search articles:     from the issue of September 8, 2005           $13 million international drilling effort led by Husker researchers UNL heads back to Antarctica A $12.9 million grant will be sending UNL researchers and students south for the winter.     UNL geoscientist David Harwood discusses the ANDRILL grant award during the Aug. 9 announcement. Harwood leads the ANDRILL Science Management Office, headquartered at UNL. However, the Husker snowbirds - led by UNL's David Harwood and Richard Levy - will be bundling up as they join an international effort in to probe geological strata buried beneath a frozen sea in Antarctica. Using a specially designed drilling rig - partially owned by UNL - a consortium of five U.S. universities and scientists from New Zealand, Italy and Germany will probe deeper than ever before, collecting core samples in order to help scientists better understand global warming trends. Dubbed ANDRILL - short for ANarctic geological DRILLing - the project will be a focal point during International Polar Year (2007-09), a worldwide campaign of polar education and analyses. "Rather than finding solutions and answers to Antarctica's role in global climate change, this research will help us to define what questions we should be asking," said Harwood during the Aug. 9 announcement. "The information we gather will lead to the next generation of geological researchers." Awarded by the National Science Foundation, the grant will be dispersed over five years and administered by the ANDRILL Science Management Office, headquartered at UNL and led by Harwood. In all, ANDRILL is backed by more than $30 million in funding, including $9.7 million in previous and ongoing national agreements to support operations and nearly $8 million from the other countries to support scientific research. UNL and Northern Illinois University have taken the project lead. Joined by the international scientists, the consortium includes Florida State University, Ohio State University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In October and November of 2006 and 2007, ANDRILL scientists will use the new drilling system to recover rock cores from the seabed in the McMurdo Sound area of the Ross Sea, using floating ice as a drilling platform. By studying the cores, scientists in Antarctica and around the world will be able to develop a detailed history of the Antarctic climate and the expansion and contraction of the area's ice sheets over the past 20 million years. "Drilling for a sedimentary history of climate change adjacent to the Earth's largest ice sheet will reveal a lot about how the Antarctic region responded in the past, and may respond in the future, to climate perturbations like global warming," Harwood said. "A team of 100 international scientists will work to establish how fast, how frequent, and how large were the past changes in the Antarctic ice sheet. The past will reveal much about the future and Antarctica's role in the global climate machine, which affects all of us."   Sediment cores, like those pictured here, will be gathered in Antartica by the ANDRILL team. Information from the cores is expected to help provide scientists a better understanding of global warming trends.   The ANDRILL Science Management Office opened at UNL in 2002, soon after the completion of its predecessor, the Cape Roberts Project (1995-2000) in the western Ross Sea. Also in 2002, Harwood and Powell secured a $1 million grant from NSF to help build the drilling system. GO TO: ISSUE OF SEPTEMBER 8 NEWS HEADLINES FOR SEPTEMBER 8 Kooser's verse draws accolades External research dollars hit record level Year in Review $2 million grant puts UNL into international physics experiment Headlines tout campus successes IANR scientists in top-20 worldwide for article citations iDiverse to develop stress resistant crops ITLE grants bolster teaching Master plan moves closer to completion Rankings place UNL among America's best - Academic workplace in top 10 Rankings place UNL among America's best - University rates in top 50 nationwide Rural poll marks decade of insight Scientists break into Discover's top 100 list Soy oil research helps shape food allergen labeling rules Team wins $3 million DoD grant Undergrads experience research firsthand UNL heads back to Antarctica UNL, UNMC create surgical tool 732197S34885X