Alain Hubert, founder of The International Polar Institute, deployed the time capsule in February, 2019 at latitude 70.5700 S, and longitude 23.6086 E, in the Dronning Maud Land region surrounding The Princess Elisabeth Antarctic Station, the world’s first zero-emission scientific station.
http://www.polarfoundation.org/
http://www.antarcticstation.org/
Additional Support: Dr. Bruno Tremblay, climate scientist at McGill University, has provided invaluable insights and resources. Ice velocity data from a 1.5 million year simulation of the Antarctic ice sheet (Pollard and De Conto, 2012; DeConto and Pollard, 2016; Gomez, Pollard and Holland) has been helpful in determining the deployment location to obtain the desired 1000-year time scale.
Time Capsule: The time capsule, donated by RBR, is a Conductivity Temperature Depth (CTD) container, an oceanographic instrument typically used to measure salinity/temperature and depth weighing 1 kg and measuring 40 cm x 6.4 cm. The capsule is designed to sustain a hydrostatic water pressure of 740 m and can float with the letters encapsulated within. If the CTD reaches the ocean, it will become an ocean drifter. Letters to the Future, Antarctica, 2018 and the contributors’ names have been engraved on the capsule.
https://rbr-global.com/
The Princess Elisabeth base is the only zero-emission base on the Antarctic, and runs on solar and wind energy through the use of a micro smart grid, which has lead-acid batteries as well as backup generators. The station is connected to nine wind turbines that stretch out along the Utsteinen ridge.
A glacier is slowly and constantly moving under the force of its own weight, like thick honey. What looks like a static landscape is, in fact, dynamic.
The map shows the speed of ice moving in streams aligned with rock bed topographical features or valleys around Antarctica; the flow speed depends on the slope of the rock bed and surface elevation. The capsule was buried at 1 m depth in the ice at 70.5700 S - 23.6086 E, approximately 100 km away from the coastline (see red dot). From in-situ measurements of the ice velocity, ice will carry the capsule to the ocean in roughly 1000 years. It will likely take 500-600 years to move through the blue region (50k per year) and then slowly make its way through the turquoise and then move through the yellow region in roughly 400 years. Ice velocity data is from Rignot, E., J. Mouginot, and B. Scheuchl. 2017. MEaSUREs InSAR - Based Antarctica Ice Velocity Map, Version 2. Boulder, Colorado USA. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.5067/D7GK8F5J8M8R. [April 30, 2021]. This map was made by Charles Brunette, McGill University for this project.