Part of Joanne’s job is to find rocks in Antarctica that were transported to their current location by glaciers, which are like moving rivers of ice. She collects samples from them and next comes chemical analysis of quartz inside. When these rocks are bombarded by cosmic rays coming from outer space, atoms in the quartz are split apart in a super-high-energy process called spallation. If the effect of this is detected, it confirms this process occurred, thus indicating a lack of snow coverage of that rock, at a given point in time. This is magic in my book!

To shine a light on that illuminating process, this artwork brings it alive.