2015-2016 Antarctic

Previous field expeditions to the Allan Hills blue ice area have recovered ice cores that date to one million years, the oldest ice cores yet recovered from Antarctica. These records have revealed that interglacial CO2 concentrations decreased by 800,000 years ago and that, in the warmer world 1 million years ago, CO2 and Antarctic temperature were linked as during the last 800,000 years. This project will return to the Allan Hills blue ice area to recover additional ice cores that date to 1 million years or older. The climate records developed from the drilled ice cores will provide new insights into the chemical composition of the atmosphere and Antarctic climate during times of comparable or even greater warmth than the present day.

The project aims to understand the dynamics of ice rises — grounded islands within ice shelves — as they result in a major resistive force on ice flowing from the grounded ice sheets into the ocean. An integrated collection of geophysical observations, including radar and active source seismic experiments, on both the Crary Ice Rise and across its grounding line will be used to address questions about how the ice rise affects ice discharge from the Ross Sea sector of West Antarctica. The Small Hot Water Drill will be used to create the shot holes needed for the seismic work.

Using a PICO Hand Auger, this project will collect short ice cores from the Mt. Achernar, Transantarctic Mountains, region to recover ice for visual inspection and various types of isotopic analysis. The primary objective of the project is to gain an improved understanding of processes and rates of blue ice moraine formation, as well as identifying the topographic, glaciological, and climatic controls on their evolution. Field data related to ice motion and internal stratigraphy will be collected and used as part of a baseline dataset for a numerical model.

The South Pole Ice Core project is a U.S. effort to drill and recover a new ice core from South Pole, Antarctica. The ice core will be drilled to a depth of 1500 meters, providing an environmental record spanning approximately 40,000 years that will be used to investigate the magnitude and timing of changes in climate and climate forcing through time. Drilling is planned for 2014-2015 (~700 m / through the Holocene) and 2015-2016 (to 1500 m / 40,000 years). The ice core we will obtain will be 9.8 cm in diameter.

Using the Badger-Eclipse Drill and one IDP driller, the project will incrementally drill two 3-inch diameter holes to 130 meters depth for firn air sampling near the South Pole Ice (SPICE) Core deep drill site. The primary objective of the project is to construct the gas chronology for the South Pole ice core using inert gases (d15N, d40Ar) and methane in combination with a next-generation firn densification model. Reconstruction of the inert gases and methane in the South Pole ice core will improve the dating of the ice core record, to unprecedented precision, which will enhance the overall scientific return from the ice core.

Using the Blue Ice Drill, this project will collect large-diameter ice cores to (1) investigate carbon-14 of methane in ice during the last deglaciation and the Early Holocene, (2) investigate the carbon-14 of methane, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide produced in ice by cosmic rays, and (3) continue to age-map the outcropping ice stratigraphy of Taylor Glacier.

This project will collect approximately 10 shallow ice cores at Taylor Glacier and analyze them for dust concentration, dust size distribution, bulk major elements, bulk trace elements, and radiogenic isotope composition. These measurements will be used to deduce the changing climate of the Taylor Dome area from the Last Glacial Maximum through the Holocene.

For this project, IDDO will work with RAID co-PI Jeff Severinghaus and personnel from DOSECC Exploration Services (DES) to test the RAID packer device near Castle Rock outside of McMurdo Station. The field team will also test the feasibility of auger use for creating initial pilot holes for borehole casing installation.