ICE STREAM C

Ice Stream C is situated in West Antarctica, South of Siple Dome.
Drilling camp coordinates: S 82^o 22' ; W 136^o 24'.

A JPL/Caltech team comprised of Frank Carsey, Lonne Lane, Alberto Behar, Hermann Engelhardt, Robert Ivlev, Ken Manatt, Kobie Boykins, Fabien Nicaise, Kai Zhu, and Robin Bolsey designed and built a borehole camera system. A pressure vessel contained two cameras, a down- and a side-looking camera. It was deployed on a fiber-optical, Kevlar reinforced cable into several water filled 17 cm diameter boreholes that have been drilled with the hot-water drilling method at four drill sites, one near camp, 1.4 km, 3.5 km, and 7.2 km South from camp across Ice Stream C. The boreholes were between 1000 m and 1200 m deep. Borehole videos are found on the Drill Site 3 web site.

The most important RESULTS are summarized in a recent Caltech/JPL-NSF/NASA Press Release.

The significance of this discovery for planetary exploration is summarized in a JPL/CALTECH PRESS RELEASE.

The BBC London featured our new results in the Science News section.

Ice Stream C is flowing from East to West. The surface velocity near our boreholes was measured along two profiles using repeat GPS positioning, Bjorn Johns and Charles Kurnik from UNAVCO assisting: The velocity at the camp site in the middle of a "sticky spot" is 2 m/year, at the 7.2 km site in the middle of the ice stream it is 15 m/year.

The temperature of the ice stream from top to bottom has been measured by inserting thermistor strings into the boreholes and letting them freeze in. Temperature equilibration requires time. Preliminary results will soon be available for the sticky spot boreholes temperature.

ICE TEAM PICTURES show the participants in field work and camp support on Ice Stream C: Shulamit (Shul) Gordon, Regina Sterr, Michele (Bubi) Koppes, Katherine (Kate) Batten, Barclay Kamb, Robin Bolsey, Matt Bachmann, Alberto Behar, Daniel (Dan) Abrams, Stefan Vogel, Sarah Gundlach, Sarah Harvey, Alex Papasavas,, Jim (Pic) Evans, Richard (Ritchie) Grillo, and Hermann Engelhardt.

Thanks to their devoted team spirit a difficult job could be done and the field work turned into a great success with important scientific results. Thanks to all who worked in front and behind the scenes of this project.