University of Maine Researchers featured in National Geographic article: How scientists turned the world’s highest mountain into a climate laboratory

An excerpt from the article:

The end of spring is usually the time to assess the annual Mount Everest climbing season, but this year, because of COVID-19, the mountain was unusually quiet. Nepal banned all expeditions on its side. China banned foreign mountaineers but allowed Chinese nationals to climb from the Tibet side, including a team of surveyors attempting to remeasure the mountain’s height in the wake of the 2015 earthquake.

But while most of the climbing world took a break from Everest, a group of scientists in labs spread across Europe, the U.S., and Nepal have been working on the mountain “remotely”—analyzing a trove of ice, snow, water, and sediment samples they collected last spring as part of the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition. The project's goal was to turn the world’s highest mountain into a giant climate laboratory.

During April and May last year, a multi-disciplinary team of more than 30 biologists, glaciologists, geologists, meteorologists, and geographers fanned out across Everest’s southern flank, conducting fieldwork high on the mountain, as well as across the Khumbu Valley.“We believe the best way to do science on Everest isn’t just to do one kind of science, but do many kinds of science,” says Paul Mayewski of the University of Maine, the leader of the effort, which saw the National Geographic Society partner with Tribhuvan University and the Government of Nepal.

Each individual study promises a unique snapshot of the mountain’s climate—past, present, and future. Ice cores and lake sediment cores will provide a record of what the environment was like going back thousands of years. Snow and water samples give a look at what’s happening on the mountain, today, including the future of the glaciers, which serve as crucial water sources for large downstream populations. The team also installed a network of automated weather stations, which will document upcoming weather trends for years to come.

Read the full article from National Geographic here.