10:00 AM - 10:15 AM
[ACC27-05] Preparation activities for the 3rd Dome Fuji deep coring
Keywords:Dome Fuji, ice core, Antarctica
Analyses of Antarctic ice cores provide past environmental changes on a variety of spatio-temporal scales. A deep ice core covering 720,000 years was drilled at Dome Fuji in East Antarctica, which is the second longest ice core after the 800,000-year EPICA Dome C core (third is the 420,000-year-old Vostok core).
About 1 million years ago, the glacial-interglacial cycles shifted from 40,000 to 100,000 years (Mid-Pleistocene Transition, MPT), but the causes and mechanism remain unclear. The "Oldest Ice Cores" project has been proposed by IPICS (International Partnership for Ice Core Sciences) to collect Antarctic ice cores that are essential for solving the mysteries. Such old ice cores may be obtained from locations where the ice sheet is frozen to bedrock and horizontal flow is slow. To ensure the reliability of the data, it is essential to collect multiple ice cores from different areas and compare their results; the EU and Australian projects determined the drill sites near Dome C, and other countries are also aiming to drill ice cores at different sites. After more than six years of glaciological studies including ice radar surveys and ice flow simulations, the Third Dome Fuji Deep Ice Core Project determined the oldest ice coring site around Dome Fuji in December 2022, and started the construction of the drilling facility in the 2022-23 season.
In the 2023-24 season, ice core storages and a core processing facility were constructed. In parallel, shallow ice drilling (126 m) leading to deep ice core, reaming of the borehole, installation of casing pipes in the borehole, assembly of the drill mast and main part of the deep drill proceeded smoothly. The preparatory stages for the deep drilling are now finished, and the deep drilling will start in the next Antarctic summer season.
About 1 million years ago, the glacial-interglacial cycles shifted from 40,000 to 100,000 years (Mid-Pleistocene Transition, MPT), but the causes and mechanism remain unclear. The "Oldest Ice Cores" project has been proposed by IPICS (International Partnership for Ice Core Sciences) to collect Antarctic ice cores that are essential for solving the mysteries. Such old ice cores may be obtained from locations where the ice sheet is frozen to bedrock and horizontal flow is slow. To ensure the reliability of the data, it is essential to collect multiple ice cores from different areas and compare their results; the EU and Australian projects determined the drill sites near Dome C, and other countries are also aiming to drill ice cores at different sites. After more than six years of glaciological studies including ice radar surveys and ice flow simulations, the Third Dome Fuji Deep Ice Core Project determined the oldest ice coring site around Dome Fuji in December 2022, and started the construction of the drilling facility in the 2022-23 season.
In the 2023-24 season, ice core storages and a core processing facility were constructed. In parallel, shallow ice drilling (126 m) leading to deep ice core, reaming of the borehole, installation of casing pipes in the borehole, assembly of the drill mast and main part of the deep drill proceeded smoothly. The preparatory stages for the deep drilling are now finished, and the deep drilling will start in the next Antarctic summer season.