NEWSLETTER OF THE NATIONAL ICE CORE LABORATORY — SCIENCE MANAGEMENT OFFICE Vol. 4 Issue 2 • FALL 2009 National Science Foundation and U. S. Geological Survey Decision about Future International Greenland Ice NICL Management Coring Effort Sets New Drilling Record in 2009 ... page.2 Old Ice - Climate record from last 2.5 million years may Photo: National Ice Core Laboratory, NICL/USGS sit at the surface of Allan Hills ... page.4 AS A RESULT OF BROAD DISCUSSIONS NSF had indicated that a dedicated ice core between the National Science Foundation scientist should head the facility, following the (NSF) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) intended management approach when NICL about how to manage NICL in the future and was first established at the Denver Federal how NICL relates to various mission goals of Center. In contrast, USGS had indicated that WAIS Divide each agency, the agencies have concluded that the facility would be best managed as part Ice Core Project Update it will be better to dissolve the past relationship. of a broader core repository function that This means that NSF will begin a process incorporates permafrost and rock cores in ... page.6 to develop a new management structure for addition to ice cores, with a single scientist or NICL that will entail leadership from the curator responsible for all components. An academic community. USGS has indicated to important factor in the USGS position is that NSF that they will not provide support for the ice core science as part of a broader effort in partnership beyond September 2010 but that it climate change science is reasonably within Message from the would be possible, at NSF’s expense, to have their mission responsibilities, but that, in a strict Director ............................2 the NICL physical plant remain at the Denver sense, ice core science as a separate activity is not Federal Center as well as arrange for current central to current or anticipated USGS scientific NICL staff to remain with the facility. directions. Because of this divergence of views, Upcoming Meetings ..........3. and after considerable internal discussions, the For over a year, NSF and USGS have been USGS informed NSF that it cannot justify a Ice Core Working Group discussing various options for the operation dedicated focus to ice core science and so it Members ...........................4 and management of the NICL facility. The desires to phase out of the partnership. situation can be summarized as follows: While both agencies viewed NICL as an important NICL-SMO will keep the community Recently Funded Projects .....7 research resource, significant differences informed on developments relating to the new between the NSF and USGS approaches to management structure at NICL. the leadership and management of the facility n had emerged in the discussions. For example, International Greenland Ice Coring Effort Sets New Drilling Record in In-Depth is published semi-annually by the National Ice Core Laboratory - Science 2009 Management Office (NICL-SMO). Courtesy:.Press Release 09-158,.National.Science.Foundation We are interested in project stories and news from the ice coring community. Please Pushing an ice core out of the drill. contact us if you are interested in submitting Photo: NEEM ice core drilling project, a story or news item to In-Depth. www.neem.ku.dk In-Depth Newsletter Mark Twickler (MST), Director Joe Souney (JMS), Production/Editing [email protected] (603) 862-1991 http://nicl-smo.unh.edu University of New Hampshire Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space Durham, New Hampshire 03824 Masthead photos courtesy of Lonnie Thompson and Michael Morrison. A NEW INTERNATIONAL research warm Eemian, and the period of transition effort on the Greenland ice sheet with the to the ice age were compressed and folded, University of Colorado at Boulder as the lead making them difficult to interpret, said White. Message from the U.S. institution set a record for single-season Radar measurements through the ice sheet Director deep ice-core drilling this summer, recovering from above the NEEM site have indicated more than a mile of ice core that is expected to the Eemian ice layers below are thicker, As you can see from our help scientists better assess the risks of abrupt more intact and likely contain more accurate, cover story, the inter-agency climate change in the future. specific information, he said. agreement between NSF and USGS that provides management The project, known as the North Greenland “Every time we drill a new ice core, we at NICL is not planned for Eemian Ice Drilling, or NEEM, is being learn a lot more about how Earth’s climate renewal beyond the current undertaken by 14 nations and is led by the functions,” said White. “The Eemian period fiscal year. The relationship University of Copenhagen. The goal is to is the best analog we have for future warming between the agencies operating retrieve ice from the last interglacial episode on Earth.” NICL is still strong and they known as the Eemian Period that ended about are actively working towards 120,000 years ago. The period was warmer The NEEM project is led by the University infrastructure improvements than today, with less ice in Greenland that of Copenhagen’s Centre of Ice and Climate at the facility. The Ice Core led 5 meter (15-foot) higher sea levels than directed by Professor Dorthe Dahl-Jensen. Working Group discussed the present--conditions similar to those Earth The U.S. and Denmark are the two leading faces as it warms in the coming century and partners in this project. The U.S. effort is change in management at NICL beyond, said CU-Boulder Professor Jim White, funded by the National Science Foundation’s and the Group endorses the who is leading the U.S. research contingent. Office of Polar Programs. concept of a University-based model for NICL management. “Every time we drill a new ice Annual ice layers formed over millennia These are exciting times and core, we learn a lot more about in Greenland by compressed snow reveal NICL-SMO will assist with how Earth’s climate functions. The information on past temperatures and all entities involved in this Eemian period is the best analog we precipitation levels and the contents of new venture for the ice coring have for future warming on Earth. ” ancient atmospheres, said White, who community, which will hopefully directs CU-Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and be a smooth and seamless While three previous Greenland ice cores Alpine Research. Ice cores exhumed during transition. drilled in the past 20 years covered the last previous drilling efforts have revealed abrupt ice age and the period of warming to the temperature spikes of more than 20 degrees -MST.n present, the deeper ice layers representing the Fahrenheit in just 50 years in the Northern — continued on page 3 In-Depth u FALL 2009 2 International Greenland Ice Coring Effort — continued from page 2 Upcoming Meetings Julia Rosen (Oregon State University) cleaning an ice core before the ECM measurements. Photo: NEEM ice core drilling project, www.neem.ku.dk 14-18 December 2009 AGU.Fall.Meeting,.San.Francisco,.CA www.agu.org/meetings/ 1-3 February 2010 Ice.and.Climate.Change:.A.View.from. the.South,.Valdivia,.Chile www.cecs.cl/VICC2010/index.html Hemisphere. catastrophic heat waves and increases in severe weather events, according to scientists. 15-17 March 2010 The NEEM team reached a depth of 1,758 AGU.Chapman.Conference.on.the. meters (5,767 feet) in early August, where While ice cores pinpoint abrupt climate Exploration.and.Study.of.Antarctic. ice layers date to 38,500 years ago during change events as Earth has passed in and Subglacial.Aquatic.Environments.(SAE),. cold glacial period preceding the present out of glacial periods, the warming trend Baltimore,.MD interglacial, or warm period. The team hopes during the present interglacial period is www.agu.org/meetings/chapman/2010/ to hit bedrock at 2,545 meters (8,350 feet) caused primarily by human activities like ccall/ at the end of next summer, reaching ice fossil fuel burning, White said. “What makes deposited during warm Eemian period that this warming trend fundamentally different 16-19 March 2010 lasted from roughly 130,000 to 120,000 years from past warming events is that this one is 2010.State.of.the.Arctic.Conference,. ago before the planet began to cool and ice driven by human activity and involves human Miami,.FL up once again. responsibility, morals and ethics.” http://soa.arcus.org The NEEM project began in 2008 with the “Evidence from ancient ice cores tell construction of a state of the art facility, us that when greenhouse gases increase 3-6 August 2010 including a large dome, the drilling rig for in the atmosphere, the climate warms. SCAR.2010.Open.Science.Conference,. extracting three-inch in-diameter ice cores, And when the climate warms, Buenos.Aires,.Argentina www.scar.org/events/#31scarbuenosaires drilling trenches, laboratories and living ice sheets melt and sea levels rise.” quarters. The official drilling started in June 2009. The United States is leading the Other nations involved in the project include 5-10 September 2010 laboratory analysis of atmospheric gases the United States Belgium, Canada, China, 12th.International.Conference.on.the. trapped in bubbles within the NEEM ice France, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Korea, the Physics.and.Chemistry.of.Ice,.Sapporo,. cores, including greenhouse gases like carbon Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the Japan dioxide and methane, said White. United Kingdom. www.lowtem.hokudai.ac.jp/PCI-2010/ “Evidence from ancient ice cores tell us Other CU-Boulder participants in the NEEM 15-20 September 2010 that when greenhouse gases increase in the effort include INSTAAR postdoctoral International.Symposium.on.Earth’s.