The Nam Co Drilling Project, Tibet: A one million year sedimentary record from the third pole
Project Acronym: NamCore | State: Moratorium | Expedition ID: 5073
NamCore, the Nam Co Drilling Project, is an ICDP mission to obtain a continuous, high‑resolution sediment record from Nam Co, one of the Tibetan Plateau’s largest and deepest lakes. Drilled in 2024 near Nam Co, Tibet, China, the team aims to reach back about a million years by extracting a long core from the lake bed. Because Nam Co lies in the center of the modern monsoon system, its sediments preserve a detailed history of regional climate and large‑scale atmospheric circulation over many glacial cycles. Scientists hope to learn when monsoon strength varied, how long those shifts lasted, and how lake sediment supply changed with climate and tectonics. The record also supports tests of climate models used in IPCC scenarios and provides insights into long‑term geomagnetic changes. Cores are stored at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research in Beijing for an international team to study today’s climate in the context of Earth’s recent past.

Cores are stored at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research in Beijing, China
Project Management
Project Details
Project Location
Project Timeline
Moratorium
16 May 2025 - 15 May 2028
Sampling Party
6 - 16 May 2025 at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research in Beijing, China
Core Opening
10 - 16 February 2025 at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research in Beijing, China
Drilling
7 June - 17 July 2024
Full Proposal Approved
First Full Proposal Submitted
Workshop Held
22 - 24 May 2018 in Beijing, P.R. China












