ANDRILL: Antarctic Geological Drilling

GSM LECTURE, MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2008

Kate Pound, Ph.D., Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Department 
St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN, 

will describe ANDRILL:  Antarctic Geological Drilling 

on Monday. April 7, 2008 at 7:30 P.M.

At the U of MN, Minneapolis Campus/ East Bank 
Room 3-210 Computer Science / Electrical Engineering 
(same room as last fall)   For map or directions, visit: www.gsmn.org

ANDRILL:  Antarctic Geological Drilling 

Sediment Cores from the Floor of McMurdo Sound Provide Twenty Million Year Record of Climate and Glacial Change in Antarctica

In its second season (2007/08) the ANDRILL (Antarctic Geologic Drilling Project, www.andrill.org ) recovered a 1138 m sediment core from beneath the sea floor in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Together with the 1285 m core recovered the previous season, these cores provide a sedimentary record of climate and glacial change in Antarctica over the past 20 million years. The Middle Miocene Portion of this time interval has long been held as a critical time interval for the development of the modern Antarctic ice sheets, marking the change from a warm climatic optimum, to the onset of major cooling. In this talk I will provide background information about the geological context, drilling logistics, core recovery, and life in Antarctica.

Kate Pound, associate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, spent October through January in the coldest, windiest, driest place on earth – the Antarctic.  She was one of eight educators nationwide who worked with a drilling firm that collected sediment core samples from the sea floor beneath the Antarctic ice shelf in order to learn about the continent ’s past and probable future.  The team drilled back in time to recover a history of paleoenvironmental changes, which will aid understanding of glacial changes in the region and may be helpful in evaluating global warming.

A geologist, and faculty member since 2002, Pound is helping develop lab/classroom activities for teaching K-12 teachers, blogged about her experience for the benefit of K-12 science students and was a Science Museum of Minnesota correspondent while in Antarctica.

FROM: Bill Robbins