Scientific Logistics Implementation Plan for the ANDRILL McMurdo Ice Shelf Project

• Main Authors: Naish, Timothy R., Levy, Richard H., Powell, Ross D., MIS Science and Operations Team Members
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln 2006
• Subjects: Geochemistry; Glaciology; Other Earth Sciences; Sedimentology; Stratigraphy; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Austral; Ross Sea; West Antarctic Ice Sheet; McMurdo Sound; Ross Island; Ross Ice Shelf; New Zealand; McMurdo Station; Cape Roberts; Barrett; McMurdo Ice Shelf; Weaver; Harwood; Hut Point; Hut Point Peninsula; Windless Bight; Antarc*; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelf; Ice Shelves
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/andrillinfo/5; https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/andrillinfo/article/1005/viewcontent/MIS_SLIP_Hi.pdf

Summary Response of Antarctic ice sheets to projected greenhouse warming of up to 5.8°C by the end of the century is unknown. Models on which predictions are based need to be constrained by geological proxy data from the ancient ice sheets during times when Earth is known to have been warmer than today. The marine-based West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) and its fringing ice shelves are hypothesized (Clark et al., 2002; Weaver et al., 2003; Stocker, 2003) and documented (Scherer et al., 1998) to have collapsed during past “super-interglacial” warm extremes when global sea-level was more than 5m higher than today. Recent collapse of small ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula (Doake and Vaughn, 1991; Skvarca, 1993; Rott et al., 1996; Vaughn and Doake, 1996; Doake et al., 1998; Rott et al., 1998; Skvarca et al., 1999; Rott et al., 2002) highlights the vulnerability of these glacial components to global warming. The Ross Ice Shelf appears to represent one of the most vulnerable elements of the WAIS system. Future demise, on timescales of decades to centuries, may well provide an important precursor to eventual WAIS collapse. The key aim of this research project is to determine past ice shelf responses to climate forcing, including variability at a range of timescales. To achieve this aim the ANtarctic Geological DRILLing Program (ANDRILL) will drill a stratigraphic core from a platform located on the northwest corner of the Ross Ice Shelf - the McMurdo Ice Shelf (MIS) sector, east of Hut Point Peninsula, Ross Island. Drilling will be undertaken in the austral summer of 2006-2007 from the 24th of October to the 27th of December. The primary target for the MIS site is a 1200 m-thick body of Plio-Pleistocene glacimarine, terrigenous, volcanic, and biogenic sediment that has accumulated in the Windless Bight region of a flexural moat basin surrounding Ross Island (Horgan et al., 2005). A single 1200 m-deep drill core will be recovered from the bathymetric and depocentral axis of the moat in approximately 900m of ...