Scientific access into Mercer Subglacial Lake: scientific objectives, drilling operations and initial observations

The Lake El’gygytgyn Scientific Drilling Project – Conquering Arctic Challenges through Continental Drilling

Between October 2008 and May 2009, the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) co-sponsored a campaign at Lake El ́gygytgyn, located in a 3.6-Ma-old meteorite impact crater in northeastern Siberia. Drilling targets included three holes in the center of the 170-m-deep lake, utilizing the lake ice cover as a drilling platform, plus one hole close to the shore in the western la...

Drilling Program: SHIPBOARD SCIENTIFIC PARTY

Drilling Program: SHIPBOARD SCIENTIFIC PARTY

Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 199, “The Paleogene Equatorial Transect” (Sites 1215 through 1222), was designed to study the evolution of the equatorial Pacific current and wind system as the Earth went from maximum Cenozoic warmth to initial Antarctic glaciations. The drilling program was primarily devoted to a transect along 56to 57-Ma crust, old enough to capture the Paleocene/ Eocene boun...

Drilling Program: SHIPBOARD SCIENTIFIC PARTY

The bend in the Hawaiian-Emperor chain is the best example of a change in plate motion recorded in a fixed-hotspot frame of reference. Alternatively, the bend might primarily record differences in motion of the Hawaiian hotspot relative to the Pacific lithosphere. Four lines of inquiry support the latter view: (1) global plate motions predicted from relative plate motion data, (2) spreading rat...

Clean subglacial access: prospects for future deep hot-water drilling.

Accessing and sampling subglacial environments deep beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet presents several challenges to existing drilling technologies. With over half of the ice sheet believed to be resting on a wet bed, drilling down to this environment must conform to international agreements on environmental stewardship and protection, making clean hot-water drilling the most viable option. Such ...