Vasileios and Abby in the water isotope CFA cabin while the last ice for this season goes through the melting system.

Completing the ice core melting

This evening the last piece of ice went through the water isotope continuous flow analysis (CFA) system, thus completing the 350 meters of ice to be measured this season. This is the first time that a dedicated CFA system for water isotopes have been deployed for a deep drilling. Abby and Vasileios (the current CFA team) can now start packing some of the instrumentation, while a good part stays for next year’s season.

The ice core drilling started at a good pace, but after lunch the problems with penetration returned and new cutters were installed on the drill. This, however, did not seem to solve the issue, and the drillers will now use the coming days to focus on various methods to regain control of the borehole inclination. The logging is still uncomplicated despite the increased brittleness of the ice.

The surface program and the physical properties measurements campaign made steady progress during the day.

What we did today:

1. Servicing snowmobiles, packing down Northface tent.
2. Deep drilling core length at 19.00: 8.87 m.
3. Logging depth at 19.00: 581.99 m.
4. Drill software updated with more accurate inclination calculation.
5. Water isotopes: Melting of bags 26 to 39 (main core) and 12 to 26 (Auger core A1-17).
6. Water vapour, methane, aerosols, snow and boundary layer measurements
7. Physical properties measurements.
8. Cleaning of core troughs.

Weather: Sunny day. Light winds turning from N to W during the day. Temperature between -23°C and -14°C.

FL, Bo Vinther