latest exit project draft

Julian Chelo, Stefano Archangel 03-27-07
801 ESCI
Antarctica Climate Change
I. Abstract: Climate change (aka “Global warming”) is a major issue that can have serious negative affects on the world. Climate Change is responsible for altering common weather conditions, and melting the polar ice caps. We thought that since Antarctica is continent made up mainly of ice that it too can be damaged by climate change. We found from our research on the matter, that Antarctica does in fact melt as a result of climate change, and this causes the world’s sea level to rise. To actually see this for our self’s first hand, we made an experiment were we observed how a 6 ½ inch ice statue of Antarctica melted under compromised weather conditions, and every 5- 30 minutes we measured how much water was lost from the statue raising the water level in the container.

II. Introduction: When Pangaea began to separate, Antarctica was a part of Gondwanaland, as was Africa Australia and New Zeeland. Antarctica wasn’t always the ice mass it is today about 195 million years ago around the cretaceous era, Antarctica used to be tropical and had a lot more life then it has today, there were also lots of flowers, trees, fern, and other plants that grew commonly in Antarctica (known because many scientists found fossils of such plants on the continent). Over the years as the continent headed south, the temperature slowly dropped, for example, 60 million years ago, Antarctica was about as cold as the U.K is today, 40 million years ago the first ice cap started to form around Antarctica, also around the time the first penguin started to evolve (unfortunately for them). It was not until 25 million years ago that the entire continent became completely covered in ice, right when the first whales started to take form, which is why they are so many in the waters of the continent.

It was imagined by the Greeks that there was some kind of place like Antarctica. (According to their constellations), but it was only a theory no one even knew it existed in those days, it was at that time an imaginary place. The Greeks thought it existed because they believed for the world to have balance there had to be some kind of negative place in the world. the first man to ever lay eyes on Antarctica was Thaddeus Bellingshausen, a Russian explorer/sea captain, he was however, not the first man to actually set foot on the continent, the first man to do that was an American named John Davis, a captain of a ship of seal hunters (some historians believe he was English, and others believe the explorer was an entirely different person, but a majority of historians believe it was John Davis). There are no natives/ residents on the continent, the only people who live there do not even live there permanently, they are either tourists, explores, scientists, or are mining for oil, or other minerals found on the convenient like gold, iron, nickel, lead, copper, etc. There never were any native humans that live in Antarctica, there couldn’t have been because homo sapiens began to evolve after Antarctica was covered in tundra, if there were some primates they wouldn’t be able to survive the temperatures that drop way below zero, if their were primates on the continent, they probably died while in the evolution process.

Animals in Antarctica are being affected because the Animals can’t survive for many reasons such as ice mass loss from loss from 2002- 2005. It was recorded by NASA that for the first time Antarctica’s ice sheets decreased in size. The amount of Ice lost was enough to increase the earth’s sea levels by 1.2 millimeters. The Antarctic ice sheets lost 152 cubic kilometers between April 2002, and August 2005. The amount of water melted off the ice plate was the equivalent of how much water Americans use in three months, which is approximately 264 billion gallons of water. The temperatures during the summer reach -5 to -31 and during the winter it reaches a deadly -40 to -94. Even Antarctica is a normal habitat for some animals it is still to cold too survive some animals has to go through this every year. The warmest temperature ever recorded was 59 degrees in January 5 1974, and the coldest temperature ever recorded was -129 degrees, on July 21, 1983.
Ozone is a gas made of oxygen atoms. Usually oxygen atoms hang around in pairs in pairs - this is the sort of oxygen that we breathe and that helps things to burn. Oxygen sometimes however will form a molecule with three oxygen atoms this is what we call ozone:
02(g) - Two oxygen atoms - ordinary common or garden oxygen
03(g) - Three Oxygen Atoms - Ozone
Has a particularly useful characteristic that it can absorb large quantities of ultra-violet (UV) light - more of that soon. Most of the ozone on earth isn’t on earth at all, but in the layer of the earth’s atmosphere called the stratosphere. This is the upper layer of the atmosphere and begins between 12.9 and 19.3 km (8 to 12 miles) above our heads and goes upwards to almost 50 km (30 miles). The Stratosphere has no clouds or other form of weather it’s thinnest at the equator and thickest at the poles.

There are many who are unaware of the dangers that threaten Antarctica, it seams unlikely to people that Antarctica could melt into oblivion, but it could very well happen. There have been past recordings of ice melts where the ice sheets of Antarctica have melted, the melt was so significant that the earth’s sea level actually rose. Over years to come, think what could happen. To show what could happen I (Julian) am going to make a short animated documentary that shows the consequences of what could happen if the ice sheets do significantly decline, an how society will be affected.

Scientists expect to be able to find out if the ozone is harming Antarctica from ice samples from West Antarctic Ice Core, to help better understand the relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature. The scientists also expect to learn more about the impact the West Antarctic ice sheets will have on the earth’s possible sea level rise. Finally the scientists will be able to observe, find, and record the influences of southern ocean and atmospheric circulation patterns on its climate.

III. Question: Does climate change have negative effects on Antarctica even though it is the world’s coldest, most southern Continent? If so what are these negative affects and what are they caused by?

IV. Hypotheses: We believe Antarctica as all the other continents is being affected by climate change. Climate change, now scientifically proven, is a global phenomenon. The effects of the climate change we think will cause melting of the ice and raise of sea levels. Given the fact that Antarctica lost 264 billion gallons of water in 3 years at this rate in 12 years, about 1056 billion gallons of water would be released into the ocean. We want to prove that if the environment of Antarctica changes we expect to see massive ice melts and an increase in the sea levels, so this would probably work on a small scale as well.

Extra facts: About 97.6% of Antarctica is Ice, the other is actual continent. The size of the tundra free land in Antarctica is said to be about the size of 48 US states, combined with about half of Mexico, only about 0.4% of the continent. The size of the Continent with ice is about 1.4 times bigger than The US, and 58 times bigger than the UK. Antarctica was the size of half of Mexico, and 48 states, when it began to break away from Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, and as it drifted south, it drifted further away from the equator, and it got colder and colder with every era. The continent of Antarctica went from being Tropical- to mild- to cold- to colder- to below freezing, and all these continental changes happened during the: cretaceous, Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene Eras, and as Antarctica matured, so did the ocean and the rest of the world around, and the first humans stared to evolve as well. Although there were never any native peoples on Antarctica, some people live their today, mainly scientists, and explorers.
V. Materials: Rubber liquid latex, water, map of Antarctica, plastic container, hair dryer, paint brush, 2 cameras, laptop, hair dryer, sharpie marker, ruler, .


VI. Procedure:

1. First we took a picture of Antarctica from the internet.


2. Then using the map, we made an almost exact clay model of Antarctica.


3. Next we painted the statue in liquid rubber latex.


4. We waited for the rubber to dry and removed the clay statue, making a rubber ice tray.


5. We then filled the rubber cast with water and left it in the freezer.


6. Then we remove the rubber cast from the ice.

7. We now have an Ice version of the original Antarctica print out.

8. We then put the ice sculpture in a plastic container of blue water (while filming).



9. We then waited for Antarctica Ice sculpture to melt slightly and every time it melted it

was filmed, until the sculpture melted.







11. The melting of the ice sculpture later resulted in the water in the container rising by

Several centimeters the video was then edited and slides with scientific data from several

researchers were inserted.

12. We then did the experiment again, this time in a smaller container, and this time it was only photographed, not filmed. We changed the temperature of the statue’s environment by moving it from the cold freezer to the warm kitchen

13. We put ice in the container with no water then we left the ice alone in the kitchen for about half an hour.

14. When we came back the ice was melted slightly and their was some water in the container, but not to enough to measure in millimeters, so we pored the defrosted water in the container into a drinking glass (while holding the ice), then measured the water level in the glass, we got 20 millimeters.

15. We then poured the cup of water back into the container with the ice, and waited another half hour.

16. We did the same process 7 more times at one point we decided to wait 15 minutes instead of 30, and 4 more times after that we did so every 5 minutes.


17. At one point the water had melted enough to fill the cup so we had to use another cup, and it was the same brand as the one we had been using. We measured both the cups water levels and added the numbers together, al this was recoded in our journals.


VII. Experiment: When the ice replica of Antarctica was complete it was placed in a
Plastic transparent bowl filled with blue dyed water (to look oceanic). The lighting and camera were prepared while the ice sculpture began to set in the water. The ice first looked dry bright and full, but to simulate the effect of global warming, a small hair dryer was placed above the model and set on low. The ice began to shrink under the intense heat conditions, when there was a noticeable change in size on camera the ice burg was filmed again. The same process was done 9 more times and each time the water leveling the tank rose slightly.
To get actual numbers from the experiment we did it again, this time in a much smaller bowl, and it was not filmed, but it was photographed, and this time no water was put in the bowl, just the ice model. We left the ice alone in the bowl for about half an hour and there was a thin layer of water below our sized decreased ice model, but since the water was hard to measure we decided to pour the defrosted water into a drinking glass with a diameter of 56mm, then the water’s height was measured in millimeters, and for the first measurement we got was exactly 20 millimeters. Then we poured the water in the drinking glass back in the container with the ice, we waited 30 minutes again, and when we poured the newly defrosted the water back into the cup and measured, the water level had risen by another 9 millimeters (total: 29 mm) we aren’t 100% sure why but we think its because the ice was in water now, and cold water too so it must have melted less because of that, also the container was now cooler then when we started. We then waited another half hour and the water level in the bowl increased by 16mm (total: 45mm). To get the data to be more detailed we waited 15 minutes now instead of 30, and the defrosted water from the ice was now 51mm. then we increased the reporting time to every 5 minutes, until the ice melted completely, we waited 5 minutes 4 times and our count of millimeters from the melted water was 73mm in all. The water actually filled the cup we used, so we got another one (the exact same type and brand) and pored the remaining water in that cup, measured them both, then added the numbers of millimeters together.

VIII. Results: When the Ice statue was completely melted the water I the tank rose by approximately 2.2 centimeters, and also the water became a lighter blue than originally. 2.2 centimeters might not seam like a lot on a certain scale, but if that were the real thing then Manhattan would probably be the new Atlantis. The water changing color is also relevant to the real affects of Antarctica melting, because the blue water was paint water, and the ice statue was made of regular water and when mixed they became unbalanced. This is like the real scale because Antarctica’s ice is fresh water and the ocean is salt water, and when mixed the indifference can cause damage to the sea life as well.
We got different results from trying the process again differently I jotted down the results of the millimeter elevation in my note book, in the analysis shows a graph containing my results. There was not a pattern of obvious numbers in the data we found from doing the experiment, in fact the way the ice melted was very unpredictable. For example, there were 20 millimeters of water the first half hour we started the experiment, the next half hour the water only elevated by 9mm. what was also strange was how in 5 minutes the water level rose by 10mm, but I think that’s just because at that point in the experiment there was more water than ice, which most likely speeded up the melting. This could also be the explanation of how a lot of millimeters of water were released in short durations.

IX. Analyze:

Time (minutes) New Height (mm) Height added (mm)
00:30 20mm 20mm
00:30 29mm 9mm
00:30 45mm 16mm
00:15 51mm 6mm
00:05 55mm 4mm
00:05 60mm 5mm
00:05 70mm 10mm
00:05 73mm 3mm

Time it Took to Melt Completely Water Unfrozen
125 minutes
(2hs and 5 minutes) 73 millimeters

Radius of glass = 56/2mm =28ml
Volume of water in glass =(3.14 *28*28)*73mm Total Volume of water =0.179708 Liters


I have other ideas on why the chart numbers are different as well. I believe that so little water melted the second time because now that the container had cold water there was something slightly restraining the melting of the rest of the ice. The reason we changed
30 minutes to 15 minutes, then 5 minutes was because we needed kinds of variables, and just measuring every half hour would have been to predictable, we had to also see how much the melting rate would be changed

X. Conclusion: our data supported our hypothesis, with a drastic change in temperature we were able to observe ice melting and water level rising. We had to do our experiments twice the first experiment was more of a presentation, but then we in our second experiment we collected precise data on the quantity of water that melted from the Antarctica model. We do feel confident that based on our observation and data, is safe to say that to an increase in the atmospheric temperature will correspond a decrease in the ice mass and a sea level increase. Antarctica itself is big though, over 50 times bigger than the UK in fact, and its environment (the world) is similar to that of a plastic container because of the gravitational pull earth has on the sea. It shouldn’t be long till the temperature rises even more, and when that happens Antarctica will begin to melt faster and faster. Climate change is something that will never change but it can be reduced which will slow down the negative effects of it. People will need to do some thing about chemical wastelands, gas emissions, nuclear industrial facilities, and people that don’t care about living in a fresh and clean environment. Many car companies and gas companies will tell you that their products are not damaging the planet, because they would loose money on cars and it will cost more money for them to manufacture hybrid cars. So people should take it into consideration and help stop polluting the world because the effects on Antarctica may not seem sever now but it will take a toll in the future of the environment.