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In 1994 a group of 14 scientists and a representative from the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs met in Houston, Texas, for a two day workshop to discuss scientific questions that could be addressed by shallow drilling on the Antarctic continental shelf. The participants in the workshop identified a number of important scientific questions but also learned that the technology for sampling the upper few hundred meters of the stratigraphic column was still lacking (Anderson et al., 1994; see also Webb, 1995). The group interested in shallow drilling on the Antarctic shelf remained active and evolved into a working group that now calls itself SHALDRIL. The principle objective of SHALDRIL originally was to monitor technological developments in shallow drilling from conventional ice-breaking research vessels. The technology developed slowly and some promising avenues turned out to be dead ends (see Kristoffersen, 1998, for a history of previous attempts at scientific shallow drilling in the Antarctic and Arctic). In 2000, the SHALDRIL steering committee learned about new and improved drilling systems proven in other high-latitude regions that can core strata including gravelly glacial deposits, in water depths of several hundred meters to subbottom depths of a few hundred meters. These systems can be operated from the NSF research vessel RV/IB Nathaniel B. Palmer.

We have now entered the next phase of this long-term project, i.e., testing this drilling technology in Antarctic waters. The area best suited for this phase of the program is the James Ross Basin, located in the northwestern Weddell Sea region, offshore of Seymour Island. This is the area identified by the Houston workshop participants as having shallow drilling targets of great scientific value, existing site survey data, closest proximity to ports of departure and return, and proximity to auxiliary sites of scientific value.