Pinkish red dye in water draining through a moulin.

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Geolocation data

(68°43′17″N, 49°29′45″W)

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iBase ID

334418

Creator

Linder, Christopher L.

Title

Pinkish red dye in water draining through a moulin.

Type

Still Image

Date

07/20/2008

File name

graphics/PD4_greenland/cl_20080720120536.jpg

Notes

Used in Oceanus magazine, Vol. 47, No. 2, Pg. 28, no caption.
To detect traces of dye in the melted water flowing out to sea, Maya will use a fluorometer, a device that pumps in sea water and detects even one molecule of the fluorescent chemical dye contained in the water. "Using it is sort of like looking at certain colors through a blacklight [ultraviolet light-emitting lamps that make certain pigments glow]-they just pop out," Ian said. Today, and over the next five days, Maya will take the fluorometer a short way across a fjord near the coast in a rubber zodiac. "She's looking for any indication that the dye made it down to her," Mark said. Once detected, she will look for spikes and dips in its concentration over time.
Image of The Day caption:
Summertime meltwater forms lakes on Greenland's ice sheet that suddenly disappear. WHOI glaciologist Sarah Das showed why--the water's weight cracks the ice, draining to bedrock and lubricating the ice's seaward flow. In 2008 Das and colleagues investigated this unseen plumbing, pouring harmless dye into inland draining meltwater while grad student Maya Bhatia tested for dye in coastal seawater. "Knowing the speed of water flow under the ice would help us determine what sort of water system exists there," Das said. "A warming climate may cause more meltwater lakes and cracks to form, which could speed ice flow, leading to increased rates of sea level rise."

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