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Ice core drilling

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Parent Category: Travel
Published on Wednesday, 16 November 2005 00:00
Written by Svend Gundestrup

Icecore drilling

-Why do people start to drill in ice, and when did it start
Index:
Background
Startup
What you find
The result
Background:
Back in the cold war days when the war was close to getting warm.
USA started to have radar stations in Greenland, that could detect Russian missile before they hit USA, enabling USA to have enough time to strike back.
That was not fun enough, so USA made a secret base, buried under the inland ice east of Thule. The idea was to dig tunnels, the Russians couldn't see, and move atomic warheads around under the ice.
They had a nuclear reactor to provide power. It was a city under the ice, just as in StarWars.
Startup:
With these facilities, the USA started a classified drilling through the ice, with a new type of drill.
Later Willi Dansgaard developed the technology to date the ice, and see that the temperature of the snowfall. With that tool, you would be able to se the difference between winter and summer. That enabled you to count the years, and there by finding the age, just like you do in with trees and annual rings.
What did you find
When you have the ice age, then it would be smart to the chemical composition of the ice. With these information's you have a lot of knowledge about the climate, and how it has evolved over the last more then 100.000years.
The result
The climatic models can be tested with a known climatic record of more then 100.000years. This will make better more accurate models, to predict how the climate will progress in the future.

Additional information