively easy task to match the exact composition of the rocks to those on the Antarctic Peninsula. In doing so, we can trace the historic movement of the ice sheet across the Prince Gustav Channel,” adds the expert, who is based at the University of Leeds.

“The granite 'erratics' were ripped up by the Antarctic Ice Sheet and moved onto James Ross Island at some time in the past when the Ice Sheet was much more extensive and thicker,” adds Neil Glasser.

“We were surprised both by the number and the size of these erratic boulders. Some are up to 3 metres in diameter – the size of a small family car,” he adds. The expert, who is a professor at the Aberystwyth University, was the principal investigator on the new study.