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Ice Core Drill

The BAS Ice Core Drill was designed and built in 1994 for the Berkner Ice Project. The objective of the Berkner Ice Core Project was to construct a high-resolution record of climate and environmental change on timescales covering several thousand years.

Living accommodation at a Berkner Island drilling site. Scientists have succeeded in drilling 1000 metre-deep ice core and reached bedrock. The core gives a continuous record of the climate on Berkner spanning the past 30,000 years. This period is particularly interesting as it includes the dramatic tranition from the last ice age into the current Holocene warm period, when the average temperature of the Antarctic rose by 8C. Situated at the southern end of the Atlantic Ocean, the Berkner Island coast will give a clear view of the southern response to changes in ocean currents that are believed to have occurred during this period. This image is associated with the 2005-2010 BAS science programme: CACHE- Climate and Chemistry: Forcings, Feedbacks and Phasings in the Earth System.

The island lies near to the Weddell Sea; ice core records from this island will help explain the role of the Weddell Sea in long-term climate change over West Antarctica.

  Ice core drilling operations at a Berkner Island drilling site. Scientists have succeeded in drilling 1000 metre-deep ice core and reached bedrock. The core gives a continuous record of the climate on Berkner spanning the past 30,000 years. This period is particularly interesting as it includes the dramatic tranition from the last ice age into the current Holocene warm period, when the average temperature of the Antarctic rose by 8C. Situated at the southern end of the Atlantic Ocean, the Berkner Island coast will give a clear view of the southern response to changes in ocean currents that are believed to have occurred during this period. This image is associated with the 2005-2010 BAS science programme: CACHE- Climate and Chemistry: Forcings, Feedbacks and Phasings in the Earth System.

  

 

  • 4.6m long
  • 85kg heavy
  • 750W motor
  • 2500rpm (max)
  • gear reducer 21:1
  • final rotation speed variable to 420 rpm.
  • cores are 106mm in diameter & 1000mm long