May 22, 2017

We drill ice cores

Bo, Trevor, Dennis and Steffen proudly present the first 2017 EGRIP Main ice core.

The great news on this beautiful day is from the drill trench. In the afternoon drillers finished cleaning the hole for all the ice chips that have fallen to the bottom during the reaming operation. The last chips came up with a short piece of ice core. Fluid was added, and the drillers made a successful run retrieving a 1.5 m core of good quality.

Another good thing was that the freezer system is now installed and running and that the core extraction freezer has been successfully modified and completed. On the surface, many science projects are running, and a work gang prepared cargo to go out to Kangerlussuaq on the plane tomorrow. Tomorrow, we will say goodbye to 7 people and hello to 6. At dinner tonight, the good news from the drill trench was met by applause.

What we did today:

1. Groomed skiway, taxiways and apron.
2. Building two pallets of retro cargo.
3. Drilled bottom piece of 2016 hole and a 1.5 m new core in drilling fluid.
4. The active cooling system for the ice core extraction freezer is now in operation.
5. Installing infrastructure in science trench.
6. German snow sampling.
7. Japanese aerosol sampling and snow experiments.
8. Water vapour sampling, methane sampling, boundary layer and meteorology station working.
9. Work on the “egg” project.

Ad.3: Drillers depth: 107.92 m. Logging depth (end 2016): 117.5 m. New logging depth: 119.36 m

Weather today: Sunshine. Temp. -18°C to -27°C. Wind: calm - 10 kt from WSW. Visibility: To horizon.

FL, J.P. Steffensen