Technologies for retrieving sediment cores in Antarctic subglacial settings

Hodgson, D.A.; Bentley, M.J.; Smith, J.A.; Klepacki, J.; Makinson, K.; Smith, A.M.; Saw, K.; Scherer, R.; Powell, R.; Tulaczyk, S.; Rose, M.; Pearce, D.; Mowlem, M.; Keen, P.; Siegert, M.J.

Abstract

Accumulations of sediment beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet contain a range of physical and chemical proxies with the potential to document changes in ice sheet history and to identify and characterize life in subglacial settings. Retrieving subglacial sediments and sediment cores presents several unique challenges to existing technologies. This paper briefly reviews the history of sediment sampling in subglacial environments. It then outlines some of the technological challenges and constraints in developing the corers being used in sub-ice shelf settings (e.g. George VI Ice Shelf and Larsen Ice Shelf), under ice streams (e.g. Rutford Ice Stream), at or close to the grounding line (e.g. Whillans Ice Stream) and in subglacial lakes deep under the ice sheet (e.g. Lake Ellsworth). The key features of the corers designed to operate in each of these subglacial settings are described and illustrated together with comments on their deployment procedures.

Citation

Hodgson, D., Bentley, M., Smith, J., Klepacki, J., Makinson, K., Smith, A., …Siegert, M. (2016). Technologies for retrieving sediment cores in Antarctic subglacial settings. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 374(2059), Article 20150056. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2015.0056

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 17, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Dec 14, 2015
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Mar 22, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 14, 2016
• Journal: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.
• Print ISSN: 1364-503X
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-2962
• Publisher: The Royal Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 374
• Issue: 2059
• Article Number: 20150056
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2015.0056
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1385645