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   from the issue of October 4, 2007

     
 
Couple to serve on ANDRILL teams

 BY TROY FEDDERSON, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

The husband and wife research team of Chris Fielding and Tracy Frank will take part in ANDRILL's Southern McMurdo Sound Project. Both are professors of geosciences at UNL.


ANDRILL SCIENTISTS - UNL's Chris Fielding and Tracy Frank, both professors of geosciences, will assist with ANDRILL research this season. Courtesy...
 
ANDRILL SCIENTISTS - UNL's Chris Fielding and Tracy Frank, both professors of geosciences, will assist with ANDRILL research this season. Courtesy photo

 
Fielding is a sedimentologist who specializes in particulate sediments like the sandstones and shale expected to be recovered in the drilling project.

He will lead a team that records the types of sediments found in each 12-meter drill core.

"Our job is to log what we see in the core," Fielding said. "We will be finding some pretty exciting things, testing the major question of when Antarctica started to become really cold."

This will mark Fielding's fifth season in Antarctica. A Scotland native, Fielding lived in Australia for a number of years, working on Cape Roberts projects with the University of Queensland.

"I was last there 10 years ago," Fielding said. "And, in 1989 I spent five weeks in the field."

Frank is a geochemist who will study pore water extracted from ANDRILL core samples.

She will work mainly with carbonate rocks like limestone, using a piston-driven machine to squeeze the water from the sediments.

"I will be analyzing the pore water to chase melt water pulses," Frank said. "Sometimes it will be ancient seawater, sometimes it will be ancient melt water, and other times it will be a mixture of the two."

The research will track glacial melt water patterns across the continental shelf.

Frank will be the only geochemist studying pore water.

This is her first trip to Antarctica. One thing she is looking forward to is Happy Camper School - a cold weather survival course everyone must take.

"We'll be out building a survival dwelling of some sort, sleeping on the ice shelf overnight," Frank said. "It will give us a taste of what survival in Antarctica is actually like. I'm actually looking forward to that."

While Fielding had yet to begin packing, Frank was ready to go on Sept. 28. They left Oct. 1 and Frank said she was eager to get started - well, after quick purchase in New Zealand.

"We need to buy some coffee while we're in New Zealand," Frank said. "It doesn't matter if I'm here in Nebraska or in Antarctica, I have to have a nice cup of coffee to get me going in the morning."


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