Hercules Dome, Antarctica, Site Selection

We are using ice penetrating radar and ice-flow modeling to determine the best location for a deep ice core at Hercules Dome Antarctica. Hercules Dome is located at the intersection of the West and East Antarctic ice sheets and will provide important new information on: the magnitude of climate change from the last glacial maximum to today; the glacial inception when the earth cooled and ice sheets grew; and the last interglacial when sea level was ~6m higher than today and the West Antarctic ice sheet may have collapsed. This work is supporting many graduate and undergraduate student projects.

COLDEX – Center for OLDest ice EXploration

Coldex is an NSF Science and Technology center integrating many researchers to find ~1.5 million year old ice. I have two major roles: ice-flow modeling to help determine where the oldest ice is likely to be and 2) using electrical conductivity measurements and hyperspectral imaging to understand ice core stratigraphy.

The impacts and evolution of sulfate in ice core

How impurities concentrations evolve in the ice sheet is critical to properly interpreting past climate histories. This project is a collaboration with researchers at Dartmouth College. My work focuses on the effective diffusivity of sulfate. The sulfate is an excellent marker of volcanic events which can be used to link ice core timescales across ice sheets and increasingly between poles. This work has supported two undergraduate research projects – see OGIVE page.

Hercules Dome, Antarctica, Ice Coring

We are in the planning and community building phase with the drilling of a deep ice core at Hercules Dome. Drilling is expected to begin at the earliest in 2024. Check out our project website for more information and how to get involved. https://herculesdome.org/

Magnitude of Greenland Deglacial Warming

Ice cores have demonstrated that Greenland can warm by more than 10C in the matter of decades. Yet many questions about the timing, magnitude, and spatial pattern of warming remain. This project is led by Christo Buizert at Oregon State. I will be contributing borehole thermometry using a numerical model of ice and heat flow. There will be multiple undergraduate internship opportunities beginning in summer of 2022.