Off to Antarctic for seismic survey
A UNIVERSITY of Otago geophysicist is making his 30th trip to the Antarctic, this time to do a seismic survey of the area around the Ross Ice Shelf.
The survey, using 300kg of explosives, will be used to generate a 3D image of the sea floor, and the layers of strata beneath it.
Prof Gary Wilson, a paleoclimatologist, is on the way to the Antarctic this weekend.
He said he would be based at Siple Coast, about 800km southeast of Scott Base, at the line where the West Antarctic Ice Sheet started to float and become the Ross Ice Shelf, the world’s largest floating body of ice.
‘‘Otago is leading this trip but it is part of a bigger programme of research that involves scientists from GNS Science, Otago University, Victoria University, Niwa and international partners.’’
Results of the seismic survey would hopefully answer questions about history of the grounding line from the geometry and to identify a future drilling target to collect a core of the sedimentary record from beneath the sea floor, Prof Wilson said.
In the team were five scientists, three staff members and a student from the University of Otago and a student from Victoria University.
The trip was funded by a research grant from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
The team would be using a small hotwater drill designed at Victoria, to make holes to put the explosives into the surface of the ice, where they would be frozen before being detonated.
Prof Wilson said this would be his 30th expedition to the Antarctic, and the best thing about working there was the challenge of finding answers to how the Antarctic coped with warmer climates.
The worst part was ‘‘finding the answers and knowing the size and scale of the potential risk if we can’t make some progress on reducing our emissions’’.
‘‘So we are focusing on working out how long we have to act depending on the level of future temperatures and levels of carbon dioxide.’’