Antarctic Field Work – McMurdo Ice Shelf – 2025/2026

Expedition Location: McMurdo Ice Shelf, Antarctica

Expedition Dates: Dec. 2025 – Jan. 2026

Field Team Members: Ryan Cassotto, UMaine; Allie Berry, UMaine PhD Graduate Student; Ali Banwell, U Colorado; Michela Savignano, U Colorado PhD Graduate Student

Funding Support: National Science Foundation

In December 2025, we started fieldwork on an NSF-funded project to study the Ice Rumple Zone of the McMurdo Ice Shelf, Antarctica. The Rumple Zone is a compressive region of the ice shelf characterized by undulating ice. Over the next several weeks, we will perform Terrestrial Radar Interferometry (TRI), Autonomous Phase-sensitive Radio Echo Sound (ApRES), and Ice Penetrating Radar (IPR) to characterize the surface, englacial, and subsurface of the McMurdo Ice Shelf in this region. We will compliment these measurements with observations from Automatic Weather Stations (AWS), Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS; aka GPS), seismometers, and time-lapse camera observations to fully characterize dynamic variations within the Rumple Zone. Follow along here for a summary of our work.

https://www.rkcassotto.com/field-blog/Blog%20Post%20Title%20One-3zaa9-zlxng-67tfc-82gyh