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Drilling Down

January 10, 2019

MIT-WHOI Joint Program student Matthew Osman (left) and U.S. Ice Drilling Program driller Mike Waszkiewicz move an ice core barrel into place during a storm in West Greenland. Osman and Waszkiewicz were part of a team led by WHOI geologist Sarah Das investigating the history of surface melting across Greenland’s mile-thick ice sheet. According to a paper published by the team in late 2018, melt began increasing in the mid-19th century and then ramped up dramatically during the 20th and early 21st centuries, showing no signs of abating. The study provides new evidence of the impacts of climate change on Arctic melting and global sea level rise. (Photo by Sarah Das, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)