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  1. In-Depth Newsletter

Spring 2009

Murat Aydin and Todd Sowers prepare to sample firn air at South Pole

Digging for Ancient Air at South Pole

By Todd Sowers, Penn State University and Murat Aydin, University of California–Irvine

During the austral summer of 1911-12, Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott led the first overland expeditions to reach the geographic South Pole. Imagine for a moment, what it must have been like to stand at the most southerly point on the globe for the first time.

Anais Orsi adjusting the depth of the borehole thermometer at WAIS Divide, Antarctica.

"How Was Antarctica?"

By Anais Orsi, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

When people ask me "How was Antarctica?", I inevitably respond, "It was white!" WAIS Divide resembles most deep ice coring field camps: the white ice sheet extends to the horizon like a frozen sea.

A drill used to extract ice cores in Antarctica

New Ice Drilling Agreements for NSF-Funded Research

The Ice Drilling Program Office (IDPO) and the Ice Drilling Design and Operations group (IDDO) were established by the National Science Foundation effective October 2008 to coordinate long-term and short-term planning in collaboration with the greater U.S. ice science community, and to be the principle supplier of ice drilling and ice coring support and expertise for NSF-funded research.

The DISC Drill sonde with the last ice core of the season

WAIS Divide Season Two A Success

By WAIS Divide Science Coordination Office

Despite a two-week delay due to budget cuts and heavy equipment problems at camp, the second field season of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide Ice Core Project was extremely successful.

NICL currently stores over 17,000 meters of ice core collected from various locations in Antarctica, Greenland, and North America NICL currently stores over 17,000 meters of ice core collected from various locations in Antarctica, Greenland, and North America

NICL Use and Accessing Ice Cores

The U.S. National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) is a government-owned facility on the grounds of the Denver Federal Center. NICL provides approximately 50,600 cubic feet of safeguarded freezer space, which is maintained at a temperature of -35 degrees C for the storage of ice cores collected from the polar ice sheets and glaciers from around the world.

Photo of Mark Twickler

Message from the Director - Spring 2009

By Mark Twickler, NICL-Science Management Office, University of New Hampshire

Every few years we like to remind the community about the policies for the use of the National Ice Core Laboratory and acquisition of samples from the archive. You can read about these policies, which have been in place for more than 10 years, on page 8 of this issue and visit the link to read the complete policy.

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Operated by US Geological Survey USGS logo

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation through an Interagency Agreement (NSF-1822953) to the U.S. Geological Survey. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the U.S. Geological Survey.

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