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News Release 15-059

NSF helps move a 'scientific mountain'

Tractor adds its mechanical muscle to relocating a 47-ton research station across the Greenland ice sheet

Tractors towing a Danish research station on the ice sheet in Greenland

Tractors, including one from NSF's Greenland Inland Traverse, tow a Danish research station.


June 3, 2015

This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.

Successful world-class science sometimes requires moving metaphorical mountains. But the National Science Foundation (NSF) recently provided some of the machine muscle to literally move a 47-ton Danish research station across the Greenland ice sheet to the site of a new international deep ice drilling project, in what may be an unprecedented logistical feat.

A tracked vehicle used to support NSF's Greenland Inland Traverse, or GrIT, was one of five tractors that towed the ski-equipped building 465 kilometers (288 miles) to the new site in East Greenland.

Over an eight-day period--from May 18 to 26--the East GReenland Ice core Project (EGRIP) dome and 11 sleds, with a total weight of 150 tons, were moved from the site of the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling project, an international effort in northwest Greenland, to the EGRIP site.

The EGRIP station is now located on the largest ice stream in Greenland to enable learning more about the flow of the ice stream and refine estimates of future sea-level rise.

NSF's GrIT is a 1,400-mile round trip crossing from Thule Air Base in northwest Greenland to supply NSF's Summit Station, which is situated at the peak of the Greenland ice sheet. It is a nearly two-month-long operation to transport thousands of pounds of equipment, fuel and supplies.

The ability to relocate the EGRIP station gives it a decided advantage in the harsh conditions atop the Northern Hemisphere's largest ice sheet, where each year permanent structures are quickly buried under snowfall. The EGRIP buildings, mounted on skis, can be more easily extracted from the snow cover.

Denmark's A.P. Moller Foundation and University of Copenhagen, Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute, Norway's Bjerkness Center and NSF all provided support to the project.

-NSF-

Media Contacts
Peter West, NSF, (703) 292-7530, email: pwest@nsf.gov

Program Contacts
Patrick R Haggerty, NSF, (703) 292-8577, email: phaggert@nsf.gov

The U.S. National Science Foundation propels the nation forward by advancing fundamental research in all fields of science and engineering. NSF supports research and people by providing facilities, instruments and funding to support their ingenuity and sustain the U.S. as a global leader in research and innovation. With a fiscal year 2023 budget of $9.5 billion, NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 40,000 competitive proposals and makes about 11,000 new awards. Those awards include support for cooperative research with industry, Arctic and Antarctic research and operations, and U.S. participation in international scientific efforts.

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