If you go ...
Albany resident Dennis Duling visited Borneo on his way back from Antarctica this winter. He will give a presentation on his trip at today's Albany Historical Society meeting.
• When: 7 p.m. today
• Where: 119 N. Water St., Albany
MONROE - Like many people who live in northern places, Albany resident Dennis Duling goes south during the winter.
In fact, during the winter, Duling goes as far south as he can.
Since 1999, Duling has worked on various drilling projects in Antarctica, most recently returning from a two-month excursion drilling into subglacial lakes earlier this year.
Duling is the lead driller for a Montana State University project called SALSA: Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access. The three-year project drills into two lakes located more than 4,000 feet beneath Antarctic ice sheets so samples can be taken.
"It's an exploration for life," Duling said.
The project will determine, among other things, whether life can exist in the extreme environments beneath the ice, which may indicate the possibility of life in extraterrestrial environments such as Saturn's moon Europa, a world of ice long thought to possibly be capable of supporting life.
Duling was also a part of an earlier subglacial drilling project called WISSARD (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling) in 2013, which drilled 2,600 feet into Lake Whillans, another subglacial lake. Samples from the lake found bacterial life, Duling said.
The WISSARD team was the first in the world to drill into subglacial lakes, Duling said.
Conventional drilling processes are impossible, as they would introduce contaminants to the ecosystem of the lake. Instead, Antarctic drilling utilizes hot water drills, which use pressurized jets of boiling water to carve meter-wide holes into the ice.
"It takes a long time," Duling said. "It's a matter of days, not hours."
A similar drill was used to construct the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a University of Wisconsin-Madison project with which Duling was also involved from 2006 to 2010.
That project required the drilling of 86 holes in the ice to be filled with more than 5,000 sensors that comprise a cubic kilometer beneath the ice. The sensors can detect the collisions of subatomic particles called neutrinos with the ice, allowing scientists to measure the neutrinos' trajectory to determine their origins.
Duling said he would return to Antarctica in October for another season with SALSA, setting up the water drill.
"We actually haven't started drilling yet," Duling said. "We're not actually drilling until the 2018-2019 season."
The drill is only operable during the Antarctic winter, when perpetual daylight allows it to be operated nonstop. If the drill stops running, then the water would freeze in the pipes, damaging the machine, Duling said.
"Still, it's a lot warmer than people would think," Duling said, adding that the temperature in Antarctica was consistently around 28 to 35 degrees while he was there.
But after nearly two decades on the ice, Duling said he was considering retiring.
"I don't want to be the oldest guy out there," the 62-year-old Duling said. "I think something like two to five more years and I'm out."
Duling said he had a taste of warmer climes after his last trip to Antarctica. That's when he took a 17-day vacation to Borneo.
"It's a whole different world," Duling said. "The Equator is hot, there's no wind, and it rains all the time. But it's beautiful."
Still, Duling said after his retirement, he would live in Albany.
"I mean, how can you beat southern Wisconsin?" he said.
In fact, during the winter, Duling goes as far south as he can.
Since 1999, Duling has worked on various drilling projects in Antarctica, most recently returning from a two-month excursion drilling into subglacial lakes earlier this year.
Duling is the lead driller for a Montana State University project called SALSA: Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access. The three-year project drills into two lakes located more than 4,000 feet beneath Antarctic ice sheets so samples can be taken.
"It's an exploration for life," Duling said.
The project will determine, among other things, whether life can exist in the extreme environments beneath the ice, which may indicate the possibility of life in extraterrestrial environments such as Saturn's moon Europa, a world of ice long thought to possibly be capable of supporting life.
Duling was also a part of an earlier subglacial drilling project called WISSARD (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling) in 2013, which drilled 2,600 feet into Lake Whillans, another subglacial lake. Samples from the lake found bacterial life, Duling said.
The WISSARD team was the first in the world to drill into subglacial lakes, Duling said.
Conventional drilling processes are impossible, as they would introduce contaminants to the ecosystem of the lake. Instead, Antarctic drilling utilizes hot water drills, which use pressurized jets of boiling water to carve meter-wide holes into the ice.
"It takes a long time," Duling said. "It's a matter of days, not hours."
A similar drill was used to construct the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a University of Wisconsin-Madison project with which Duling was also involved from 2006 to 2010.
That project required the drilling of 86 holes in the ice to be filled with more than 5,000 sensors that comprise a cubic kilometer beneath the ice. The sensors can detect the collisions of subatomic particles called neutrinos with the ice, allowing scientists to measure the neutrinos' trajectory to determine their origins.
Duling said he would return to Antarctica in October for another season with SALSA, setting up the water drill.
"We actually haven't started drilling yet," Duling said. "We're not actually drilling until the 2018-2019 season."
The drill is only operable during the Antarctic winter, when perpetual daylight allows it to be operated nonstop. If the drill stops running, then the water would freeze in the pipes, damaging the machine, Duling said.
"Still, it's a lot warmer than people would think," Duling said, adding that the temperature in Antarctica was consistently around 28 to 35 degrees while he was there.
But after nearly two decades on the ice, Duling said he was considering retiring.
"I don't want to be the oldest guy out there," the 62-year-old Duling said. "I think something like two to five more years and I'm out."
Duling said he had a taste of warmer climes after his last trip to Antarctica. That's when he took a 17-day vacation to Borneo.
"It's a whole different world," Duling said. "The Equator is hot, there's no wind, and it rains all the time. But it's beautiful."
Still, Duling said after his retirement, he would live in Albany.
"I mean, how can you beat southern Wisconsin?" he said.