Days on the ice: umm...25? I think I'm starting to lose count.
Two nights ago, I went with two cooks (Marge and Sarah) and Katie (a staff science tech) to check out the big operation going on with ICDS - Ice Core Drilling Services. These guys are testing out a new drill design that will be heading to Antarctica to do deep ice drilling. They have about 8 crew up here working around the clock trying to dig to about 900 m...I can't tell you how far back in time that is, but I am sure it is well over 1000 years back of ice.
We decided to try out the "Mule" - a cross between a tanker and a golf cart...that goes about a mile per hour. I believe it is here for testing use...
A close-up of the group...Marge, Katie, and Sarah. Sarah is wearing a unique neckwarmer - it is actually made out of musk ox fur.
We showed up around 9 pm to visit the night crew that were running the drill. One of the unique things about this drill is that it rotates up after drilling, allowing a very long core to be cut. Usually, drills cut about 1 m at a time - this one cuts 4 m. Below is a picture of the drill rotated up for removal of the ice core.
And here is the crew with the core tube part of the drill, about to remove the ice. I was very excited when they let me pitch in a hand by holding the tube steady with a special wrench while they screwed it all back together. 
These guys have about 4 more weeks to go of 24/7 drilling! I believe they are around 350 m so far and going deeper.
2 comments:
So we just saw "An Inconvenient Truth" and it totally had your name written all over it!! There's lots of talk of Greenland (and what will happen when the ice falls off of it and melts into the ocean), ice coring, and environmental science. Whenever you get back, you need to see it! :) Plus, there's a short shot of the Florida Supreme Court, so Josh's mom is kind of in it, too.
Hey Jill!
We actually have the book-version of "An Inconvenient Truth" up here. Pretty well done! We also had a climate research professor up here from U-Washington...Eric Steig. Eric did a science review of the movie and is trying to get Al Gore to come up here to Summit for a visit sometime. Google "Steig Gore" and you'll see some really quotes Eric made about the movie. Miss you!
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