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Buoyed by Ice

A specialized bulldozer (aka the “Piston Bully”) pulls a shipping container mounted on skis the “Thunder Sled” across the ice cover of Antarctica’s Ross Sea in the middle of a December 2006 night. (Yes, night!)  Mooring equipment, ice melting equipment, food, and camping supplies were towed onto the ice for the deployment of a moored buoy designed by WHOI Senior Research Specialist Richard Limeburner.  The research team is attempting to measure and understand the ocean currents swirling beneath the ice shelf as part of the multinational ANDRILL project. ANDRILL is one of hundreds of Arctic and Antarctic research and outreach projects that make up the International Polar Year, which begins today. (Photo by Sean Whelan, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)