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Denman Marine Voyage

Denman Marine Voyage

February – April 2025

The Australian Antarctic Program’s Denman Marine Voyage will take more than 60 scientists 60 degrees south for over 60 days to investigate the Denman glacier, one of the largest glaciers in East Antarctica.

The voyage will be the first dedicated science voyage to take place on the RSV Nuyina and is a flagship collaboration between scientists from Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future, the Australian Antarctic Division, the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership and the Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science.

 

Past, present and future of the Denman glacier

The scientists aim to uncover the past, present, and future of the Denman glacier, a massive, slow-moving river of ice capable of contributing 1.5 m to sea level rise. To do so, scientists will collaborate to study the glacier from almost every possible angle to uncover its history of advance and retreat, and the surrounding ecosystem. 

This will include studying it from the ocean to understand how factors such as temperature and circulation are melting the ice from below. It will also involve examining the atmosphere to understand how connections between clouds and aerosols (such as dust and pollutants) impact the ice from above.

Geologists will examine the seafloor for signs of how the glacier has moved in the past, while glaciologists will collect rocks that hold chemical signals that can tell us when an area was last covered in ice. Meanwhile, evolutionary biologists will collect seafloor animals, such as sea stars and octopuses, whose DNA can offer a timestamp for how Southern Ocean life has evolved in tune with the movement of the ice.

Scientists eagerly await the opportunity to use the ship’s advanced research capabilities. These include its wet well, which marine biologists will use to collect krill and zooplankton, to understand how a warming ocean is impacting the basis of the Southern Ocean’s ecosystems. It will also include deploying equipment such as CTD rosettes and Argo floats to collect data on ocean properties such as salinity, temperature, pressure and depth, which all hold vital information about how the region is changing. 

Through these efforts, the team hopes to piece together a comprehensive history of the Denman glacier—one that reveals its past, its current challenges, and the impact its ice will have on our future.

Read more about the Denman Marine Voyage, on the Australian Antarctic Program website.

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