Project Title

STC: Center for OLDest Ice EXploration (COLDEX): Surface Geophysics Surveys, East Antarctic Plateau

Summary

Event Number:
I-187-M
NSF / OPP Award 2019719

Program Director:
Dr. Kelly Brunt

ASC POC/Implementer:
Allison Barden / Jenny Cunningham / Matthew Kippenhan

Principal Investigator(s)

Dr. Sarah Ann Shackleton
sarah.shackleton@whoi.edu
Princeton University
Department of Geosciences
Princeton, New Jersey

Project Web Site:
https://coldex.org/

Location

Supporting Stations: McMurdo Station
Research Locations: Allan Hills

Description

The Center for Oldest Ice Exploration (COLDEX) will address fundamental questions critical to understanding past and future climate. This is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Center project that involves multiple US institutions. Antarctic field campaigns are required to support the central focuses of the effort: (1) identify sites for a continuous 1.5-million-year ice core capable resolving orbital cycles in climate variables; and (2) create an archive of well-documented old ice samples. This project addresses that second goal.

Field Season Overview

Ten participants, including four Ice Drilling Program (IDP) drillers, will work out of a Twin Otter and Basler aircraft-supported camp at the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area. Antarctic Support Contract (ASC) staff will set up communal tents and other camp structures, and two ASC staff will manage the camp through the season. Across 8 weeks, the team will drill for ice cores using two drill rigs: IDP’s large-bore Blue Ice Drill and smaller diameter fluid-enabled 4-Inch Drill. The team will split in two to work each drill at different locations, drilling several cores 90-400 meters deep. Recovered ice cores will be packed in ice core boxes then transported weekly by Twin Otter aircraft to McMurdo Station for storage and eventual shipment off continent to the NSF Ice Core Facility. The team will recover up to 24,000 pounds of ice, filling up to 135 ice core boxes.

Deploying Team Members