The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) has joined an international effort to save a glacier in the Antarctic.
The International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, which also comprises scientists from the United States and the United Kingdom, is one of the biggest projects ever to be undertaken in Antarctica.
The glacier is at risk of collapsing, which could eventually force sea level rises of 80 centimetres or more.
Dr Dylan Rood, from the Imperial College in London is responsible for taking measurements in the bedrock below the current ice sheet and along with ANSTO, will be looking for evidence that the bedrock was ice-free in the past.
Dr Rood said knowledge of the ice sheet history would allow scientists to predict how it would behave in the current climate better.
“They will also be able to determine this through various techniques, including detecting the presence of elements such as beryllium-10 in subglacial bedrock,” Dr Rood said.
Klaus Wilcken from ANSTO said this was a pivotal time for science and the world.
“ANSTO was invited to be part of this exciting research because its Sirius 6 MV accelerator is now one of the most sensitive instruments in the world to measure the cosmogenic nuclides,” Dr Wilcken said.
“Counting the numbers of these isotopes enables scientists to calculate how long the rocks have been exposed to cosmic rays.”
He said dating with beryllium-10 using this method was effective from a few hundred years to about five million years.