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Between 1999-2002 scientists and adventurers from around the United States traveled to Antarctica to collect ice cores from across the continent. This web site is dedicated to their expeditions. We followed their trips and recorded their adventures to get a first hand look at doing field research in one of the most extreme environments on earth.
Why do they do it? What secrets are waiting to be discovered in the southern reaches of the planet?
Within its icy mantle, Antarctica holds the key to some of the most complex problems of the past and future of our planet. Scientists have already found that Antarctica is surrounded by the world's most biologically productive oceans, that it is a major site for the production of the cold deep water that drives circulation in the oceans, as well as being important for atmospheric circulation. Perhaps most importantly, Antarctica is the largest storehouse of fresh water on the planet.
Although this frozen laboratory has been a focus of scientific
exploration for relatively few decades when compared to most areas on
earth, what is already known about Antarctica tells us that it plays
a significant role in the dynamic linkages between the components
that make up the earth system: the atmosphere, biosphere,
hydrosphere, and lithosphere. Scientists go to Antarctica to learn
more about the role the continent has played throughout earth's
history so that we might better understand what the future holds for
the planet.
Fewer than 100,000 people have ever set foot on Antarctica. No one lives in Antarctica permanently and most people who visit are scientists who come to to do research. During the southern hemisphere summer, from October to March, the temporary population of Antarctica explodes as scientists and support staff flock to the continent to conduct experiments during the short time available before the seasons change and access is frozen tight.
During the last field season, approximately 3,000 people traveled to Antarctica through the US Antarctic Program. Most of these people worked in one of the three US bases--McMurdo, South Pole and Palmer stations--or on one of the two US research vessels. Very few people working in Antarctica, less than 10%, conduct their research at remote sites beyond the comfort of the US bases.
This web site will follow one team that is working in deep on the West Antarctic ice sheet, the United States component of the International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition. As they travel to the south pole over the next four field seasons collecting ice core samples which might reveal how humans have impacted climate changes over the past 200 years, this site will track their progress and bring you their latest results.
