International team drills ancient sediments deep in Antarctic ice
Researchers are preparing to drill deep into the ice below the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica to determine whether carbon dioxide emissions in international climate negotiations will prevent the catastrophic melting of cold continents.
The research project is called SWAIS 2C, Will investigate the sensitivity of the western Antarctic ice sheet to 2 degrees Celsius of global warming. Scientists will remove sediment from underneath the ice layer to find out how the ice layer behaves when the temperature has been as warm as expected over the past few decades. These records can reveal whether there is a tipping point in our climate system when a large amount of land ice melts and the ocean rises rapidly. The western Antarctic ice sheet alone has enough ice to raise the sea level by 4 meters, or about 12 feet.
The SWAIS 2C team includes some of the world’s top Antarctic scientists, led by Richard Levy of GNS Science in New Zealand, Te Herenga Waka of Victoria University of Wellington, and Molly Patterson of Binghamton University in New York. In total, researchers from seven American universities will participate.Glaciologist Jonathan Kingslake, Geodynamicist Jacqueline Osterman And paleoclimatologist Benjamin Kesling From Columbia University Lamont-Dougherty Earth Observatory It is part of the team that will perform ice sheet and solid earth modeling to explain the sediment core.
SWAIS 2C drilling site on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. (Provided by GNS Science)
This work was supported by US$3.2 million National Science Foundation, Most of the funds went to a team of early-career scientists and post-doctoral researchers. More funding comes from New Zealand, Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Korea, and several other countries are also planning to join.this International Continental Scientific Drilling Program A grant of US$1.2 million was also awarded to the project, which was the first grant for the Antarctic Drilling Program.
Other participating US institutions are Colgate University, Northern Illinois University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Central Washington University, and Rice University.
“We have assembled a team of drillers, engineers, field experts, and scientists capable of this task. The discovery will show us how much the western Antarctic ice sheet will melt if we miss the goals of the Paris Agreement.” Wei said.
Patterson said that geological data can provide direct evidence of the extent of ice in past periods. “Before making any assumptions about the future, this information is necessary to assess whether climate models can capture the changes observed during warm periods in Earth’s history,” she said.
When the live event starts, the preparation team will start Scott Base In mid-November, it crossed the Ross Ice Shelf to reach the Siple coast, which is 1,200 kilometers long, where land ice meets the ocean and begins to float. Once a drilling camp is established, a wider scientific team including Lamont-Doherty researchers will join the team and work until February. It is planned to carry out field activities in the next three years.
No one has ever drilled into the Antarctic seabed so far from the main base, and never so close to the center of the West Antarctic ice sheet.
Engineer, Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Research Center It took four years to develop a technology that can drill about 800 meters of ice with hot water, and then collect sediment samples from 200 meters below the ice sheet. These deposits should help scientists understand how much Antarctic ice melted when the world warmed, and allow them to predict what might happen in the future if global temperatures continue to follow their current trajectory by 2.7 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels.
The western Antarctic ice sheet is considered to be extremely vulnerable to climate change, because most of the ice on the bedrock that lies several kilometers below sea level is exposed to the warming waters of the Southern Ocean. The researchers said that the international scope of the project highlights the recognition of many countries and scientific funding agencies that understanding its fate is still one of the biggest uncertainties in predicting the global footprint of future sea-level rise.
Adapted from the press release of the SWAIS 2C project.
related:
Antarctica and future sea level rise forecast
The disappearance of the western Antarctica ice sheet in the past 16 years
If the temperature rises below 2°, the collapse of the western Antarctica ice sheet can be avoided
