Shallow ice-core drilling on Styx glacier, northern Victoria Land, Antarctica in the 2014-2015 summer

Abstract

Ice cores are drilled from polar glaciers because they are useful for studying past climate and environment that change through time. We here report on the progress of the first shallow ice-core drilling program of Korea Polar Research Institute since the establishment of the Antarctic Jang Bogo station, the second Antarctic research station of Korea. The drilling was performed on the Styx glacier about 85 km north of the Jang Bogo station in the 2014-2015 summer season, and a 210.5 m long ice core was taken in 300 runs, in 20 days. The age at the bottom of the ice core was estimated to be 1.36 ka based on the depth-density profile and on the temperature at 15 m depth. The drill was stuck at a depth of 104 m but was recovered by using ethanol. The tephra ash layers were observed at depths of 97.01, 99.18 and 165.37 m, whose ages were tentatively estimated to be 0.56, 0.57 and 1.04 ka, respectively. Further study should include in-depth work for the tephra layer ages.