The main goal of the project is to investigate past and present ice-ocean-sediment interactions in the area of the Hillary Canyon (Eastern Ross Sea) to shed light on the sensitivity of the Antarctic Ice Sheet to projected climatic changes for the next centuries. For this scope we encompass a full range of time scales, from instantaneous/seasonal using a variety of oceanographic measurements (CTD, ADCP, floats, moorings), to recent (multi-corer, multibeam and sub-bottom) and geologic past (seismics tied to IODP boreholes.

The Hillary Canyon area is selected as it is a preferential route for intruding warm water (that enhances ice shelf melting) and exporting dense shelf water (that interacts with the along-slope current). The canyon is located at the mouth of the Glomar Challenger and Pennell basins, two major troughs carved by paleo-ice streams fed by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and transporting a large amount of glacigenic sediment. This region has a very poor data coverage, which is one of the major limiting factors for numerical modelling addressing past and future estimation of sub-ice shelf melting, ice-sheet collapse and sea-level change. We want to build on several ongoing and past national and international activities that our team collaborates on to contribute strengthening the national system.