YSM Issue 87.2

FEATURE
undergraduate profile
Parker Liautaud (DC ’16)
BY MINA HIMWICH
the science behind his antarctic trek
In December, Geology & Geophysics major Parker Liautaud (DC
’16) set a world record by completing the fastest Antarctic coastto-pole
trek. In 18 days, he became the youngest man to trek to the
South Pole without assistance. And while his record transit time
attracts the most press, the focus of Liautaud’s journey was three
separate scientific projects that reflect his commitment to geoscience
and climate change issues.
Liautaud has been interested in climate science since he was young,
and has completed four polar expeditions since turning 15. Over
time, his trips have shifted to focus more heavily on science; In
this expedition, he was directly involved with an advisory board of
scientists and experts.
Liautaud began his December trek with a coast-pole-coast transit
of roughly 1,200 miles, and then completed a 350-mile race to the
pole. On the first crossing, Liautaud tested a new Antarctic weather
station and conducted isotope sampling in layers of Antarctic snow.
“We did the science first and the speed attempt afterwards,” Liautaud
said. “Doing them both at the same time would have compromised
one at the expense of the other.”
The first of Liautaud’s projects was testing a cheaper, lighter
Antarctic weather station that could be deployed in 15 minutes.
Antarctica’s existing weather stations are expensive and difficult to
maintain, and improving the precision of Antarctic meteorology
requires a cheaper, more fail-safe station network.
A second component of Liautaud’s expedition was a coast-polecoast
sampling survey of the stable isotope composition of Antarctic
snow. The isotope composition of at different depths provides
important information for reconstructing climate history.
Samples collected relatively close to the surface provide information
on a more recent timescale, and give a detailed picture of Antarctic
precipitation. Liautaud sampled shallow cores drilled two meters
deep, gathering information that can improve the understanding of
recent temperature and snow accumulation patterns.
IMAGE COURTESY OF PARKER LIAUTAUD
Liautaud’s team set up the ColdFacts-3000BX Weather Station in
Antarctica. It was tested over approximately 4-5 weeks.
IMAGE COURTESY OF PARKER LIAUTAUD
Liautaud finished the world’s fastest Antarctic coast-to-pole trek.
Liautaud’s third project involved the study of tritium, a radioactive
isotope of hydrogen with a half-life of 12.3 years. Tritium is produced
at an extremely low constant rate by the interaction of cosmic rays
with Earth’s atmosphere. It was released in disproportionately high
quantities during war-era nuclear bomb testing, but now its deposition
has returned to natural levels.
Tritium is useful for accurately dating snow samples across
Antarctica from the past 100 years. Understanding the factors
influencing natural tritium deposition could improve tritium dating
techniques. “With the tritium project, we were not using tritium
dating, but trying to refine its technique by learning about the
context of tritium deposition,” Liautaud explained. “Though it’s not
particularly glamorous, this project will generate new information to
make tritium even more useful in studying the Antarctic climate.”
Liautaud sampled tritium concentrations in order to study its
dependence on geographical conditions. The samples he obtained
will help reveal a trend in tritium variability that can be used to
solidify the usefulness of tritium dating in Antarctica. Liautaud will
participate via Skype in the analysis, which is being conducted in
New Zealand by the world’s most accurate tritium lab.
The combination of lab and field work is one of Liautaud’s
favorite aspects of geoscience. “Field work can take you anywhere,
and unexpected things happen all the time. It’s a constantly exciting
and challenging process,” Liautaud said. “There’s a flipside, of
course,” he added, citing the time Chilean customs confiscated an ice
auger. “But where there are new challenges to be addressed, there are
consistently new opportunities to be created.”
In the future, Liautaud plans to continue making scientific
expeditions and to attend graduate school. As a strong advocate for
improving climate and communication and policy, he has also worked
with the Yale Climate and Energy Institute. “Climate change needs
to be addressed, and public understanding is lacking,” Liautaud said,
While he appreciates President Obama’s recent climate initiatives,
Liautaud believes that we can and should do even more. “By the time
people realize the effects, it will be too late. We need to act now to
improve the way climate science is communicated.”
32 Yale Scientific Magazine March 2014 www.yalescientific.org