Daily reports from the NGRIP-camp - week 27 year 2000
Monday, July 3rd
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| Daily life |
|
| Science |
| At 2am the drill is ready again and the eager drillers start right
away and drill through the night. We are now hoping for a few boring days. |
| Logistics |
|
Tuesday, July 4th
|
| Daily life |
| The weather is more beatifull than the beatifull weather yesterday. |
| Science |
| The science team in the trench runs out of work at noon. The ice cores
have to rest for two days after drilling before they are processed so the
processors have caught up with the drillers. The afternoon is spent on
the sunny surface digging a pit for studies of the snow from the last few
years. |
| Logistics |
| Grooming of the skiway is on again. One week until next arrival at
NorthGRIP. |
Wednesday, July 5th
|
| Daily life |
| Good weather... |
| Science |
| The science trench and the drill trench are turned into dark rooms.
Only small amounts of red light can be tolerated. The plan is to take a
sample of ice from the ice core just as it is taken out of the drill for
luminicence measurements. The ice must not retrieve 'new' light as we want
to measure when the dust in the ice last was exposed to sunlight. It is
a pilot project to see if it is possible to obtain an independent estimate
of the age of the ice. |
| Logistics |
|
Thursday, July 6th
|
| Daily life |
| Good weather - but a cloud was seen in the morning. |
| Science |
| The drill-electronics has been unstable today. It turns off frequently
and the computer needs to be turned off and restarted. We are not able
to find any error - so cross fingers... |
| Logistics |
| Today NGRIP receives visitors during the evening. A little ski-equiped
plane, a Twin Otter arrives from Island. They stay overnight and will check
the seismic station that is located a few km from camp tomorrow. |
Friday, July 7th
|
| Daily life |
| The NGRIPpers enjoy the visit. After lunch the visitors find their
way down into the sciencetrench to see what is going on. But the trench
is empty. All are up at the apron, where the plane is parked to wave goodby.
A plane is a line to the rest of the world and is followed with interest
by all the isolated people in camp. |
| Science |
| The seismic station is opened and checked. A little cable unfortunatly
breaks and it takes some time to move it to camp and repair it. The seismic
station has worked well and has registered many Islandic earthquakes this
season. |
| Logistics |
| The Twin Otter need fuel before it can continue. The distance to NGRIP
is so long that the plane can not carry enough fuel to reach back home.
The camp has pumps with filters ..., all the needed equipment to
fuel a plane. |
Saturday, July 8th
|
| Daily life |
| It is a windy day in camp with wind speeds up to 13 m/s. The camp informs
that the icebar will not be used at the Saturday evening party. |
| Science |
| A normal day with the frequent change of ball bearings in the drill
pump. The inner core barrel is excahnged to see what effect it has on the
drilling. The drill depth is now 2653,39 m - bedrock is getting close. |
| Logistics |
| All drums with fuel and drilling liquid are counted in camp and an
estimate is made on the need the next 3 weeks. There is connection to the
big world on the coming Tuesday. |
Sunday, July 9th
|
| Daily life |
| A windy day with wind speeds up to 12 m/s. |
| Science |
|
| Logistics |
| The ground crew has a busy day. The ramps down to the drillin- and
science trenches have drifted in and the snowblowers are used to remove
the snow. |
Read more about Week 28
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