Team heading south for some cold, hard facts

University of Otago researchers (from left) Christina Hulbe, Sergio Morales, Christian Ohneiser, Holly Still and Federico Baltar, weather permitting, will travel to the Antarctic today as part of a research expedition which hopes to better understand the
University of Otago researchers (from left) Christina Hulbe, Sergio Morales, Christian Ohneiser, Holly Still and Federico Baltar, weather permitting, will travel to the Antarctic today as part of a research expedition which hopes to better understand the effect climate change is having on the continent. Photo: Peter McIntosh
Spending Christmas thousands of kilometres away from home is slightly easier when you are studying an area of the world which has never been seen before, a University of Otago professor says.

A team of researchers from the University of Otago will join others from New Zealand and international universities, for a research expedition to the Ross Ice Shelf in the Antarctic.

The University of Otago-led study aims to better understand the effect global warming is having on the ice shelf.

Prof Christina Hulbe, from the department of surveying, and Dr Christian Ohneiser, from the department of geology, will lead the research expedition.

Weather permitting, the researchers would fly to Scott Base from Christchurch today, then make their way to the research site about 350km away, Prof Hulbe said.

Researchers would use a specifically designed hot water drill to bore down almost 1km into the seabed below the ice shelf to study the sediment which would provide clues as to how the ice had reacted during previous warm periods, she said.

A remotely-operated submarine on a 3km-long tether would also dive under the ice to observe ocean, sea floor, and ice conditions in the area all around the drill site.

It would be the first time scientists had access to data about what was happening below the surface, Prof Hulbe said.

''We need to how all the different parts of the system, the ocean, the ice, the atmosphere, and even the sediments underneath the ice, work together. ''

''This kind of knowledge is essential to making better projections of future change.''

Three years of planning had gone into the study and the 32-person team would spend 65 days, including Christmas Day, on the ice.

Being away from their families at Christmas time would be hard on the researchers and engineers but the entire team was focused on the job, she said.

''Researchers are usually pretty self-motivated people so I'm sure we won't have any trouble finding some data sets to analyse.''

If everything went well this year, the group hoped to return next year, to a more remote location, Prof Hulbe said.

''Everything we are doing is something new. Nobody has done this in this way, in this place before. That's pretty exciting.''

tim.miller@odt.co.nz

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