Last week, August 1 - 9, 2024, two OSU Geography undergraduate students, Geoffrey Brown and Harrison Frenken, joined PhD student Adam Tjoelker and Professor Bryan Mark on the Department’s (nearly) annual Great Basin Research Expedition (“GBEX”) to Great Basin National Park in Nevada. Funded by grants from the Great Basin Heritage Area Program (GBHAP) and the Western National Parks Association (WNPA), with matching and in-kind funding from OSU, GBEX24 had multi-faceted science objectives, including coring Limber pine trees to better understand centennial-scale hydroclimate variability that impacts moisture availability and fire, servicing the GBEX Embedded Sensor Network (ESN) comprising ~30 temperature and humidity loggers planted in trees over a 2000 m elevation range throughout the park, and completing a high resolution drone survey of the Lehman Rock Glacier, a special focus over recent years, led by “Captain” Adam Tjoelker. Based on repeat surveys constrained with high-accuracy GPS positioned ground control points, Adam has computed total volume changes and differential motion of the rock glacier. He shared results that were part of his recently defended MA thesis in a well-attended public presentation at the open-air amphitheater, entitled, “Is the Lehman Rock Glacier a real glacier, and is it moving?” Adam shared that the water equivalent loss of ice between 2018 and 2023 would fill 550 forty-foot-long tanker trucks – a highly relatable unit since the park is undergoing road repairs that have necessitated the presence of many such tankers in the vicinity of Baker. After the talk, there was a lively Q&A session that included not only locals excited to hear actual quantitative estimates of changes they’ve witnessed personally, but also a former NASA science lead on the SRTM mission who happened to be camping with his wife in the Park.

This year’s trip offered continuing reminders of the challenges of water resources in Nevada and the broader Southwest. Water access in the Park is not without significant controversy, given long standing rights of access to surface water by the local ranchers. Ongoing disagreements between ranchers and Great Basin National Park has led to the expiration of a water agreement that allowed park visitors to take a small fraction of the abundant surface water resources in the park. All water used by the team this year had to be hauled from the water station near the entrance of the park.

These OSU Geographers were joined on GBEX24 by research scientist and retired Geography staff member Jim DeGrand of the State Climate Office of Ohio (SCOO), newly tenured Assistant Professor Dr. Scott Reinemann (OSU Atmospheric Science PhD 2013) of Sinclair Community College, Dayton, and University of Geogia (UGA) Geography Professor David Porinchu, accompanied by UGA students Catherine Roach and Madison Rollins.