Friis Hills Drilling Project
Uncovering the secrets of Antarctica's past to understand our future
Over the summer of 2016/17, a team drilled sediment cores on the summit of Friis Hills to understand Antarctica’s past climate.
Overview
Led by GNS Science and Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka, with Richard Levy and Tim Naish as co-lead scientists, the project team carried out an ambitious and challenging drilling programme over the Antarctic summer season of 2016-17. The drilling team included Alex Pyne from VUW and Tony Kingan and Adam Rutten from Porirua-based Webster Drilling and Exploration. The extensive Antarctic drilling experience offered by this team allowed recovery of a near continuous composite 80m thick sediment core from three locations in the Friis Hills.
The project
The spectacular Friis Hills
The Hills are located at the bend of the Taylor Glacier, in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. It contains a unique sequence of sediments deposited approximately 15 million years ago as glaciers advanced and retreated across a landscape that was periodically covered by lakes, rivers, and tundra vegetation. Sediments of this age are incredibly rare in Antarctica. The paleoenvironmental and paleontological information and data that the cores contain are critical to guide our understanding of Antarctica’s past climatic and glacial conditions.
How the team got the critical data
The team drilled very early in the season to take advantage of the cold temperatures so that the permafrost sediments did not melt. Each core section was wrapped in lay-flat tubing, stored in ice-core boxes, and transported by helicopter to a freezer lab at Scott Base, where they were X-rayed. All cores were subsequently shipped to the National Ice Core Facility, housed at the GNS Science campus in Gracefield, Lower Hutt where they are carefully stored to this day. The facility manager, Rebecca Pyne, also helped curate the cores in the field. Scientists continue to examine and re-examine these valuable repositories.
"The cores we drilled on the summit of Friis Hills contain valuable insights into the past. They also give us a glimpse of what may happen in Antarctica, if we fail to meet our CO2 emission goals and reach net zero targets by 2050."
Richard Levy
Environment and Climate Theme Leader
What the Friis Hills data has been used for
So far, the Friis Hills data has been used to uncover past climatic conditions in the Transantarctic Mountains, summarised in the following:
Richard Levy says that the ongoing research underscores how the examination of these frozen rocks can help guide and inform our future. They also provide important context for the SWAIS 2C programme, project managed by GNS Science, which will undertake its first Antarctic season later this year.
“The data obtained from the Friis Hills cores mirror similar results from offshore drilling projects and modelling studies. These indicate that if Earth’s average climate warms above a threshold of around 400ppm of atmospheric CO2, Antarctica may not be able to sustain marine-based ice sheets.
“Today, CO2 concentrations are around 416 ppm - and climbing. We have potentially crossed a key climate threshold, thereby reversing a major cooling step in the Cenozoic evolution of Earth’s climate system that has lasted for approximately 13 million years.”
Other personnel from GNS Science who have contributed to the Friis Hills Drilling Project include Roger Tremain and Te Aomania Te Koha.
Banner image credit: Friis Hills & Taylor Glacier. East Antarctica Ice Sheet Beyond, Adam Lewis.
