2016 Arctic

This project will use a hand auger and sidewinder to drill several shallow (20-30 meter depth) ice cores along a traverse in western Greenland from Raven to Summit via snowmobile during the 2016 Arctic season. Continuous ground penetrating radar data will also be collected during the traverse. The research objectives include: (1) determining the patterns, in time and space, of snow accumulation in Western Greenland over the past 20-40 years; and (2) evaluating surface melt refreeze and englacial meltwater storage in the Western Greenland percolation zone over the past 20-40 years.

This project involves the seasonal (winter) acquisition of cores from ice-covered northern (U.S. Midwest) temperate lakes and rivers to investigate the spatial and temporal distribution of planktonic ice nucleating activity in freshwater ecosystems.

This project will drill two shallow ice cores in the Twin Lakes region of northern Wyoming using the Prairie Dog drilling system and a Sidewinder power drive. The goal of the project is to use the recovered ice cores to obtain organic lag deposits. Previous ice cores obtained from ice patches by the investigator have yielded lags containing significant materials ranging from intact fecal pellets from Bighorn sheep to Dryas leaves to the remains of probable Rocky Mountain locust (cf. Melanopus spretus). The target material the investigators hope to recover will be submitted for radiocarbon dating, environmental DNA analysis, macrofloral analysis, and pollen analysis.