The Antarctic Drilling Program (ANDRILL) is an international research program supported by four nations: the United States, New Zealand, Italy, and Germany. Scientists from these four nations are present here on the ice. A small group is stationed at the drillsite, but the majority is working in the Crary Laboratory at McMurdo Station on various aspects of the science. Our goal is to answer a question that has been debated for more than 20 years now: has the East Antarctic ice sheet, the largest on Earth, been a stable polar ice sheet for the past 14 million years, or did it become more dynamic more recently in response to climate warming. We are interested in learning how the ice sheet responded during well-documented intervals of warming in the past, comparable to what is predicted for the future. Currently, drilling has progressed to almost 200 meters below the seafloor and we have seen changes in the influence of glacial ice through time.
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