AQUIFER

Juneau Icefield, Summer 2019

During Juneau Icefield Research Program’s 2018 summer field season, JIRP research faculty, Elizabeth Case and Jonny Kingslake of Columbia University, along with Seth Campbell, JIRP’s director, discovered a potential aquifer beneath the surface of the ice at the Llewellyn and Mathes Glacier divide. Elizabeth returned to JIRP as faculty in 2019 to teach polar geophysics, and to continue their fieldwork to study the aquifer and the density of the snowpack at this divide site.

Elizabeth and I collaborated to create an interdisciplinary learning experience for student researchers. We returned to the divide site to drill a snow core to study the snowpack density at different depths to help determine the hydrologic properties of the firn layer to better understand  aquifer. In addition to measuring samples for Elizabeth and Jonny, students also helped create cyanotype prints of the core samples from different depths. These cyanotypes not only acted as contact prints to document the density of the snow, they are also photographic prints of the passage of time, our own interaction with the glacial materials, and the specific location of the fieldwork (fixed onsite with melted snow).

The result is an abstract installation of cyanotypes that supplement our analytical understanding of findings with a visual aid – a different way to express these scientific findings, and another foothold to for the public to connect with the scientific information.

We intend Aquifer to be the start of continued collaboration, with plans of expanding on this model of parallel art-and-science fieldwork. Additionally, the hope is to find opportunities for public art installations and experiences to act as science communication and outreach for Elizabeth and Jonny’s research in the future.