Join Professor Yoshihiro Nakayama for a discussion of melting polar ice. This is a hybrid event.  Join us in person in the Mayer Room or online via Zoom. No registration required in person; register for Zoom here.

Antarctic ice loss is a critical yet insufficiently understood contributor to global sea-level rise. Although Antarctica is dominated by extreme atmospheric cold, intrusions of warm deep water can melt ice from below, accelerating ice discharge into the ocean. In this talk, I will provide: (1) a brief overview of Antarctic ice and the Southern Ocean; (2) why the ocean plays a central role in determining the fate of Antarctic ice; and (3) a discussion of potential future changes. I will also share perspectives from polar expeditions aboard icebreakers and consider what modern science can learn from early 20th-century exploratory voyages.

Yoshihiro Nakayama is an Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College in the United States. He received his Ph.D. in Natural Science from the Universität Bremen in Germany. Before moving to the U.S., he worked at the Institute of Low Temperature Science at Hokkaido University in Japan. His research aims to understand the rapidly changing polar oceans and ice sheets by integrating observational data with state-of-the-art numerical modeling.