Gallery

 

Video Gallery

Ancient Ice and Our Planet's Future

What if we could predict our climate's future by learning about its past? Deep in the interior of Antarctica scientists unlock the secrets of our planet's past.

Credit: National Science Foundation

 

Modeling Our Future Climate

Discover how data from the ice core record are used to help scientists predict the future of our climate.

Credit: National Science Foundation

 

Deep Ice Sheet Coring (DISC) Drill

In this video, Dr. Kendrick Taylor takes you inside the drilling arch at WAIS Divide, Antarctica and explains the major features of the DISC Drill. On December 1, 2011, the WAIS Divide ice core project reached its final depth of 3405 meters (11,171 feet; over 2 miles), recovering the longest U.S. ice core to date from the polar regions. Video courtesy of Dr. Kendrick Taylor.

 

Replicate Ice Coring System

The Replicate Ice Coring System was deployed in December 2012 to re-enter the 6.5-inch diameter deep borehole at WAIS Divide, Antarctica, and successfully allowed the researchers to drill through the wall of the 3,405 meter deep parent hole and collect a total of 285 meters of additional core from five of the most interesting time periods in the WAIS Divide climate record. Video courtesy of IDDO. For more information, visit: http://icedrill.org/equipment/index.shtml

 

Climate Change - How do we know?

Dr. Kendrick Taylor of the Desert Research Institute is the Chief Scientist for the WAIS Divide Ice Core project. In this video, Kendrick takes you on a tour around the camp, discusses the process by which ice cores are drilled and extracted from the ice sheet, and explains the importance of ice cores in the overall understanding of Earth's climate history and current climate change.

This is a low-resolution version of the video for the web. A higher-resolution version is also available. For more information contact Kendrick Taylor (©2009, Kendrick Taylor).

 

How to Drill a Two-Mile Deep Ice Core

This short video summarizes all of the steps in collecting an ice core at WAIS Divide using the Deep Ice Sheet Coring (DISC) drill. This video was produced by Heidi Roop and Thomas Bauska during the 2009-2010 field season as part of the Ice Stories: Dispatches from Polar Scientists project. Be sure and also read all of Heidi's dispatches.

 

NICL Core Processing Line

This short video summarizes the 2010 core processing line at the National Ice Core Laboratory in Denver, CO. The video was shot and produced by Logan Mitchell.

 

Unlocking Antarctica's Secrets

Robert Lee Hotz, Science Columnist for the Wall Street Journal, reports from WAIS Divide. Make sure and read Hotz's accompanying article, Mining for Cold, Hard Facts - Scientists Probe Antarctic Ice to Settle Climate Debates, that appeared on the front page of the May 29, 2010 issue of the Wall Street Journal.

 

Lee Hotz: Inside an Antarctic Time Machine

Science columnist Lee Hotz talks about the WAIS Divide Ice Core project on TED.com