ANDRILL's Success During the 4th International Polar Year

Abstract

One of the scientific programs of the Fourth International Polar Year (Allison et al., 2007; www.ipy.org), the ANDRILL (ANtarctic geological DRILLing) Program (Fig. 1) demonstrated ability to recover high quality marine and glacimarine sedimentary drill cores from high latitude ice-covered areas. ANDRILL's inaugural 2006 and 2007 drilling seasons resulted in the two deepest drill holes on the Antarctic continental margin, recovering high-quality and nearly continuous 2400 meters of sediment cores. A chief scientific objective of this collaborative effort of scientists, engineers, technicians, students, educators, drillers, and support personnel from Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and the United States is the recovery of sedimentary archives from which past climatic and environmental changes in the southern high latitudes can be reconstructed. More than 120 individuals have been involved in each of the two drilling projects, eighty of whom worked in Antarctica during each austral summer season.