Daily reports from the NGRIP-camp - week 26 year 2000
Monday, June 26th
|
| Daily life |
| The weather is still perfect so coffee breaks are enjoyed outside. |
| Science |
| A very normal day. In order to prepare for the shift of personale 10
July personale are being educated in all areas so there will be 'experts'
back in camp. |
| Logistics |
| 32 boxes of ice are shipped from Kangerlussuaq to Copenhagen by SAS.
The 32 boxes weigh 2800 kg and just fit into a insulated container - a
cooltainer. |
Tuesday, June 27th
|
| Daily life |
| Again a good day and time is found to reerect the romean portal at
the ice bar. |
| Science |
| The inclination of the borehole i 2.5 deg. The drillers worry and all
is done to reduce further increase of the inclination. The cutters on the
drill are sharpened and the distance between the inner and outer corebarrel
on the drill is checked. |
| Logistics |
|
Wednesday, June 28th
|
| Daily life |
| A person in camp has had an accident. A sledge pulled by a snowscooter
came to an sudden brake as the front triangle got loose. The person on
the sledge continued and twisted her ankle. She is now resting on the sofa
on the first floor of the heated main dome and is spending her time marking
the endless amount of plastic bags used for ice samples. |
| Science |
| In the science trench 10 data files are deleted by mistake. The ice
cores are remeasured! |
| Logistics |
|
Thursday, June 29th
|
| Daily life |
| A very normal day in camp - the weather - perfect of coarse. |
| Science |
| The drillers have solved the problems with the ball bearings in the
drill pump. The pump gets a supply of grease and the length of each drilled
ice core is slightly reduced as the strain on the pump has it's maxium
at the end of the drilling process. The drillers report: lowering, drilling,
hoisting, cleaning, spining chips, lowering, drilling, hoisting, cleaning,
spining chips, lowering.... |
| Logistics |
| Three big cargo sledge are drug free and moved to a spot with undisturbed
snow. The sledges are used overwinter to store camp equipment and are drifted
in when the camp opens each late spring. On the new cargo line the sledges
are placed with quite some distance so the drifts around the sledge will
not reach the next. |
Friday, June 30th
|
| Daily life |
| Bad weather today. Snow, overcast and windy with temperatures up to
-7 deg C. It turns out to be a much too interesting day. During morning
the motor used to tilt the tower and drill from vertical to horizontal
breaks and the tower suddenly moved to vertical position. The drill is
flung of the tower and lands in the pit beside the drill hole. The motor
is replaced and the drill has not been harmed - as we always say - it is
studentproof. The cabel, however, is damaged. Fate is strange - there IS
a new cabel in camp and actually a change of cable was planned for monday
3 July as the old cabel is too short to reach bedrock. The day to change
cable is moved to today and the old cable is rolled onto a unused cable
drum. |
| Science |
| Due to the power failure (see below) all work in the science trench
is stopped during the afternoon. The 'cave workers' could have enjoyed
some good weather today! |
| Logistics |
| During the movement of the old cable to the drum there is problems
with the main generator. The fuelpump is malfunctioning and is spraying
fuel into the generatorroom. The pump and generator are turned of. The
camp is now without heat and eletricity. The emergency generator is found
and started and a spare fuel pump is modified so the fittings are correct
for the main generator. By dinner time the main generator is heating the
camp again. |
Saturday, July 1st
|
| Daily life |
| A good and 'warm' day with temperatures up to -7 deg C. The saturday
night dinner is prepared by the japanese scientists. |
| Science |
| Today is the day where the 3.8 km of new cable is to be spooled unto
the winch. The cable needs to be put on with a cable tension equivalent
to a drag of 600 kg and it turns up that the supplyed tensioner is not
cablable of providing this tension. A setup is constructed that includes
a cargo strap. After 30 min the strap melts and needs to be replaced.
4 hours and 6 straps later the cable is spolled on the winch and the team
can wash and be ready for saturday evening. |
| Logistics |
|
Sunday, July 2nd
|
| Daily life |
| A slow day. The science trench team decides to start at noon. The processing
line is catching up with the drillers and the amount of ice stored in the
core buffer is decreasing rapidly. |
| Science |
| The drill is connected to the new cable. There are 4 wires inside the
cable, that are used to transfer information from the drill computer to
the drillers consol. They need to be carefully attached at the correct
positions. An operation that only can be done with bare hands - in the
cold drill trench! The drill is checked carefully and a few damages from
the fall are found: There is a loose connection in the battery section
and one of the skates on the top of the drill is slightly bended. A check
of the battery section reveals that the liquid, that had leaked into this
section earlier this season has damaged the batteries more that expected
and the whole battery section is replaced. It is the last battery section
that is in use now - so it has to keep functioning until bedrock is reached. |
| Logistics |
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Read more about Week 27
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