Fieldwork - June 2015

Back to Quelccaya! Earlier this month we spent a couple weeks on and around the ice cap, continuing climate system research. We began the expedition as a large group with a diversity of backgrounds and interests; lots of interesting discussions ensued, while hiking and during meals. Here are some images from the adventure.

Austral winter in the Cordillera Vilcanota is typically cold and dry, with stable weather ideal for conducting fieldwork on Quelccaya. This is not how June began this year, however, as late-season snowfall during April and May continued (see 4 May entry). Here we are looking north over fresh snowcover toward Qori Kalis outlet glacier (not visible). Strong convection is already underway by 10 AM, which brought snow squalls during the afternoon. At the summit a week later we attributed ~90 cm of snow to late accumulation.

Most of the group arrived at Moraine Camp during a heavy precipitation event on the afternoon of 2 June. For more than 2 hours, large grains of graupel pelted us, driven by wind and accompanied by lightning and thunder. One lightning strike was particularly impressive (and frightening), striking a path below camp. Later we learned from our arrieros (see below) that lightning has been unusually prevalent this year, killing numerous alpaca and at least one person.

More than 40 years after his first expedition to Quelccaya Ice Cap, Lonnie Thompson was delighted to be back in 2015. Once again, he carried out a full schedule of photographing the margin, searching for old in-situ plant material emerging from beneath retreating ice, visiting Qori Kalis, and collecting snow and firn at the summit to extend his ice core record. The approach to Quelccaya is now considerably shorter than it was in 1974, yet Lonnie confirms that the partial pressure of oxygen at 5,700 m hasn't gotten any higher!

Collaborating with David Chadwell (UCSD & Scripps) we continue to quantify the magnitude of thinning at Quelccaya since 1983, when Dave worked with Henry Brecher to carefully survey the glacier. Above, Carsten Braun is making a geodetic-quality GPS measurement at one of our reference stations, prior to re-visiting numerous sites on the glacier where elevation is accurately known from the 1983-84 measurements. A manuscript detailing this work will be submitted shortly.

The majority of our time at Quelccaya was occupied by raising the AWS tower, to accommodate the summit's positive mass balance. Working together with Carsten as well as Koky Castañeda through most of 6 days we performed a complete annual service and raised everything by over 3 m. In this upward-looking view (note wind sensor), only a final trimming of guy cables and bundling of sensor leads remains to be done.

The AWS is ready for another year of measurements. One of this year's most-difficult tasks was adjusting the tower orientation to account for glacier flow. Notice how the lowest section of the tower appears tilted? It is indeed, because the tower extends another 25 m beneath the surface! Although the station is located more-or-less at the ice cap summit, where the flow vector is essentially vertical, enough differential horizontal motion has occurred since 2003 that keeping the tower plumb is not a trivial task.

Felix, Koky, and Theodoro in the snowpit, approaching 3 m depth. Here, density measurements and snow samples have been collected in the upper portion, from the shaded south-facing wall (for stable isotopes, black carbon). Just coming into view behind Theo in the deepest section is the 2014 dry-season surface. This marks the beginning of 2014-15 accumulation, and this year the 'surface' was more of a 'zone' than normal, because there was not a prolonged interval without snowfall.

Late afternoons were often spent at the glacier margin not far from camp, observing bird behavior and searching for nests used during the prior breeding season. Note the faintly-visible nest within the cavity below Koky (used by Diuca speculifera; more here). At the time this nest was occupied it was likely even more recessed from the vertical ice face, so protected from weather and relatively safe from both terrestrial predators (e.g. foxes) and from those above (e.g., Mountain Caracara, Phalcoboenus megalopterus or Aplomado Falcon, Falco femoralis).

The vicuña population near Quelccaya has increased tremendously in the past decade (Vicugna vicugna). Groups are frequently seen and heard in the area, right up to the glacier margin.