Greenland alone could cause an additional seven inches of sea level rise by the end of the century. That much melting would swamp New York, deluge Miami and could wipe entire island nations off the map.Almost a decade ago, Schaefer and GreenDrill’s co-director, University at Buffalo geologist Jason Briner, got a rare chance to analyze a rock sample that had been extracted from underneath the thickest part of the Greenland ice sheet.
“Some models say that north Greenland melts a lot” when the planet gets warm, Briner told me. And some models say, ‘No, no, no, north Greenland is really robust — that’s a survivor up there.” Extracting those crucial bedrock samples from underneath the ice took millions of dollars and a team of 12 scientists and engineers. Some, like lead driller Tanner Kuhl of the U.S. ice drilling program, were top experts in their fields. Others, like Balter-Kennedy and University at Buffalo PhD student Caleb Walcott, were promising scientists at the very beginnings of their careers.
Yet during my three days on the ice sheet, I saw just how much determination it takes to work in these harsh conditions. Machines are less effective and break more easily in the cold. Batteries die faster. Every task takes longer, because it has to be done while wearing clumsy gloves or with numb fingers.
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