This summer, an expedition from the Ohio State University set out to the ends of the Earth to study one of Earth’s greatest threats. The team of scientists from OSU’s Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center first flew from Columbus to Lima, then to Cusco, and then drove for a day to a place called Quelccaya.
“The Quelccaya region is a very special place,” said Lonnie Thompson, OSU professor and the expedition leader, said in an email. “One can view a variety of wildlife such as vicuña and vizcachas, and evidence of wildlife such as puma tracks. Even though August is in the dry season in this part of the world, afternoon thunderstorms with snowfall often occur. At night one can often see lightning in the distance from thunderstorms over the Amazon rain forest just to the east of the Quelccaya ice cap.”
Since 1974, Thompson and his research team from OSU’s Byrd Center have hiked their way up to Peru’s Quelccaya, which sits at an altitude of about 18,860 feet. From their basecamp at 17,000 feet, the team has, for 25 years, taken ice core samples to construct a history of the ice cap stretching hundreds of years into the past, and to measure the present and future effects of climate change.
“This year’s expedition consisted of 31 people, consisting of 8 members of our research team and 8 film makers from L.A. who are producing an hour-long documentary aimed at inspiring the next generation of young scientists,” said Thompson. “The field team also included two reporters from the BBC. Our Peruvian colleagues included mountaineers, logistics coordinators, cooks, and porters.”
When Thompson first started studying the ice cap there were no roads, forcing the field team to make a 2-day hike to basecamp. Today, Thompson says the biggest challenge Quelccaya poses to researchers is its elevation. Before they even set out from Cusco, team members have to acclimatize by “taking daily hikes up to 4,130 meters.”
“The team has a special high elevation medical kit, as well as oxygen and a portable hyperbaric GAMOW bag for creating a pressurized environment should it become necessary,” said Thompson.
The rigors of the expedition are a necessary cost for the type of research that can only be conducted atop the ice cap. Glaciers like Quelccaya are considered by scientists to be the best indicators of climate change, and, as Thompson noted, “They clearly have no political agenda.”
“’Boots on the ground’ is the only way scientists can obtain ground truth on what is actually happening in the real world,” said Thompson. “Field work is the only way that snow pit and ice core samples can be collected for laboratory analysis, as well as ancient wetland plants which are radiocarbon dated to tell us the last time that the Quelccaya ice cap was as small as it is today (it was over 6,600 years ago).”
The 2018 expedition collected snow and ice samples from snow pits and from the summit of the ice cap, took a series of photographs of Quelccaya’s largest outlet glacier to continue recording the glacier’s multi-decade retreat, and collected 10 ancient plants that were exposed from under the ice as climate change shrinks Quelccaya.
This year, for the first time, the expedition launched camera-equipped drones that located a number of small lakes on the ice cap’s surface. This is further indication, said Thompson, that the glacier is in danger. Water absorbs more sunlight, melting the ice faster, exposing dark bedrock that absorbs even more sunlight and accelerates melting. It’s a vicious cycle.
“The extent to which the Quelccaya ice cap had retreated in the two years since we last visited the site was a stunning visual,” said Thompson. “All indications are that the rate of retreat of this ice cap will continue to accelerate.”
Climate change is, of course, not just a threat to the Earth and its geographical features. It poses great dangers to humanity and human ways of life. Thompson and his team took the time to discuss climate change with some of the people who live in the region surrounding Quelccaya. They shared their personal worries about the global phenomenon.
“In this remote part of the world the local people have noticed the very rapidly retreating glaciers and the impacts on water supplies,” said Thompson.
Thompson spoke of meeting a family with a herd of 400 alpaca, “and while their lifestyle has negligible contribution to the drivers of climate change, they are much more severely impacted by it. The increase in lightning strikes from stormier weather, and glacial lake outbursts caused by melting ice have resulting in increasing livestock losses. We all live on the same Earth, and although more agrarian cultures such as highland Peruvians are already suffering from the effects of climate change, sooner or later we will all experience some consequences.”