Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 11/27/2012 - 10:26
Forums
Antarctic Sub Glacial Lake and Stream Studies

So great to get your reply Mr. Lebaron;

have they ever drilled down to the land mass? How deep is the ice shell? Have you seen any land animals? Anything flying in the air?

hahaha

Brenda Esselman

Tue, 11/27/2012 - 21:51

Mike LeBaron

Yes, there has been drilling into the continent. One project callANDRILL went through the ice shelf near where our current WISSARD site
is and recovered quite a lot of rock from the sea floor. There have
been some other drilling project as well. A good deal of the drilling
is to sample the ice. One project, WAIS, is just finishing up now.
The ice varies in thickness. It averages 2000m (1.2 miles). The only
land animals are marine mammals like seals or birds like penguins.
There are Skua's, a large gull-like bird that is a member of the
albatross family. They hang around in the parking lot looking for
people food.
Hope all is well at LNHS.
Mr. LeBaron