Drilling into 30 million years of Antarctic History

How the Antarctic Ice Sheet formed, then waxed and waned over the last 30 million years - secrets revealed from the drilling programs, 1973 to today.

• Speaker: Emeritus Professor Peter Barrett, Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington

In 1973, Peter Barrett was invited on the first Antarctic offshore drilling ship, Glomar Challenger, to the Ross Sea, to find out when the first Antarctic ice sheet formed. He subsequently worked on four other projects from 1974 to 1999 coring hundreds of metres into the sea floor using a drilling rig on the sea ice in McMurdo Sound. This culminated in the Cape Roberts Project, which involved 55 scientists, and 30 drilling and logistics personnel from 7 countries.

In 1967, Peter discovered the first tetrapod fossils (early vertebrate animals) found in Antarctica.

These projects were milestones in our understanding of Antarctic history over geological timescales. Do join us to hear directly from a pioneer of Antarctic scientific exploration.