Dr. Nicholas Schmerr | Geophysical Detection of Liquid Water in Subsurfaces of Greenland & Europa

Abstract:

The polar ice caps of Earth are rapidly melting under the influence of global warming. On the Greenland ice sheet, the resulting melt water is creating many new types of glacial features, including lakes deep beneath the overlying ice, liquid water stored in aquifers in the near surface ice and snow, and stunning aquamarine ponds of melt at the surface. My team and I are investigating the properties and size of these melt pockets using geophysical tools to look through the ice and determine where and how much liquid water is present. We are using this unique Greenland environment to plan for exploring the interior of Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Our techniques for studying liquid water within the Greenland ice sheet provide crucial inputs for future NASA missions that plan to investigate the properties of the subsurface Europa ocean (and other icy ocean worlds like it) and determine if Europa could potentially harbor life.

Bio-sketch:

Nicholas C. Schmerr is an assistant professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Maryland. Dr. Schmerr’s research involves deciphering the formation, dynamics, and evolution of planetary surfaces and interiors using the tools of geophysics. This includes research on geophysical planetary analog environments, including cinder cone fields, ice sheets, and volcanoes. Dr. Schmerr is a participating scientist on NASA’s InSight mission to Mars and lead PI of the NASA SSERVI project GEODES.