EAGER: Ice Core Site Selection Attempt on the Mt. Logan Summit Plateau

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This project uses funds, under the auspices of the EArly Concept Grant For Exploratory Research (EAGER) program, to aid the potential recovery and analysis of a new ice core, in collaboration with Canadian scientists, from Mt. Logan in the high Arctic.In 2017, the Mt. Logan ice core was catastrophically destroyed in a storage freezer malfunction at the Canadian Ice Core Archive (University of Alberta). This ill-timed loss occurred when several new critical questions had evolved from recent observations. The University of Alberta recently secured funding to attempt a new expedition to recover new ice core. The U.S. researchers have established a collaborative partnership with University of Alberta researchers to participate in all aspects of the ice core recovery, analysis, and interpretation. A critical first step, however, is a comprehensive, state-of-the-art glaciological study (including geophysical observations and numerical modeling) of the Mt. Logan summit plateau area for potential drill site selection in 2019. Such modeling is the impetus for the current EAGER request.Given the low snow accumulation and deep, cold ice (~200m), the Mount Logan plateau may contain some of the oldest Arctic glacier ice on Earth. The researchers believe this effort will maximize available resources to obtain one of the best long-term climate records in the Arctic.Before the researchers can realize any benefit from acquiring a new ice core, they must complete some critical background tasks that include: 1) developing bedrock topography maps of the Mt. Logan summit plateau sites; 2) mapping near-surface spatial accumulation rate patterns; 3) tracing internal isochrones at each site; 4) collecting near-surface snow chemistry measurements at each site; and 5) selecting a drill site for a new Mt. Logan ice core.Recent advancements in drill site selection and ice core processing provide the researchers with a unique opportunity to select an optimal site and obtain a new ice core record that contains decadal to century resolution for more than 30,000 years. The researchers have experience securing and analyzing high elevation ice cores and the Mt. Logan summit plateau is a difficult place to access and work. The combination of high skill level among the research team and high potential scientific potential payoff places this request for support in the high risk-high reward category aligned with the EAGER program. The activities are scientifically important and fit well into the potentially transformative, high-risk but potential high payoff research attributes of the EAGER program.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.