Jan is showing the drill to Dewi from Ysgol Bryn y Môr in Swansea – a Welsh school that has kindly send us a dragon to help out!

Drilling adjustments

Today the drillers had a special guest in their trench – the dragon Dewi from Ysgol Bryn y Môr in Swansea. A great thank you tho the kids in this Swansea school for sending us a dragon to help out! Jan T from AWI had a nice time showing Dewi around, even allowing Dewi a quick over flight of the drill (see today’s picture). Again today, the drilling continued, with some runs using step cutters, while other runs were done with traditional cutters trying to optimize the cutting pitch in various configurations. The day ended with a nice 3m long core produced with traditional cutters and a pitch of almost 3mm. Nevertheless more tests and adjustments are scheduled for tomorrow. Some 9m of high quality core was produced today. The processing line and the isotope CFA are all in a good mode with steady production, despite some fixable compressor issues slowing down the CFA work for a short while. In the Physical Properties lab. the large area scanning microscope (LASM) is again operational after new software was installed.
At the RADIX site, drilling preparation continued today, with a deepening of the pilot hole and lowering of the casing. After this adjustment the casing is now tight.

What we did today:

1. 9 meters of main core drilled, new cutter configuration tested and adjusted.
2. Logging of main core from 1333.36 m to 1342.03 m.
3. Processing of EGRIP main core in the science trench, final depth: 1309.55 m.
4. Measurements in isotope laboratory, final depth: 842.05 m.
5. Measurements in physical properties laboratory to 1273.80 m.
6. Water vapour sampling and measuring.
7. Japanese snow crystal and surface monitoring.
8. Preparing for drilling at RADIX site.

Weather: Sunny all day Thursday. Temperature -18 °C to -7 °C. Wind from SSW up to 13 kt during the afternoon.

FL, Bo Vinther