A final note (for now) on the expedition to recover ice cores from the top of Puncak Jaya in Papua, Indonesia: the cores arrived safely on Thursday, July 22, at Ohio State University’s Byrd Polar Research Center, and are now in a special freezer. In coming months, the team hopes to extract and interpret climatic histories from them.
In summary, we successfully recovered three ice cores from two peak locations at the Northwall Firn glacier, from June 9 to 23, 2010. At the Puncak Sumantri peak, we drilled to bedrock, recovering two cores 30 meters long each. At the Puncak Soekarno peak, we recovered 26 meters of ice, but we had to stop before reaching the bedrock, due to time constraints.
In addition to the difficult terrain, the other challenge turned out to be the weather, which underwent extreme, unpredictable changes in short times. We saw cold at night (as low as minus 14 degrees C) go to bright sun in the morning (2 to 8 degrees C), then to foggy conditions and torrential rain. Unpredictable high winds and lightning were also big concerns; in fact, more than one of our tents toppled due to high winds. During our two weeks on the ice, we saw snow four times, covering 3-5 inches each time. However, due to daily rainfall and above-freezing temperatures, the snow melted away in less than a day. Due to the high rainfall and above-freezing temperatures during the day, these glaciers are in fast retreat.
I am happy that I was able to camp safely on the ice for over a week–a lifetime achievement for me, as I usually work at sea level.
