New Zealand's first all-female team of scientists is embarking on an expedition to Antarctica to study a vast but vulnerable ice shelf, media reported on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th November, 2021) New Zealand's first all-female team of scientists is embarking on an expedition to Antarctica to study a vast but vulnerable ice shelf, media reported on Thursday.
According to 1News, the group headed by PhD student Alanna Alevropoulos-Borrill will also include research fellow Alexandra Gossart and PhD candidate Francesca Baldacchino. The all-women team formed by itself, the organizers of the expedition reportedly said. The goal of the expedition is to study the Ross Ice Shelf.
"We didn't try to construct it. We just have enough capacity. And afterwards I realized, 'Wow, it's an all-female team'. But we have enough female scientists that can just happen, and that's really the big outcome for me," Associate Professor Nancy Bertler, director of the Antarctic Science Platform, said as quoted by 1News.
The Ross Ice Shelf is a huge ice flow connected to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The scientists fear that if it breaks away and melts, the ocean level will rise by 12 meters (39 feet).
"Antarctica is made up of ice streams, which are essentially just slow rivers of ice, and they respond to climate," 1News quoted Alevropoulos-Borrill as saying.
Her research team will reportedly measure the speed at which the ice floe is moving to understand the impact of climate. According to 1News, the female scientists will have to travel 200 kilometers (124 miles) on ice from New Zealand's Scott Base and work at six locations.
The group will travel to Antarctica next week, the Alevropoulos-Borrill reportedly said.
