July 4, 2022

Excavations in science trench

Grant, Søren and Romain working on the cable guiding system of the winch.

After weeks and weeks of chain saw cutting and ice block moving in the drill trench that part is now done. The mining has now moved into the science trench that needs to be made ready for receiving ice cores.
Fortunately, the job is somewhat easier there, because it mainly is the ice roof that needs to be lifted and it is not necessary to climb on ladders or work in narrow cages. There was so much enthusiasm about chain sawing that the entire science trench has been expanded enough that it I possible to walk upright from one end to the other. This is important because we need to carry the 1.65 m long ice cores between the different saws and instruments without constantly banging the head into the roof or get chilly ice crystals down the neck. The drillers now started looking into the winch that needs to have new cable spooled on.
After dinner, our American participants celebrated the 4th of July with an Arctic photo next to the US flag on the flag line.

What we did today:

1. Mounted drill liquid collecting trays in the inclined trench.
2. Worked on the cable guiding system of the winch.
3. Cut many snow blocks from the roof of the science trench.
4. Filled and emptied the large sledge with ice blocks 2.5 times.
5. Drilled at the German shallow drill site. Depth: 48 m.
6. Made 25 km measurement with the EGRIP radar in NE direction.
7. Performed drone flights when weather permitted.
8. Finished calibration of borehole logger.

Weather today: Overcast all day, but clouds lifted from 1000 to 7000 feet during the day. Temp. -11°C to -9°C. Wind: 2-10 kt from NW until 15h Local, then from ESE.

FL, Anders Svensson

Snow blocks from roof-cutting are piling up of the floor of the science trench. Michael and Tamara are chain saw cutters.

Laura cutting ice blocks from the door between science trench and ice core buffer.