Daily reports from the NGRIP camp - week 28, 2003

Monday, July 7th
Daily life
A lot is going on in camp right now ! In addition to the drilling, both radar teams are working intensely. Also, people in camp have begun betting about when and at which depth the bottom will be reached.
The field office in Kangerlussuaq received a shipment of trail flags today. Take a look at the fantastic pictures !
The weather is brilliant, blue sky, no wind, and temperatures up to -7C. In weather like this you can walk around in shorts and T-shirt (as long as you remember to keep your polar boots on).
Science
In order to remove the ice cores from the core barrel, it is necessary to warm up the core barrel because refrozen EWS make the cores stick. Although great care is taken, this is not good for the ice cores, so today drilling without EWS was tested. It quickly became apparent that it is not possible to drill without EWS : the first core drilled without EWS was 80 cm long, the next only 20 cm. After two runs with EWS added again, the normal length of 1.30 m was obtained. The daily production was 4.66 m, which is OK under the circumstances. Drilling depth 3042.58 m.
ECM has been measured down to 3028.85 m. Still clear indication of the Eemian.
The American and German radar measurements are continuing. Both teams have given their best estimates of the bedrock depth: The German radar team has found bedrock at 3078 +-20 m. The Kansas team has found it at 3080 +-5 m. The group from University of Kansas are maintaining their home page about the PRISM project from the NorthGRIP camp. In addition to a project description, the page contains a diary (more technical than this one), pictures, and video clips from camp.
Logistics
The skiway has been groomed again in order to prepare for next week's missions.

Tuesday, July 8th
Daily life
Some of the participants have been using their spare time to play with snow : an ice bar, named Bedrock Bar, has been built. The occasion is that the NorthGRIP ice core probably on Wednesday or Thursday will become the longest ice core drilled in Greenland. The formed record is the GISP2 ice core at 3053.44 m.
Weather is nice and almost unchanged.
Science
The drilling continues in the stable mode. 4 runs yielded a total of 5.69 m core. Drill depth 3048.26m.
The fact that the core barrel must be warmed before the core can be pushed out, is a problem. Today a "bathtub" with drilling liquid warmed to -4C has been prepared. At this temperature, the EWS will hopefully melt and the core can be extracted.
Logistics
The supplies of drilling liquid are running low, and the camp is trying to locate a number of drums with an alternate drilling liquid that were left on the surface in 1999. They are probably covered with snow, so the German radar team has mapped the camp area in order to locate the drums. So far, a number of items have been found, including the main power cables in camp.

Wednesday, July 9th
Daily life
The weather is still very nice, so outdoor activities are very popular. The consistently good weather has speeded up the work of the two radar teams, so that both have almost finished their planned measurements.
Science
4 runs gave a total of 5.01 m ice core. The drilling mode has changed : it has become harder to get the drill to penetrate, and more slush than usual is produced. An adjustment of the EWS amount has been tried as a cure for this, but not with good results.
The "bath tub" with heated drilling liquid has been tested successfully. When brought to surface, the core barrel is left in the bath in 20 minutes until the EWS has melted and the core can be retrieved without further heating.
The ECM measurements indicate that we must be in the Eemian now, but further analyses in the coming days are needed before anything can be concluded.
Both radar teams have more or less finished their measuring campaigns and are using the radars to look for the missing drums of drilling liquid, but so far without luck.
Logistics
The ramp to the drill trench has been made wider in order to make it possible to take the winch out from the trench when the season ends.

Thursday, July 10th
Daily life
The main event today was the celebration of the depth record (see below).
Waffles were served in the Bedrock Bar during the afternoon, and the dinner was prepared on the grill. After dinner, the celebration continued with speeches and songs.
Science
The NorthGRIP ice core is now the longest ice core ever drilled in Greenland. In the first run this morning we passed the previous record of 3053.44 m (the GISP2 core).
4 cores were drilled today, giving 4.41m of core. We are still experiencing problems with penetration, although the problems became smaller after the cutters were sharpened.
Work has been put into making two core barrels ready, so that the drill does not have to wait on surface while the core barrel is resting in the bath tub in order to free the core from the barrel. This will probably make it possible to make one additional run every day.
Logistics
The preparations for next week's missions have started. The ice is packed in foam boxes to make sure that they are kept sufficiently cold during the transport to Copenhagen.
The zig-zag grooming of the skiway has been finished. As long as the temperatures are reasonably cold, we will probably not have any problems with take off during the flight period next week.

Friday, July 11th
Daily life
The Kansas radar team served a nice home cooked curry for dinner.
Science
The drilling continues in a stable mode. In 5 runs, 5.74 m of core was drilled. The bath tub with drilling liquid was used throughout the day, make it possible to drill 5 instead of 4 cores each day. One complete run now takes approximately 3 hours : lowering the drill the 3 kilometers into the hole takes 50 minutes, the actual drilling takes between 10 and 20 minutes, raising the drill another 45 minutes, and the "ground time" is around one hour.
On top of the cooking activities, the Kansas radar team has tested a wide-band radar, and the German team has processed the acquired data.
After analyzing the ECM curve, we are now confident that the Eemian ice starts at approximately 3028 meters depth. As a consequence, we have today made a press release about the depth record and the presence of the Eemian ice.
There is also a short video clip from Thursday when the NorthGRIP ice core became the longest ice core ever drilled in Greenland.
Logistics
Pallets with empty drums are being built for next week's flight missions.

Saturday, July 12th
Daily life
On Saturdays, the work stop around 4 o'clock and everybody takes showers. Ladies dress up in dresses, while the gentlemen wear shirts and ties.
The Saturday night banquet was not cooked by the participants from a single country, which is the normal Saturday arrangement, but by a "minority group" comprising representatives from Chile, Germany, Sweden, and Great Britain.
Science
The first core drilled Saturday was a nice 1.63 m core, but large amounts of slush stopped the second run after only 47 cm. The third run did not work out well : the drill current rose quickly, and even after two restarting attempts, only 38 cm of core was drilled. In order to make the Saturday party, drilling stopped after these three runs.
Drilling depth 3065.73 m.
The Kansas radar team is still testing their wide-band radar system, while the German team members mostly work on data processing.
Logistics
The trenches are cleaned out for things that can go out on the flights next week.
The skiway is being groomed lengthwise to remove bumps and satrugi (undulations caused by the wind).

Sunday, July 13th
Daily life
It has been overcast today with periods of light snow, -10C to -15C.
Food has been moved to the freezer beneath surface, and inventory has been made of all liquids and fuel in camp. The next flight period will be next week. Part of the crew will be exchanged, and a "distinguished visitors" visit is planned. Maybe they will be just in time for the bedrock????
Science
Four cores were drilled today, and the depth is now 3070.50 m. The drilling is much in routine and it seems like the 1 m cores balance the chips production while the long 1.6 m cores leave chips/slush in the hole for the next run. When the long cores are drilled it is most often in one go and it is nice to get these long cores up. There is no sign yet that bedrock is close. If the ice were frozen to bedrock we would expect that the ice became silty and "dirty" in the last meters, possibly even with small pebles. As the ice at NGRIP is melting at the bottom, the ice might however stay clear all the way.
Logistics
The radar team are packing their gear, the skiways have been groomed once more, and the Flexmobiles were checked and repaired.

Continue to Week 29

Main page Diary Pictures About us Ice cores Links