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SWAIS2C: Record-breaking sediment core!
Record-breaking sediment core provides unprecedented evidence of West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat
The ICDP SWAIS2c project has broken a world record! And obtained a critical geological record!
💪Our sediment core measures in at 228m – the longest-ever drilled from under an ice sheet.
🌡️More importantly than smashing world records, it contains an archive of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet spanning the past 23 million years, including warmer times in Earth’s history.
👀While examining the core in the field our on-ice team spotted layers of sediment in the core that reveal there have been times in the past when there was open ocean where currently there is 523m of ice – direct evidence of West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat.
⏱️ Our international science team is now working hard to pin down what time periods and temperatures these open ocean conditions occurred in, so that we can better understand how much sea-level rise to prepare for under climate change.
Our Co-Chief Scientist Molly Patterson summed up the successes of our season in this final expedition update video, filmed on site at Crary Ice Rise before the team returned home from the ice.
SWAIS news
ICDP project
ℹ️ www.icdp-online.org/projects/by-continent/polar-regions/antarctica/swais-2c-antarctica/
image credit: Ana Tovey / SWAIS2C
