In 2009, U.S researchers conducted the second field season of a deep-ice coring project in West Antarctica in order to study climate, ice sheet history and cryobiology. This project is collecting a deep-ice core from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) and integrates approximately 20 separate projects that will analyze the ice. Ultimately, the WAIS Divide project will develop climate records with an absolute, annual-layer-counted chronology of the last 40,000 years.