Collaborative Proposal: SHALDRIL - A Demonstration Drilling Cruise to the James Ross Basin

该奖项由极地项目办公室的南极地质和地球物理项目提供，为一个示范项目提供资金，以证明浅船地质钻探的可行性，同时收集有用的岩心，以评估南极冰盖的早期历史。30多年来，美国科学家和他们的国际同行一直在沿着南极边缘探索浅海架和海洋，由于无法穿透这些地形上浅层海底深处（10米以上）遇到的过度压密的冰川裂缝，他们一直感到沮丧。这尤其令人沮丧，因为先进的高分辨率地震反射技术清楚地显示，在许多地区，新近系甚至古近系的较老序列就存在于这层薄薄的地壳之下。在恢复这些序列的手段被开发出来之前，南极冰盖的详细历史将仍然是一个难以捉摸和无法实现的目标，而这是了解全球范围内新生代古气候和未来气候变化的必要先决条件。在一位专业工程师的帮助下，经过四年的研究和评估（以及两次研讨会的过程），由美国科学家组成的一个感兴趣的小组SHALDRIL委员会已经确定了至少两种适合在现有的美国南极研究计划破冰船上使用的钻石取心系统。该项目的目标是在RV/IB Nathaniel B. Palmer上采用钻石取心技术，以测试和证明船载钻石取心和井下测井的可行性。在这次“示范巡航”中，将沿着南极半岛西摩岛附近大陆架的高分辨率地震反射剖面进行取芯，这是一个本身具有高度科学兴趣的地区。这里的地质剖面的年龄范围从始新世到第四纪，有效地跨越了南极/全球气候演化中的“温室-冰窖”过渡。这种转变的完整记录还没有在南极边缘的任何地方得到。在岩芯恢复之后，该项目将把新岩芯的古气候记录与最近结束的以快速冰为基础的罗伯茨角项目在罗斯海东部高纬度地区记录的冰缘的详细波动进行对比。如果成功，这个移动灵活的钻探系统将被更广泛的科学界用于进一步研究古环境条件和其他科学领域，这些领域目前受到美国南极计划技术能力的阻碍，无法探索位于海岸线/快冰边缘和大陆斜坡之间的南极大陆架。shaldrill将能够在目前存在于近岸（快速冰基罗伯茨角项目成功的地方）和上坡（海洋钻井计划船只JOIDES Resolution最有效的地方）之间的“无人区”有效作业。这一技术突破不仅将使过去三十年的重大突出科学问题得到解决，而且还将对许多当前美国和SCAR （ICSU南极研究科学委员会）的南极或钻探相关计划产生有利影响，例如WAIS， ANTIME， ANDRILL， ANTEC， IMAGES， PAGES， GLOCHANT（包括ice）， MARGINS， ODP和STRATAFORM。该奖项由极地项目办公室的南极地质和地球物理项目提供，为一个示范项目提供资金，以证明浅船地质钻探的可行性，同时收集有用的岩心，以评估南极冰盖的早期历史。30多年来，美国科学家和他们的国际同行一直在沿着南极边缘探索浅海架和海洋，由于无法穿透这些地形上浅层海底深处（10米以上）遇到的过度压密的冰川裂缝，他们一直感到沮丧。这尤其令人沮丧，因为先进的高分辨率地震反射技术清楚地显示，在许多地区，新近系甚至古近系的较老序列就存在于这层薄薄的地壳之下。在恢复这些序列的手段被开发出来之前，南极冰盖的详细历史将仍然是一个难以捉摸和无法实现的目标，而这是了解全球范围内新生代古气候和未来气候变化的必要先决条件。在一位专业工程师的帮助下，经过四年的研究和评估（以及两次研讨会的过程），由美国科学家组成的一个感兴趣的小组SHALDRIL委员会已经确定了至少两种适合在现有的美国南极研究计划破冰船上使用的钻石取心系统。该项目的目标是在RV/IB Nathaniel B. Palmer上采用钻石取心技术，以测试和证明船载钻石取心和井下测井的可行性。在这次“示范巡航”中，将沿着南极半岛西摩岛附近大陆架的高分辨率地震反射剖面进行取芯，这是一个本身具有高度科学兴趣的地区。这里的地质剖面的年龄范围从始新世到第四纪，有效地跨越了南极/全球气候演化中的“温室-冰窖”过渡。这种转变的完整记录还没有在南极边缘的任何地方得到。在岩芯恢复之后，该项目将把新岩芯的古气候记录与最近结束的以快速冰为基础的罗伯茨角项目在罗斯海东部高纬度地区记录的冰缘的详细波动进行对比。如果成功，这个移动灵活的钻探系统将被更广泛的科学界用于进一步研究古环境条件和其他科学领域，这些领域目前受到美国南极计划技术能力的阻碍，无法探索位于海岸线/快冰边缘和大陆斜坡之间的南极大陆架。shaldrill将能够在目前存在于近岸（快速冰基罗伯茨角项目成功的地方）和上坡（海洋钻井计划船只JOIDES Resolution最有效的地方）之间的“无人区”有效作业。这一技术突破不仅将使过去三十年的重大突出科学问题得到解决，而且还将对许多当前美国和SCAR （ICSU南极研究科学委员会）的南极或钻探相关计划产生有利影响，例如WAIS， ANTIME， ANDRILL， ANTEC， IMAGES， PAGES， GLOCHANT（包括ice）， MARGINS， ODP和STRATAFORM。

This award, provided by the Antarctic Geology and Geophysics Program of the Office of Polar Programs, provides funds for a demonstration project to prove the viability of shallow ship-based geological drilling while simultaneously collecting useful cores for assessing the early history of the Antarctic ice sheets. For over three decades, U.S. scientists and their international colleagues exploring the shallow shelves and seas along the margins of Antarctic have been consistently frustrated by their inability to penetrate through the over-compacted glacial diamictons encountered at shallow sub bottom depths (within the upper 10 m) over these terrains. This is particularly frustrating because advanced high resolution seismic reflection techniques clearly show in many areas the presence of older successions of Neogene and even Paleogene sequences lying just beneath this thin veneer of diamictons. Until the means are developed to recover these sequences, a detailed history of the Antarctic ice sheets, which is an essential prerequisite to understanding Cenozoic paleoclimate and future climate change on a global scale, will remain an elusive and unobtainable goal. After four years of study and evaluation with the aid of a professional engineer (and over the course of two workshops), the SHALDRIL Committee, an interested group of U.S. scientists, has identified at least two diamond-coring systems deemed suitable for use on existing ice-breaking U.S. Antarctic Research Program vessels. The goal of this project is to employ diamond-coring technology on the RV/IB Nathaniel B. Palmer in order to test out and demonstrate the feasibility of both ship-based diamond coring and down-hole logging. For this "demonstration cruise" coring will be attempted along a high-resolution seismic reflection profile on the continental shelf adjacent to Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula, an area of high scientific interest in its own right. Here the well-defined geologic section is estimated to range from Eocene to Quaternary in age, effectively spanning the "Greenhouse-Icehouse" transition in the evolution of Antarctic/global climate. A complete record of this transition has yet to be obtained anywhere along the Antarctic margin. Following core recovery, this project will result in correlation of the paleoclimate records from the new cores with detailed fluctuations of the ice margin recorded at higher latitudes in the eastern Ross Sea by the recently concluded, fast-ice-based Cape Roberts Project. If successful, this mobile and flexible drilling system will then be available to the broader scientific community for further research in paleoenvironmental conditions and other areas of science that are currently hindered by the present gap that exists in the US Antarctic Program's technical capability to explore the Antarctic shelves between the shore-line/fast-ice margin and the continental slope. SHALDRIL will be able to operate effectively in the "no man's land" that presently exists between the near shore (where the fast-ice-based Cape Roberts Project was successful) and the upper slope (where the Ocean Drilling Program's vessel JOIDES Resolution becomes most efficient). This technological breakthrough will not only allow major outstanding scientific problems of the last three decades to be addressed, but will also favorably impact many current U.S. and SCAR (ICSU Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) Antarctic or drilling-related initiatives, such as WAIS, ANTIME, ANDRILL, ANTEC, IMAGES, PAGES, GLOCHANT (including PICE), MARGINS, ODP, and STRATAFORM.This award, provided by the Antarctic Geology and Geophysics Program of the Office of Polar Programs, provides funds for a demonstration project to prove the viability of shallow ship-based geological drilling while simultaneously collecting useful cores for assessing the early history of the Antarctic ice sheets. For over three decades, U.S. scientists and their international colleagues exploring the shallow shelves and seas along the margins of Antarctic have been consistently frustrated by their inability to penetrate through the over-compacted glacial diamictons encountered at shallow sub bottom depths (within the upper 10 m) over these terrains. This is particularly frustrating because advanced high resolution seismic reflection techniques clearly show in many areas the presence of older successions of Neogene and even Paleogene sequences lying just beneath this thin veneer of diamictons. Until the means are developed to recover these sequences, a detailed history of the Antarctic ice sheets, which is an essential prerequisite to understanding Cenozoic paleoclimate and future climate change on a global scale, will remain an elusive and unobtainable goal. After four years of study and evaluation with the aid of a professional engineer (and over the course of two workshops), the SHALDRIL Committee, an interested group of U.S. scientists, has identified at least two diamond-coring systems deemed suitable for use on existing ice-breaking U.S. Antarctic Research Program vessels. The goal of this project is to employ diamond-coring technology on the RV/IB Nathaniel B. Palmer in order to test out and demonstrate the feasibility of both ship-based diamond coring and down-hole logging. For this "demonstration cruise" coring will be attempted along a high-resolution seismic reflection profile on the continental shelf adjacent to Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula, an area of high scientific interest in its own right. Here the well-defined geologic section is estimated to range from Eocene to Quaternary in age, effectively spanning the "Greenhouse-Icehouse" transition in the evolution of Antarctic/global climate. A complete record of this transition has yet to be obtained anywhere along the Antarctic margin. Following core recovery, this project will result in correlation of the paleoclimate records from the new cores with detailed fluctuations of the ice margin recorded at higher latitudes in the eastern Ross Sea by the recently concluded, fast-ice-based Cape Roberts Project. If successful, this mobile and flexible drilling system will then be available to the broader scientific community for further research in paleoenvironmental conditions and other areas of science that are currently hindered by the present gap that exists in the US Antarctic Program's technical capability to explore the Antarctic shelves between the shore-line/fast-ice margin and the continental slope. SHALDRIL will be able to operate effectively in the "no man's land" that presently exists between the near shore (where the fast-ice-based Cape Roberts Project was successful) and the upper slope (where the Ocean Drilling Program's vessel JOIDES Resolution becomes most efficient). This technological breakthrough will not only allow major outstanding scientific problems of the last three decades to be addressed, but will also favorably impact many current U.S. and SCAR (ICSU Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) Antarctic or drilling-related initiatives, such as WAIS, ANTIME, ANDRILL, ANTEC, IMAGES, PAGES, GLOCHANT (including PICE), MARGINS, ODP, and STRATAFORM.