Scientific Projects

Posted in Glaciology

IceCon: Constraining Ice Mass Change in Antarctica

IceCon aims to gain a better understanding of the rate of the loss of ice – now and in the past - from the Antarctic ice sheet in the Dronning Maud Land area.
Posted in Glaciology

Be:Wise -The Buttressing Effect: Why ice shelves are essential

The Be:Wise project aims to improve understanding of ice-shelf flow dynamics by focusing on the buttressing role of ice rises and pinning points – small offshore mountains which support Antarctic ice shelves from underneath.
Posted in Glaciology

GLACIOCLIM: studying glaciers and climate

Glacioclim is a project studying the relationship between glaciers and climate. The Antarctic component of the project, conducted in collaboration with BELARE, aims at monitoring the surface mass balance of Antarctica to gather a data base of glacio-meteorological data and ...
Posted in Geology

BGR: Investigating Gondwana Formation

The goal of the ‘Geodynamic Evolution of East Antarctica II' (GEA II) research project was to reconstruct part of the geological history of the Gondwana Supercontinent (which formed between 650 and 500 million years ago and disintegrated about 180 million years ago) ...
Posted in Planetary Science

SAMBA: Collecting Meteorites in Antarctica

The SAMBA project is the Belgian contribution to the Search for Antarctic Meteorites. The program is an initiative of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Université Libre de Bruxelles in collaboration with the Japanese Institute of Polar Research in ...
Posted in Biology

BELDIVA: Microbiology in Antarctica

The BELDIVA project aims to explore the microbial diversity within a 200 km radius around the Station and observe possible future changes in their diversity due to ecosystem change and human impacts.
Posted in Geomorphology, Glaciology

GIANT: Deformations of Earth’s Crust

GIANT-LISSA is an acronym for "Geodesy for Ice in ANTarctica" and "Lithospheric and Intraplate Structure and Seismicity in Antarctica". That project intends on improving scientific knowledge about land mass changes since the last glacial period and climate-related mechanisms, but also ...
Posted in Biology

DELAQUA: Climate Change into Perspective

Using various biological indicators found in sediments core, scientists participating in the DELAQUA project are trying to put current climate change in Antarctica in perspective with the natural variability of Earth climate.
Posted in Biology, Meteorology

HYDRANT: Antarctica’s Water Cycle

HYDRANT (HYDRologic system of ANTarctica) aims to investigate the atmospheric part of the Antarctic hydrologic cycle from moisture evaporation and cloud formation to snowfall.
Posted in Glaciology

BELISSIMA: Understanding Ice Dynamics

This glaciology project aims at analysing ice shelf and ice sheet movements and dynamics in Antarctica in order to improve scientific models. The Antarctic Ice Sheets is the biggest ice mass of our planet and it could have a big ...