Amery Ice Shelf Loose Tooth Monitoring 2005-2006
For a couple weeks we were camped next door to the AMISOR drilling team. They used hot water to drill a hole through the shelf, and then placed sensors all the way down from the surface to the seafloor. These sensors are now continuously measuring temperature and water flow. By definition, an ice shelf floats on water while still attached to the main Antarctic ice cap along some of its edges. At that drilling site the ice shelf is 726 meters thick (which equals 2380 ft, about half a mile!) and the water beneath it is almost as deep as the ice is thick. There's Joel Pedro, an Australian Antarctic Division research scientist, keeping an eye on the drilling equipment. AMISOR were good neighbors; we all enjoyed a big Christmas dinner together in their kitchen tent.
