July 19, 2023

More rock drilled ‘ice cores’

Steff taking the rock drill apart to get the core out.

The marathon rock drilling continues. Two attempts were made drilling 90 cm and 45 cm. The first 90 cm core probably of water did not come up with the rock drill while the second 45 cm core came up and had laminated layers of basal material. All the core handling is done in orange and red light. It is very interesting that we still observe no shear at all. The whole block of ice is moving as a block over the bed with a velocity of 58 m/yr.
Tomorrow is the last drilling day as the drillers will leave camp with the planned Skier on Friday.

What we did today:

1. No problems with shorts in the electrical connectors at the top of the drill.
2. Drilled a third rock drilled core.
3. Organized all empty drill liquid drums.
4. Documented all ice cores boxes and prepared for shipment to Kangerlussuaq.
5. Packed drill equipment.
6. Enjoyed barbeque in the good weather.
7. Reduced the number of electrical cables and connection boxes on the science trench.
8. Packed boxes with cables, lights and connection boxes from science trench.

Weather today: Groundfog in the early morning. Overcast most of the day. Wind between 0 kt and 7 kt from S turning to WSW. Temperatures between -12°C and -6°C.

FL, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen

Steff, Trevor, Martin and Dorthe watching the computer-controlled rock drill drilling in the drillers cabin.