Newswise — A glacier in Antarctica has been named after Dr. Allan Ashworth, a distinguished professor of geosciences at North Dakota State University, Fargo. Ashworth was notified of the honor by Wendy Shaw, secretary of the New Zealand Geographic Board, which has the responsibility for assigning place names in Antarctica.
"This glacier falls within the Ross Sea Region of Antarctica," Shaw wrote in the notification, noting that the Ashworth Glacier flows west-southwest from Supporters Range in the Transantarctic Mountains into the Mill Glacier. "The naming of this feature honors your significant contribution to science (palaeontology and stratigraphy) in Antarctica."
Ashworth has participated in four research trips to Antarctica. "To become a part of the long line of explorers and scientists who have had Antarctic mountains and glaciers named for them is a high honor," said Ashworth.
"The Ashworth Glacier is a classic alpine tributary glacier located near the Beardmore Glacier and Mill Glacier, which are named after industrialists who supported Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition in 1907," he said. The glacier lies in the area where Ashworth has conducted studies on fossils from the lake deposits that show the transition from Antarctica's warmer and wetter climate millions of years ago to the present situation in which the landscape is permanently frozen.
Ashworth was nominated for the recognition by Jane Francis, professor at the University of Leeds (United Kingdom) Centre for Polar Science. "Allan has made spectacular discoveries at Oliver Bluffs in the Beardmore region, very close to the site of his glacier. At Oliver Bluffs, only 300 miles from the South Pole, he discovered the first fossil beetles and a fossil fly from Antarctica, as well as fossil mosses and seeds that show us that Antarctica was not always the cold, icy place that it is today," said Francis. "Allan's work in the Beardmore region, as well as his more recent expeditions to the Dry Valleys, is changing scientists' views about the history of glaciation in Antarctica. He has made his mark on Antarctic science and now that is recorded permanently with the glacier named after him."
Ashworth also serves as chair for the U.S. National Committee for the International Union for Quaternary Research. Ashworth's research has been featured in The Scientist, GEO magazine, and on the Web sites, Exploring Antarctica, a multimedia feature of The Washington Post, and Living Antarctica, a documentary film by Anne Aghion.
For more information:Exploring Antarcticahttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/science/interactives/antarctica/index.html
The Scientisthttp://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/42343/
Living Antarcticahttp://www.livingantarctica.org/
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