Forums
Ice Core Drilling in West Antarctica

Hi Heidi! I'll bet you are SO excited! Can't wait to hear about the expedition. I've heard the WAIS Divide is an incredible place. So how do they drill such a long core? Is it all in one piece or several? We'll be following along-take care! Lollie

Sat, 10/24/2009 - 19:49

Gary Wesche

Heidi,
My students would love to see close up pics of the cores too.  I also told them of your work with sediment cores.  Is the work similiar?  Other than the temperatures and solid water vs liquid water do you see similiar patterns?
Gary 
ps see you at WAIS..need to know what kind of candy you like?

Thu, 11/05/2009 - 08:34

Heidi Roop

Hi Lollie!
I am thrilled that you and your students will be following along! 3500 m is certainly lots of ice! The drill that collects the ice is very sophisticated (I will learn more and be sure to post about the drilling operation) and is able to extract 3 m of ice at a time. Once the ice is brought back to the surface, the drill goes back down the drill hole to collect the next 3 meters of ice. There are 9 science technicians and we will take the ice out of the drill and then cut it into 1 m lengths and document the ice including the number of cracks, visibility of layers, density of gas bubbles etc. I am certainly going to learn a lot as I have never seen an ice core before. Stayed tuned for a more detailed response to your question! I look forward to hearing from you and your classroom!

Thu, 11/05/2009 - 08:43

Heidi Roop

Gary,
I will certainly take lots of pictures of the ice cores for your students to see. Since my job will be to handle and document the ice cores, I am sure I will be able to get lots of great photos. I am also hoping to shoot some video of the coring operation so you can see the whole process!
Working with lake sediments is somewhat similar to working with ice cores (besides the temperature!!!) In many cases, scientists look for and document similar things in both ice and lake sediments. For example, for my Masters thesis, I worked with annual layers in the sediments to understand climate. Ice cores too have annual layers and one of the main objectives of the WAIS project is to look at annual layers in the ice and reconstruct the last 40,000 years of climate from those layers. Scientist also look at chemical and biological components of both ice and lake sediments to learn about past environments.
Stayed tuned for more detail! I plan several blogs about this topic, since I am new to ice core science too!
I am getting excited, as I am sure you are. See you in West Antarctica! 
-Heidi
 
P.S. Any candy is fine but I do like chocolate :)