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The British School of Nanjing was delighted recently to see one of its students, Oliver in Year 7, have a question answered by DrCaroline Ummenhofer, scientist, professor and leading climatologist in the MIT.
Oliver’s question, about whether the earth’s crust weighs more in winter because less water is in the sky, prompted Dr. Ummenhofer to video record a 4 minute reply*. In the video, she explains how it’s a question scientists are working on right now, but that an unusual event just over a decade ago in Australia gave scientists the data to begin answering the question.
In 2010, Australia experienced extremely wet conditions, meaning there was so much water dumped onto Australia that sea levels fell. This could be seen from satellite imagery and even measured in the earth’s gravity field! This situation could happen because the interior of Australia lies below sea level and exists as a salt lake that isn’t usually filled with water… until flooding like that in 2010.
Dr. Ummenhofer graduated with a bachelor’s degree in science from The University of Wales, in the UK, where she earned joint Honours in Physical Oceanography and Marine Biology. She completed her PHD in applied Mathematics at The University of New South Wales in Australia, writing an award-winning thesis on the “Southern Hemisphere Regional Precipitation and Climate Variability”.
This is not the first time MIT experts have answered questions posed by BSN students, with Ben in Year 4 asking the founder and Director of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative, Dr Ekbaw, in 2020 about how astronauts would get food and water in space and is it possible to take farm animals into space to provide this.
We are confident both Oliver and Ben will be inspired to follow in the footsteps of Dr Ummenhofer and Dr Ekblaw!