Enabling clean access into Subglacial Lake Whillans: development and use of the WISSARD hot water drill system

• Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
• Main Author: Rack, Frank R.
• Other Authors: US National Science Foundation
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 2016
• Subjects: Antarctic; South Pole; West Antarctic Ice Sheet; West Antarctica; Whillans; Whillans Ice Stream; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelf; South pole
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2014.0305; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.2014.0305; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsta.2014.0305

Clean hot water drill systems (CHWDSs) are used with clean access protocols for the exploration of subglacial lakes and other subglacial aquatic environments (e.g. ice-shelf cavities) in Antarctica. A CHWDS developed for the Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD) project b...