The team rescuing the outhouses during the short storm: Tim, Søren and Nico.
June 2, 2023
The team rescuing the outhouses during the short storm: Tim, Søren and Nico.
A couple of drill runs failed today, possibly due to a broken safety pin, but one run produced a nice core and we are not worried that the ice is causing the troubles. The plan for the weekend is to log the borehole overnight and do filter runs. We want to be closely monitoring the increasing borehole temperature as we are approaching bedrock. Reaching the pressure melting point of the ice would mean that we are at bedrock. Also, by making repeated logging of the borehole inclination, we should be able to determine if there is any rapid shearing of the borehole taking place. The well-preserved stratigraphy of the ice core shows that so far there has been no folding of the ice even this close to bedrock. The thinning of the annual layers has increased so that we are now drilling back in time at a higher pace. The entire 1,400 year-long cold period preceding GI-23 was covered in just 3.5 m of ice core meaning that each meter of ice core contained about 400 years. This number may change in both directions with climate and thinning, but there is no doubt that we are currently taking large steps back in time for each ice core being brought to surface. Current age estimate of the last processed ice is 107 thousand years.
In the morning, the Twin-Otter crew went to the Greendrill site to pick up the last equipment, then three pallets and four lose load items were made ready for shipment out of EGRIP. Just before lunch, we said goodbye to the Greendrill team and the Twin-Otter as they left for Kangerlussuaq via Ilulissat for a fuel stop. The timing was quite good, because just after lunch the wind picked up and we got southeasterly cross wind on the skiway of 20 kt and gusting up to 26 kt. Those are the highest wind speeds we have had for a month and from an unusual direction with a lot of drift snow passing by. The wind probably also blew all the birds off the ice sheet. Tim, Søren and Nico had to rescue the outhouses that would otherwise have left camp. Fortunately, things calmed down again quickly and, in the evening, it was back to normal, if still a bit windy. A rather unusual pattern.
What we did today:
Weather today: A regular day with an odd storm superimposed in the afternoon. Temperatures -21°C to -9°C. Wind was above 20 kt in the afternoon. Wind started out in W turned SE for the afternoon storm and back W in the evening.
FL, Anders Svensson
Special feature pictures from the Greendrill project at remote field camp "NEGIS" some 300 km NE of EGRIP where the team conducted active reflection seismic experiments, and also ran an EAGER radar system. The Greendrill team: Amanda Willet, Sveinn Sveinsson, Brandon Langan and Sridhar Anandakrishnan.
Special feature pictures from the Greendrill project at remote field camp "NEGIS" some 300 km NE of EGRIP where the team conducted active reflection seismic experiments, and also ran an EAGER radar system. The Greendrill team: Amanda Willet, Sveinn Sveinsson, Brandon Langan and Sridhar Anandakrishnan.
Special feature pictures from the Greendrill project at remote field camp "NEGIS" some 300 km NE of EGRIP where the team conducted active reflection seismic experiments, and also ran an EAGER radar system. The Greendrill team: Amanda Willet, Sveinn Sveinsson, Brandon Langan and Sridhar Anandakrishnan.
Special feature pictures from the Greendrill project at remote field camp "NEGIS" some 300 km NE of EGRIP where the team conducted active reflection seismic experiments, and also ran an EAGER radar system. The Greendrill team: Amanda Willet, Sveinn Sveinsson, Brandon Langan and Sridhar Anandakrishnan.