June 15, 2018

A camp full of activity

Our camp mascots.


The deep drilling produced an impressive 24.5 m of long ice cores of excellent quality today. In a few days, the main processing line will reach 900 m depth, the final depth of last years’ drilling. Then we will make a break in the processing and intensify the ice core logging in order to allow the logging to catch up with the drilling. Currently, the newly drilled ice cores that are waiting to be logged are stored in 3.5 m long core troughs that are not well suited for storage in the ice core buffer. We need to get rid of those troughs and get the logging back in line with the drilling. The firn drilling also had good progress today with three sampling depths. At 28.8 m depth the firn core contains a 3 cm thick melt layer that we believe is related to the all-over-northern Greenland extremely warm summer of 1889 AD. During the day, there was the possibility to inspect the portable camp of our Norwegian visitors, and in the evening our guests gave a fascinating presentation about their incredible journey and its historical context. The last couple of days we have had two geese camping in camp. Several people have suggested to feed the birds, but for different reasons. Either in order to enable the birds to continue their journey, or, alternatively, to make the birds fit for next weeks’ Saturday night dinner (in case they would freeze to death, that is).

What we did today:

  1. Deep drilling 24.51 m. Drillers’ depth 1126.89 m
  2. Firn gas drilling sampling to depth 33.0 m
  3. Ice core processing bags 1526 – 1565, final depth: 860.75 m
  4. Measurements in isotope laboratory, final depth: 612.15 m
  5. Measurements in physical properties laboratory, final depth 757.35 m
  6. Logging and cutting of this years’ brittle ice 940.90-954.62 m
  7. Water vapour sampling and measuring.
  8. Constructing small hill for heavy vehicle maintenance
  9. Reorganizing ice core buffer

Weather: Varying conditions from overcast during the day to few broken clouds in the evening. Temp. -14 °C to -22 °C. Wind: 2-12 kt from N. Visibility: Mostly good, but varying.

FL, Anders Svensson

Camilla logging the firn core with the 3 cm thick AD 1889 melt layer.