Australian Antarctic Division engineers have developed a specialised drill that will retrieve an Antarctic ice core dating back more than one million years.
The drill had its first test outside of the workshop in Hobart on Tuesday (28 September), when it drilled into massive ice blocks prepared to replicate the icy Antarctic conditions.
Minister for the Environment, Sussan Ley said that, one million years ago, the rhythm of ice ages changed dramatically and the ice core program was about finding out why.
“It is a huge milestone for our engineers and scientists to test the 400-kilogram drill, which can operate at temperatures 55 degrees below zero, and see it bore into the specially-prepared blocks of ice for the first time,” Ms Ley said.
“Australia’s role in global climate research is incredibly significant and this project is at the absolute cutting edge, globally,” she said.
“We hope this information will help us understand more about climate changes of the past and long-term climate impacts.”
Ms Ley said the ice cores would contain tiny bubbles of air from around one million years ago, which would be a snapshot of the atmosphere from that period.
“To deliver the world’s oldest ice core, teams will traverse 1,300 kilometres of the Antarctic to a site at ‘Little Dome C’ and then drill for several summer seasons through 2,800 metres of ice in some of the most inhospitable terrain on earth,” she said.
The Minister said the 10-metre-long, stainless-steel drill head had been specifically designed and built by the Australian Antarctic Division in Tasmania over the past two years.
Ms Ley said it would be used to reach 2,800 metres deep into the Antarctic ice cap to retrieve the world’s oldest continuous ice core.
