Carla Huynh – Constraining deglaciation in southernmost Patagonia 2023

Carla Huynh is a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh. Carla and her team will carry out an expedition that will involve sailing south of the Santa Ines and Cordillera Darwin Icefields in southernmost Patagonia to collect rock samples for cosmogenic isotope dating. This research will help to understand glacier behaviour and the drivers of Lateglacial and Holocene climate on these remote islands.

The fieldwork will involve chartering a sailing boat (the MV Chonos) with a local crew to access remote islands surrounding the Icefields and sample quartz-rich boulders from the moraine crests. These samples will be prepared for cosmogenic isotope analysis, which will determine the timing of the deglaciation in the region. This glacial chronology will be used to constrain an ice sheet model that simulates past climate changes, enabling the team to investigate the sensitivity of the ice sheet to changes in temperature and precipitation.

The team intends the expedition will lead to two scientific papers to communicate the findings.

EXPEDITION DATES: 13 November 2023 to 4 December 2023

EXPEDITION LOCATION: Isla Santa Ines and Isla Grande Tierra del Fuego, southern Chile

SES members and all other participants in SES endorsed expeditions take part at their own risk, and will not hold SES, its trustees, employees, volunteers, partners or agents liable (whether in contract or in tort or in negligence or for breach of statutory duty or otherwise) for any loss, criminal or reputational damage, personal injury, delay or expense suffered or incurred on any such expedition. SES endorses the aims and objectives of these expeditions only.