Preparation for a Deep Ice Coring Project in West Antarctica

Nevada System Of Higher Education, Desert Research Institute, Reno NV

Investigators

Abstract

0230396 Taylor Polar ice cores provide critical insights to societally relevant issues and ice core results underpin much of global change research. The Ice Core Working Group (which, under the coordination of the National Ice Core Laboratory Science Management Office, provides guidance to the National Science Foundation and the United States Geological Survey on issues pertaining to ice cores) has recommended a community-wide ice-coring program in West Antarctica at a location referred to as the Inland Site. A deep ice core from there will enable studies of climate and sea-level change and life in extreme environments, and will help educate many new Earth-system scientists. This project is for the design, construction and testing of a deep-ice-coring drill, and for other preparations required to recover a deep ice core from the Inland Site.