This project is an international collaboration among Australian, French, and Italian scientists within the SCAR-ITASE program. The EAIIST project aims to study the largely unexplored interior of the Antarctic plateau, focusing on areas between the French-Italian Concordia station at Dome C and the megadune region, about 680 km apart. Its primary scientific goals are to investigate surface morphological features that may resemble glacial conditions, surface mass balance, and the effects of very low, variable accumulation rates on snow and boundary layer chemistry. The project explores the geophysical, geochemical, and meteorological aspects of these remote, extreme environments. The traverse, conducted between Nov 2019 and Jan 2020, involved collecting 18 firn-ice cores up to 180 m deep, totaling around 900 m of cores, along with high-resolution snowpits and 1 m cores every 25 km. Equipment deployed included seismic stations, automatic weather stations, snow stations, and GNSS points, with continuous data collection via snow radar, stereo imaging, and surveys over 1130 km. The initial field campaign was supported by PNRA in 2018-2019. The current phase, “EAIIST-phase 2,” aims to analyze the samples and data gathered, expanding the understanding of these unique Antarctic landscapes through international collaboration.
Reference Site
https://www.pnra.aq/it/project/717/east-antarctic-international-ice-sheet-traverse
https://www.ige-grenoble.fr/EAIIST-project-a-scientific-raid
Project partners
- University Roma Tre PI of the Project
- University of Florence
- Ca' Foscari University of Venice
- Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia
- Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna
- Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
UNIBO research team
DICAM research areas
Geomatica