Left: A look into the RADIX tent during a beautiful day. Right: RADIX drill head modified for recovery of casing material.

Drilling progress

Both in the EGRIP drilling trench and at the RADIX site progress was made in the drilling operations. At RADIX a modified drill head (see today’s picture) made it possible to recover casing material at the bottom of the hole, and drill the first small pieces of ice, while in the EGRIP drill trench a more aggressive cutting pitch (with step cutters) made for faster drilling , coarser chips and negative cutting load. We are all hoping that both operations will be able to build on the progress made in the coming days.
The crews in the processing line the isotope CFA lab. and the Physical Properties labs. all continued making good progress during the day, cutting and measuring samples at a steady pace. Furthermore curtains were put up between the elevator shaft and the core storage, and ventilation was improved in the isotope CFA cabin. Preparations for the next flight period has also continues with Chris starting to groom the skiway and Lasse starting the construction of pallets with retro-cargo.

What we did today:

1. Drilling of 19.6 m of ice core.
2. Logging of main core, depth at 19.00: 1391.38 m.
3. Processing of EGRIP main core in the science trench, final depth: 1370.05 m.
4. Measurements in isotope laboratory, final depth: 895.40 m.
5. Measurements in physical properties laboratory to 1361.25 m, measurements of volume samples and brittle ice.
6. Water vapour sampling and measuring.
7. Japanese snow crystal and surface monitoring.
8. Drilling the first bits of ice at the RADIX site.
9. Preparations for next flight period.

Weather: Sunny most of the day, turning overcast with light snow in the late evening. Temperature -20 °C to -10 °C. Wind from WSW up to 12kt.

FL, Bo Vinther