Preparations for drilling continue at the ICDP SWAIS2C drill site

All of the camp structures are set up, connected to power, and working well! We also completed the food inventory and stored everything away. The most exiting thing today: the return of the mini-traverse team, who traveled to the KIS-2 site to retrieve the hot water drilling system, which is the last of the gear needed before we can begin operations.  (Photo @ V. Meduna)

The SWAIS2C (Sensitivity of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to Two Degrees of Warming) drillling project aims to understand more about Antarctica’s potential contribution sea-level rise. For this a team of drillers, engineers, and researchers will travel ~800 km via traverse and airplane to the southeast margin of the Ross Ice Shelf and drill up to 200 m below the seafloor to recover a geological record of changing rock types that reflect environmental conditions at the time they formed. The hope is that these records will provide key insights into West Antarctica’s past and the Earth’s future.

Find more info on the project here. See the Press Release and the Daily News here.