#x98;The#x9C; Patagonian icefields a unique natural laboratory for environmental and climate change studies ; [proceedings of a meeting on the Patagonian icefields, held March 24 - 28, 2000, on the Chilean Naval Vessel Aquiles, while travelling from Punta

The majesty of the icefields is beyond description. He who has been fortunate to be there once, remains bound forever. To a theoretical physicist working on black holes the icefields produce a familiar vertigo, the instinctive certainty of being confronted with something so simple and beautifully extreme that it must be of importance. The meeting whose proceedings are contained in this volume was conducted onboard of a vessel that went to the icefields, and the participants could literally set foot on them. It was expected that, for those who had not been there before, this would constitute a ritual of initiation. And so it did. For this reason we like to refer to the meeting as an expedition because, although it did not have the hardship, it had the spirit. After this foundational expedition there have been two others, this time both with spirit and hardship, one from Chile and one from Argentina. At the moment of this writing, a fourth, full-fledged airborne expedition to the icefields is about to depart from Valdivia. Many of the people of many nations who were on board of the Aquiles will take part in it. We look forward to its results, and to an ongoing exciting scientific adventure. Claudio Teitelboim Director, Centro de Estudios Cientfficos Valdivia, September 2001 v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This volume is the result of the effort and generosity of many people and institutions. Front Matter....Pages i-xxvii Glacier Ecosystem and Biological ICE-Core Analysis....Pages 1-8 Isolation and Identification of Bacteria from Ancient and Modern Ice Cores....Pages 9-15 Perspectives for DNA Studies on Polar Ice Cores....Pages 17-27 Meteorological and Climatological Aspects of the Southern Patagonia Icefield....Pages 29-41 Western Patagonia: A Key Area for Understanding Quaternary Paleoclimate at Southern Mid-Latitudes....Pages 43-54 Late Pleistocene and Holocene Glacier Fluctuations in the Mendoza Andes, Argentina....Pages 55-65 Current Knowledge of the Southern Patagonia Icefield....Pages 67-83 The Southern Patagonia Icefield Mass Balance....Pages 85-87 Glacier Mass Balance and Climate in the South American Andes....Pages 89-99 Ice Thickness Measurements on the Southern Patagonia Icefield....Pages 101-115 Locating a Drilling Site on the Patagonian Icefields....Pages 117-124 On the Potential to Retrieve Climatic and Environmental Information from Ice-Core Sites Suffering Periodical Melt, with Specific Assessment of the Southern Patagonia Icefield....Pages 125-138 Argentine Program on Climatic and Environmental Studies by Means of Ice Cores....Pages 139-147 Firn-Core Drilling Operation at Tyndall Glacier, Southern Patagonia Icefield....Pages 149-156 First Results of a Paleoatmospheric Chemistry and Climate Study of Cerro Tapado Glacier, Chile....Pages 157-167 Interpreting Climate Signals from a Shallow Equatorial Core: Antisana, Ecuador....Pages 169-175 Potential Application of Methodologies for Studying Atmospheric Aerosols, in the Study of Climatic and Environmental Information from Ice Cores....Pages 177-187 Back Matter....Pages 189-193 This book presents a collection of 17 papers by authors from eight different countries from diverse fields dealing with multi disciplinary research on the Patagonian Icefields. The main emphasis is glaciology, climatology and paleoclimatology, with contributions in glacier ecology, microbiology and aerosols. The volume is the proceedings of a meeting held on board a Chilean Navy ship, which sailed along the fjords, where the participants had the opportunity of actually setting foot on the Southern Patagonia Icefield. The volume presents an updated review of glacier and climate-related research of the Patagonian icefields, and will become necessary reading for anyone interested in the Patagonian glaciers and the surrounding environment.