Monday 24th June 2024

Casing completed and final ApRES pickup

An access point to the bedrock of the Greenland ice sheet in the middle of nowhere. The borehole casing as it will left behind when the camp moves on to new adventures.

Today the casing extension project was completed with the mounting of a final casing section and levelling of the surface around the casing. The casing is now rising a couple of meters above surface that will make be accessible for some years. Based on experience, however, reflective metal plates have been places next to the casing in the drill trench to enable future location determination by radar, should that become relevant. Troubleshooting on the drill electronics has been ongoing, so no drilling today, but pending issues have been solved. It is almost a law of nature that what works well back home in the lab will produce some unpredictable errors when tested under harsh field conditions. It is important to have a proper drill setup for future projects and now is the right time to get the problems solved. Knut’s radar team went out - without Knut but including Kyra – to pick up the last of the ApRES stations that were deployed last summer. It was located 30 km downstream NEGIS and it became a long skidoo drive in white and snowy conditions. Sepp is preparing to do temperature logging of another shallow hole 2km south of camp, but it needs to be dug out first - a recurring issue up here. In the evening the horizon became visible for the first time and Martin went out kite skiing, while others played Ticket-to-Ride in the Dome.

What we did today:

1. No drilling today. Debugging and fixing drill electronics
2. Mounted final casing extension, filled hole with snow and levelled surrounding surface
3. Knut’s radar team went to pick up ApRES some 30 km NW of camp
4. Prepared to do temperature logging of shallow hole

Weather today: Overcast and light snowfall. Temperatures from -18°C to -8°C. Wind 4-12 kt from SW turning NNW.

FL, Anders Svensson

A rare underground palm tree has been spotted in the EGRIP dungeons. The borehole casing is protected in the middle of the snow pile.

Digging out the last of the ApRES stations that were placed around camp last summer.