– contributed by Karsten Gohl, PAIS Steering Committee member
The Amundsen Sea Embayment is currently undergoing a large and rapid ice mass loss that could trigger a partial or full collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Is this ice sheet retreat a phenomenon that always happened in this region at warm times in the geological past?
For the first time in Antarctic waters, a seabed drill – the MeBo70 – was used on RV Polarstern expedition PS104. From February to mid-March 2017, drill cores of sediments and sedimentary rocks were collected from up to 36 m below the sea floor at various sites on the Amundsen Sea shelf. The samples will help reveal the ice sheet history from early glaciation to retreat since the last glacial maximum and, thereby, will provide answers to many of the SCAR priority questions concerning Antarctic ice sheets and sea level.
In addition to collecting drill samples, this expedition provided valuable experience on using a seabed drill device in Antarctica’s specific ice, weather and lithological conditions. This project is directly linked to the SCAR Scientific Research Programme Past Antarctic Ice Sheet Dynamics (PAIS).