MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Antarctic project to unveil climate secrets

A scientific Antarctic sea bed sediments project with the purpose of unveiling global climate secrets of the past was undertaken this season by the United States icebreaker “Nathaniel Palmer” which called in Punta Arenas after three years absence.

After operating from New Zealand the US icebreaker is back in Punta Arenas from where it will continue operations with several projects for the US National Endowment for Science.

The current Antarctic sea bed sediment extraction includes samples taken in the Anvers island area (north of Palmer Base). The project is identified as Superficial Drilling in the Antarctic Continent Margins and is one of the costlier ever undertaken by the "Nathaniel Palmer", reported Ashley Lowe head of marine projects.

"During 24 days the vessel drilled the sea bed searching for superficial rocks sediments up to a depth of 200 metres", said Ms. Lowe.

The icebreaker is equipped with a special drilling structure on deck which enables it to extract the samples.

"These samples should help to find out what happened with the compacted ice on the sea bed following the last glacier era and thus giving us clues of the weather conditions between 10,000 and millions of years ago", indicated Ms. Lowe.

The second phase of the project is scheduled for February 2006, with the icebreaker operating from Punta Arenas and surveying more strategic geographic points, some of which couldn't be accomplished this season because of the ice.

The superficial drilling of the Antarctic continent margins is a project proposed by US scientist John Anderson, head of the Rice University Research Lab in Houston Texas dating back fourteen years but only started two and a half years ago because of lack of funds and the necessary infrastructure.