Date

Town Hall Meeting Announcement
Antarctic Scientific Drilling: Long-range Science Planning
AGU 2008 Fall Meeting
Moscone West, Room 2003
Thursday, 18 December 2008, from 6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

For further information, please contact:
Frank R. Rack
ANDRILL Science Management Office
Email: frack2 [at] unl.edu


An AGU Town Hall meeting entitled "Antarctic Scientific Drilling:
Long-range Science Planning" will be held from 6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. on
Thursday, 18 December 2008, in Moscone West, Room 2003.

This town hall meeting will be co-hosted by the ANDRILL Science
Management Office, SCAR-Antarctic Climate Evolution, and the "AURORA
BOREALIS" Project Office at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and
Marine Research.

The importance of understanding the long-term response of the Southern
Hemisphere cryosphere-ocean-atmosphere systems to climate change
requires high-quality continuous paleorecords provided by sediment cores
recovered from around Antarctica and under the ice. Due to the long
planning horizons and intense logistical requirements for conducting
scientific drilling in these remote regions of the world, strategic
coordination of activities is required along with proposal pressure from
the community. This town meeting is meant to highlight recent successes
and future plans involving SCAR, ANDRILL, SHALDRIL, IODP, ICDP, WAIS,
ROSSMAP, and other initiatives, and to discuss opportunities for
community involvement in developing an integrated Antarctic scientific
drilling plan.

Organizers hope to encourage planning activities that demonstrate
Antarctic community interest in future drilling science. The hope is
that these planning activities inform international discussions that
will take place in 2009. These discussions will include: the SCAR-ACE
Symposium (September 7-11, 2009 in Granada, Spain), the WAIS workshop in
Sterling, VA (mid-September, 2009), and the IODP INVEST workshop
(September 23-25, 2009 in Bremen, Germany).

For further information, please contact:
Frank R. Rack
ANDRILL Science Management Office
Email: frack2 [at] unl.edu