Abstract
AbstractIn response to the ‘oldest ice’ challenge initiated by the International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS), new rapid-access drilling technologies through glacier ice need to be developed. These will provide the information needed to qualify potential sites on the Antarctic ice sheet where the deepest section could include ice that is >1Ma old and still in good stratigraphic order. Identifying a suitable site will be a prerequisite for deploying a multi-year deep ice-core drilling operation to elucidate the cause and mechanisms of the mid-Pleistocene transition from 40 ka glacial–interglacial cycles to 100 ka cycles. As part of the ICE&LASERS/SUBGLACIOR projects, we have designed an innovative probe, SUBGLACIOR, with the aim of perforating the ice sheet down to the bedrock in a single season and continuously measuring in situ the isotopic composition of the melted water and the methane concentration in trapped gases. Here we present the general concept of the probe, as well as the various technological solutions that we have favored so far to reach this goal.
Highlights
The mid-Pleistocene climatic transition which took place 1 Ma ago marks the last major feature of the Earth’s climatic evolution at geological timescales
The only way to accurately constrain the evolution of the atmospheric composition throughout the mid-Pleistocene transition is to determine the composition of the air trapped in the ice formed during this period
It justifies what has been called the ‘oldest ice’ challenge by the international ice-core community federated by the International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS) programme (Fischer and others, 2013)
Summary
The mid-Pleistocene climatic transition which took place 1 Ma ago marks the last major feature of the Earth’s climatic evolution at geological timescales. We considered carrying the ice chips to the surface by circulating the drilling fluid using a progressive cavity pump built into the drilling probe itself.
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