The Inaugural SHALDRIL Expedition to the Weddell Sea, Antarctica

Abstract

Introduction In 1994, a group of scientists began discussing a number of important scientific questions that could be addressed by drilling a series of short cores on the Antarctic continental shelf. The group adopted the name SHALDRIL, for SHALlow DRILling, and soon learned that the technology for high-quality sampling of the upper few hundred metersof the stratigraphic column was still lacking.After more than a decade of discussion and several years of detailed planning, SHALDRIL sailed from Punta Arenas, Chile, in March 2005. The objectives of this first SHALDRIL cruise are to demonstrate the feasibility of drilling from an icebreaker platform into the Antarctic continental shelf and to obtain cores from three different sedimentary sequences that previously have not been sampled.The principal objective of SHALDRIL originally was to monitor technological developments in shallow drilling from conventional icebreaking research vessels. In 2000, the SHALDRIL steering committee learned about new and improved drilling systems that can core through gravelly glacial deposits in water depths of several hundred meters and to subbottom depths of a few hundred meters(SHALDRIL Steering Committee, 2001). These systems can be operated from the icebreaking research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer (Fig. 1); thus, the long-term project has now entered the next phase of testing this proven drilling technology aboard a U. S. Antarctic Program vessel.

Keywords

• SHALDRIL