Daily reports from the NGRIP-camp - week 25 year 2000
Monday, June 19th
|
| Daily life |
| Today is the last day in camp for 15 of the 30 people at NGRIP. Many
friendships have grown so addresses are exchanged so contact can be kept. |
| Science |
| The electronic section in the drill does not function today. Every
part is checked and seems to be OK. But put together it does not work.
It is decided to wait for the master Niels Gundestrup who is expected back
in camp next day. Comment from the drillers: The drill is up, but it's
down! |
| Logistics |
| The skiway is groomed so it is ready for the Hercules tomorrow. |
Tuesday, June 20th
|
| Daily life |
| Today is the day where there is connnection to the rest of the world.
The weather is good so Skier 94 takes off from Kangerlussuaq at 17:00 local
just as planed. Due to the 'summer' conditions in camp the Skier needs
the cold evening temperatures for take off in order to reduce the friction
between the skies and the snow. The mission is thus planed so the take
off time from NGRIP is during evening. The mission is succesfull and the
Skier takes off in second attempt with 15 of the old NGRIPers |
| Science |
|
| Logistics |
| 40 boxes with ice cores are moved to the surface and packed on airforce
pallets. Each box contains 11 m of ice core and has the weight of 90 kg.
It is heavy work to get the boxes up from the subsurface trenches and all
personal from camp gives a hand. The boxes are stored in Kangerlussuaq
for a week before they are moved to Copenhagen by SAS. |
Wednesday, June 21th
|
| Daily life |
| The training of the 13 newcomers begins. All are doing well and none
show any signs of high altitude sickness. |
| Science |
Niels Gundestrup has returned to camp and the day is used to repair
the drill electronics. It shows up that drill liquid has entered the battery
section and casued electrial leakage from the temperature sensors placed
here.
The first He-sample is taken. The sample is taken from a newly retrieved
ice core and stored in a container for analyse in Heidelberg after the
season. |
| Logistics |
|
Thursday, June 22th
|
| Daily life |
| A too eventfull day in camp. Before noon a participant notifies the
field leader about that he has heavy pain. After consultation with the
Aviation Clinic in Copenhagen it is decided to evacuate the person. By
pure luck a little plan with skies, a Twin Otter, is planed to arrive
at NGRIP late afternoon with US media people. After agreement with
our US collaborators, VECO , the journalists are given a quick tour through
camp before the patient is put aboard and the plane leaves for the
nearest hospital in Ilullisat. At 22:00 the patient reached the hospital
in Ilullisat and is treated. |
| Science |
| Almost forgotten, the drill drills again! |
| Logistics |
| It is overcast today. This is not good weather for the Twin Otter because
there is risk for icing. |
Friday, June 23th
|
| Daily life |
| Most important of all: the patient in Ilullisat is doing well but will
need to stay some time at the hospital. All in camp can relax and as the
weather is good the annual ice bar building starts. The bar gets a frozen
iceplate and national flags from all participating nations are used to
decorate the bar. |
| Science |
| A boring day in the drill trench. The ice core producion is back to
normal. |
| Logistics |
| The weather in camp is good, blue sky, no wind and temperatures of
-12 deg. C. |
Saturday, June 24th
|
| Daily life |
| The work on the ice bar continues so the party can start with drinks
served from the bar. The eager builders even create a romean portal as
entrance to the ice bar. But it crashes and is left for next week. The
saturday night party is good as usual. |
| Science |
| The drill drills but it does not penetrate the ice! The drillers worry
that something has been dropped down in the borehole and this 'something'
is the reason why the drill does not penetrate. It turns up that it is
a safety pin between the motoraxle and the drill that is broken. Thus the
drill is not rotating. By somewhat embarrassed drillers, the pin is replaced
and down it goes again. |
| Logistics |
|
Sunday, June 25th
|
| Daily life |
| A slow morning - allowing the NGRIPpers time to recover after last
nights excausting exercises. |
| Science |
| Drilling is interupted by problems with the 'chippump'. It is fixed
and late during the evening a 2mm thick layer with black/brown dust and
visible particles is observed in an ice core. It is most likely the Z2
ash layer also seen in the GRIP and GISP2 ice core drilled 320 km south
of NGRIP. The ash layer originates from an eruption from an Islandic Volcano
50.000 years before present. The ash was spread over the whole of Greenland
and the North Atlantic region. The name Z2 is given by scientists investigating
deep ocean cores. By means of events like Z2 the time scales of the
ocean cores and the ice cores can be linked. |
| Logistics |
| In camp and in Kangerlussuaq the amounts of spare field clothes are
counted. There must be enough for the next team coming to Greenland 10
July. Both in camp and in Kangerlussaq the weather is still perfect. Blue
sky, no wind, -10 C at NGRIP and +20 C in Kangerlussuaq. |
Read more about Week 26
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