SWAIS2C Season 3 - First core on deck

Season 3 of the ICDP SWAIS2C drilling project in Antarctica:  After several weeks of weather delays on Christmas Eve the team received the best possible present – a Basler flight to the drill site! The newly arrived science team prepared for the first core on deck while the drillers were hard at work installing the riser, which  connects the rig at the surface of the ice to the bedrock 523 m below.

At the end of the first shift today, a day after installing the riser, 10 m of core material are on deck. Congratulations to the team! After the challenges of the first two seasons, the team is thrilled to be underway with obtaining the elusive geological record that we’re seeking from deep beneath the ice.

During this season the ICDP SWAIS2C drilling project has an ‘on-ice’ team of 29 scientists, drillers, engineers and Antarctic field specialists embarking on the project’s attempt to drill for a 200 m sediment core from the bedrock deep beneath 500 m of ice at the Crary Ice Rise on the Ross Ice Shelf. The aim is to understand the response to climate warming in the past, and the meaning for Earth’s future 🌏 Response of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) to projected warming remains a significant uncertainty in sea level rise projections. SWAIS2C focus on understanding past and current drivers, mechanisms and feedbacks that influence retreat of ice sheets, to reduce uncertainty in numerical model projections of future changes.

Daily news  ℹ️ https://www.icdp-online.org/projects/by-continent/polar-regions/antarctica/swais-2c-antarctica/swais2c-daily-news

ICDP project ℹ️ https://www.icdp-online.org/projects/by-continent/polar-regions/antarctica/swais-2c-antarctica/

SWAIS2C  ℹ️ https://www.swais2c.aq/