Victoria University Antarctic Research Expedition Science and Logistics Reports 2002-03: VUWAE 47
Proposed field activity
Proposed field activity
We proposed to occupy up to 4 sites on the McMurdo Ice shelf (Windless Bight area), first melting a 50-cm-wide hole through the ice shelf (70 to 150 m thick). We then proposed to measure water depth (expected to be over 800 m) and water column properties through a tidal cycle (conductivity, temperature, current speed, current direction) before sampling the sea floor by grab and gravity corer. At one or more sites a mooring to measure currents over several tidal cycles would be deployed and recovered. The access hole was to be melted by a Hot Water Drilling system provided by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, which had been delivered by ship the previous summer.