Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BE-OI (Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice)

Teaser

Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice (BE-OI) is the European contribution for the global search for a suitable site of an ice-core deep drilling. This Coordination and Support Action (CSA) funded by the EU delivers the technical, scientific and financial basis for a comprehensive plan...

Summary

Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice (BE-OI) is the European contribution for the global search for a suitable site of an ice-core deep drilling. This Coordination and Support Action (CSA) funded by the EU delivers the technical, scientific and financial basis for a comprehensive plan to retrieve an ice core up to 1.5 million years old during the envisaged future Beyond EPICA Drilling Phase. The consortium is a globally unique concentration of scientific expertise and infrastructure for ice-core investigations and takes care of the pre-site surveys for site selection around Dome C and Dome Fuji, both potentially appropriate regions in East Antarctica.

The retrieval of an oldest ice core during a future drilling campaign would be an important contribution for the future exploration of Antarctica and promises unique insights about climate and the global carbon fluxes. This knowledge will improve future prognoses of climate development with solid quantitative data and will allow establishing more targeted strategies, to cope with the societal challenges of global change.

Work performed

\"The first 18-month period of BE-OI was characterised by two intense field seasons with surveys both within the Dome C region as well as Dronning Maud Land / Dome Fuji region. The geophysical site survey included ground based and airborne radar surveys at both target sites and their interpretation. In addition to that, novel rapid access drilling tools were deployed. Based on the results a very promising region at “Little Dome C” was defined and is subject to final investigations during the upcoming field season 2018/19.

A list of existing drilling equipment was compiled and technical parameters were defined, forming the basis of assembly and testing of the BE-OI drill. Draft science, management and budget plans for the envisaged BE-Drilling Phase were already developed and are currently under discussion.

The BE-OI consortium organised numerous workshops (internal and with invited experts) and two outreach events (PICO sessions at EGU 2017 and 2018) to consult with other science communities and nations.

Furthermore, three peer reviewed publications describing the major scientific outcomes were published during the first reporting period:
# 1: “Geothermal heat flux and basal melt rate in the Dome C region inferred from radar reflectivity and thermal modelling” by Olivier Passalacqua and others in \"\"The Cryosphere\"\" doi: 10.5194/tc-2017-23
# 2: “Is there 1.5 million-year old ice near Dome C, Antarctica?” by Frédéric Parrenin and others in \"\"The Cryosphere\"\" doi: 10.5194/tc-2017-69
# 3: “Accumulation patterns around Dome C, East Antarctica, in the last 73 kyrs” by Marie G.P. Cavitte and others in \"\"The Cryosphere\"\" doi: 10.5194/tc-12-1401-2018

These publications are all part of a special issue/collection “Oldest Ice: finding and interpreting climate proxies in ice older than 700 000 years” of the two open-access journals “Climate of the Past” and “The Cryosphere”. This special issue was initiated by the BE-OI partners.
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Final results

Major result of BE-OI will be the definition of a suitable and most promising drilling site in East Antarctica based on the in-depth site surveys, which rely on proven technologies (e.g. radar) as well as novel tools (e.g. rapid access drills). However, the preliminary steps to be taken in advance to such an enormous drilling campaign include much more. The remote drilling location and harsh environmental conditions in Antarctica are a challenge, which can be tackled only by a suitable logistic plan and strong commitment of the involved polar institutes providing the appropriate logistics capacities.

Another important point is the assembly, testing and improvement of the drilling technology to be used in the BE-OI Drilling Phase. The technical experts within BE-OI can rely here on their experience and existing equipment from previous drilling projects.

Apart from the technical aspects, BE-OI will train early and mid-term scientists and drilling experts to be prepared for the future drilling phase

Website & more info

More info: http://www.beyondepica.eu/.