ANDRILL project to be featured on NBC Nightly News, 'Today'

Released on 10/31/2007, at 2:00 AM
Office of University Communications
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Lincoln, Neb., October 31st, 2007 —

The Antarctic Geological Drilling (ANDRILL) Program will be in the national spotlight next week when the "Today" show and NBC News report on a visit by reporter Anne Curry and her camera crew to McMurdo Station and ANDRILL'S Southern McMurdo Sound Project.

"The good news is that ANDRILL is a huge piece of the science during the International Polar Year here, and our research will be covered well," said David Harwood, professor of geosciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and co-chief scientist for the Southern McMurdo South Project with Fabio Florindo of Italy's National Institute for Volcanology and Geophysics. "The 'Today' show will produce three live shows from Antarctica. Anne Curry is looking to report on climate change research, and a large focus will be on ANDRILL activities in the Crary Laboratory and at the drill site."

Harwood, Richard Levy, the staff scientist for the ANDRILL Science Management Office at UNL, and Tom Wagner, Earth sciences program director for the National Science Foundation, will spend Nov. 2 with Curry on sea ice at the Southern McMurdo Sound Project drill site and visiting penguins. Nov. 4, Curry and her crew will visit the ANDRILL team in the Crary Lab at McMurdo Station, where they will learn about climate stories hidden in the rock cores recovered by the ANDRILL team this year.

It is always difficult to predict in advance when specific news stories will be broadcast, but the ANDRILL story will likely be presented in pieces throughout the three days of live broadcast. The live shows will be in the windows of 7-10 a.m. Nov. 5 and 6 for Today show and 5:30-6 p.m. Nov. 6 for NBC Nightly News. (all times CST).

ANDRILL is a multinational collaboration involving more than 150 scientists from Germany, Italy, New Zealand and the United States. Its purpose is to recover sediment core samples from the McMurdo Sound region of Antarctica to develop a detailed history of the Antarctic climate and the expansion and contraction of Antarctica's ice sheets and ice shelves over the past 20 million years. Operations and logistics for ANDRILL are managed by Antarctica New Zealand. Scientific research, education and outreach, and media efforts are administered and coordinated through the ANDRILL Science Management Office, Frank Rack, executive director, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. For more information, visit http://andrill.org.

CONTACT: Tom Simons, University Communications, (402) 472-8514