Hot-water drill set for Antarctic expedition
Print Edition
CHINA has completed the fourth stage of tests on its first hot-water drill, which will be used for research in the Antarctic.
The drill, which uses pressurized hot water to melt and bore into the ice, is capable of drilling 1,500 meters into the Antarctic ice, an assessment panel announced after an on-site review at Jilin University in northeast China’s Jilin Province.
“The drill will be invaluable to China’s Antarctic scientific exploration,” said Zhao Yue, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences.
The panel have agreed to further testing with the equipment to be used during China’s 34th Antarctic expedition in November.
Once it passes the Antarctic test, China will be the third country to have mastered hot water drilling deeper than 1,000 meters after the United States and Australia.
“Our drill can go deeper than the Australian one, and has more functions than the American one,” said Li Yuansheng, a researcher with Polar Research Institute of China.
Li said drilling helps with the detection of ice shelves, the floating ice platforms between glaciers and the ocean surface, and will increase understanding of how ice shelves affect the ocean, especially given global warming.
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