Collaborative Research: Sonic Logging the NEEM Corehole, Greenland

过去从格陵兰冰盖恢复的深层冰芯未能获得完整的埃米亚冰，即最后一次间冰期的冰。最近NEEM的努力已经成功地回收了约150米的这种冰。提出的对冰结构的连续声波监测将解决传统的冰芯薄片分析技术所遗漏的小尺度变异性，这些技术往往会对冰芯取样不足。声波取样所恢复的尺度与新的气体取样技术所观察到的尺度更具可比性。拟议的工作将增加物理数据集，以充分解释从NEEM冰芯中恢复的数据，例如用于推断过去大气条件的气体含量分析。今年夏天，美国地质勘探局（USGS）将配备一台特殊的绞车，华盛顿大学（University of Washington）的仪器也将配备一台绞车，2012年夏天之后，NEEM野外营地将被废弃，因此，这一提议适合获得RAPID奖。更广泛的影响：该项目将为一名研究生提供国际经验，并为一名女科学家在其职业生涯的形成阶段提供支持。它将促进与斯堪的纳维亚的国际合作。

Past deep ice cores recovered from the Greenland Ice Sheet have failed to obtain intact Eemian ice, ice from the last interglacial period. The recent NEEM effort has successfully recovered ~150 m of such ice. The proposed continuous sonic monitoring of the ice fabric will resolve small scale variability that is missed by the traditional techniques used in thin section analyses of ice cores, which tend to under-sample the core. The scales to be recovered with the sonic sampling are more comparable to those that can be observed with new gas-sampling technologies. The proposed work would add to the physical data set required to fully interpret data being recovered from the NEEM ice core, such as the gas content analyses used to infer past atmospheric conditions. The presence of a special USGS winch this summer, a winch required for the operation of University of Washington instrument proposed for deployment, and the planned abandonment of the NEEM field camp after the summer of 2012, make this proposal appropriate for a RAPID award. Broader Impacts:The project will provide international experience for a graduate student and support for a female scientist during the formative years of her career. It will contribute to international collaborations with Scandinavia.