May 24, 2024

Drilling a second core

The second core of the season, similar to the first one, but quite a bit longer.


In the trench the drillers re-mounted the ice core drill today, and placed 200 g of frozen pure glycol in the chips chamber. The drill was then lowered into the bore hole for some hours of temperature equilibration. In the evening, a new attempt at drilling was made, and this time around a 1-meter core was produced, somewhat similar to the first short one we got days ago. Maybe the second core was a more recently refrozen mix of liquid, water, glycol and sediment. At least the core contained a cavity in the lower part. On the surface Sverrir, continued his efforts of getting rid of a winter’s worth of snow drifts around the permanent structures in camp, gradually levelling out the camp surroundings.
Today we also had the final two shuttle missions to the Greendrill remote camp at the Winkie site, and the final mission included not only cargo, but also the two last members of the Greendrill team: Jeff and Tanner. Hence it was time to say goodbye at the plane! It has been a pleasure to host the Greendrill crew here at EGRIP, and we wish them all the best in their endeavour to collect precious rock and ice material near a nunatak in NE Greenland. The final Twin Otter mission did, however, also return Zoe from Greendrill to EGRIP, as her radar campaign at the site was only scheduled to last a few days, so also a “hello, good to see you again!” today, even though Zoe and the Twin Otter will depart for Upernavik already tomorrow, weather permitting.

What we did today:

  1. Went back to deploying the ice core drill.
  2. Drilled a 1-meter core.
  3. Continued preparations for our intermediate depth drill system in white garage.
  4. Received, refueled and loaded Greendrill cargo on the Twin Otter two times, end of shuttle missions.
  5. Continued leveling snowdrifts in camp.

Weather today: Sunny and temperatures from -33°C to -21°C. Wind: Turning from SW to S, wind speed 6-13 kts. Visibility: Unrestricted.


FL, Bo M. Vinther

Left: Dorthe and Steff keenly awaiting what the drill has surfaced this time around.
Right: The cavity can be seen in the upper part of the ice cross section, looking from the core bottom.

A small group of EGRIP camp members saying goodbye to the final two Greendrill colleagues, as they board the Twin Otter.