EAD helped a research team create a hot water drilling system as part of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln WISSARD Project in Antarctica. The project team, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), constructed, transported, and operated a specially-designed hot water drill able to bore through a half-mile of ice. The feat marked the first time that humans have been able to reach and sample ice from the “grounding zone”, a unique locale where Antarctic ice, land, and sea converge. Data gathered from sediment samples taken from the grounding zone will provide information about the mechanics of ice sheets and help scientists better understand how this might affect Earth’s rising sea levels.
EAD designed and built the control system for the hot water drill. All instrumentation was specified and mounted in shipping containers sent directly to the drilling site. An EAD controls engineer was on site as part of the operations team to see the drill through the crucial testing phase on the ice shelf near McMurdo Station, Antarctica.
Profile
Client: University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Location: Antarctica
Market(s) Served: Education, environmental Science
Services
- Project Management
- Construction
- Engineering
- Automation
Antarctica Hot Water Drill
