By Rachel Walker, freelance writer
Courtesy: Field Notes, Polar Field Services
In Mark Twickler's world, "small" is relative. When it comes to a new ice core drill that's being developed and tested by a team of specialized engineers from the Ice Drilling Design and Operations group, small means about 20,000 pounds.
Jackie Hams' essay on her visit to Antarctica is part of a project that studies ancient ice buried in the Dry Valleys, Antarctica. David Marchant of Boston University and Michael Bender of Princeton University are collaborators on the project that is collecting this old ice.
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.
In March, 2004 the National Science Foundation supported a workshop proposal submitted by National Ice Core Laboratory-Science Management Office to gather the world’s premier ice core scientists, engineers and drillers to establish a formal plan for utilizing the strengths and expertise of each nation to promote future ice core projects and to develop focused research objectives.
