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type: Concept

WHUR
type: Concept
in scheme: projects
definition: ANDRILL (ANtarctic DRILLing) is an international program involving scientists from Germany, Italy, New Zealand, UK and USA designed to investigate Antarctica’s role in global environmental change from the recovery of rock and sediment cores from beneath the floating sea ice and ice shelves surrounding Antarctica. The planned program will use improved drilling technology that enables excellent recovery of deep (>1000m) rock and sediment cores from the Antarctic margin. ANDRILL’s approach is to obtain specific reference records of key stratigraphic intervals proximal to the dynamic Antarctic cryosphere. While the ANDRILL program has already been many years in development, scientists and technical and logistical specialists from Germany, Italy, New Zealand and USA plan two major field campaigns for IPY 2007-2008: (1) Coring beneath the McMurdo Ice Shelf, where the target is a 1200 m-thick body of sediments deposited in a crustal depression that resulted from the loading of Ross Island volcanoes. The cores should yield a high-resolution record of the past few million years of ice shelf response to past interglacial warm extremes, including its role in modulation of the global oceanic conveyor, and potential vulnerability from present global warming; (2) Coring in southern McMurdo Sound where the target is middle to upper Miocene strata. The cores should allow the testing of interpretations derived from global proxy records implying a change from a warm climatic optimum ~17 Ma to the onset of major cooling ~14 Ma and the formation of a quasi-permanent ice sheet on Antarctica. During IPY 2007-2008, ANDRILL will also continue geophysical and site surveys, and planning for future drilling in McMurdo Sound and around the Antarctic continental margin. Results of these activities will provide key insights into: (A) The development and behaviour of the Antarctic cryospheric system (ice sheet, ice shelf, and sea-ice) and the magnitude and frequency of its change on centennial to…