Source: Sunday Star Times / The Post
When a NZ-led team travelled to the far reaches of the Ross Ice Shelf seeking geological records critical for forecasting future sea-level rise, Ana Tovey was along for the ride to document the mammoth task. As the team gears up for a third attempt at obtaining vital sediment core, Tovey recounts the grit and determination behind the world-leading Antarctic research.
Analyses will help to reveal how far the West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreated in the past — and what it might do in the future.
Scientists have just got their hands on a 228-metre (748-foot) core sample from the muddy bedrock beneath West Antarctica’s chunky ice sheets. Inside the record-breaking sample, they discovered fossils of marine organisms that date from a time when this area was an open, ice-free ocean.