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2007

Date: November 21, 2007
Location: East Antarctic Plateau, Drill site 1
Latitude: 81 degrees, 39 minutes, 29 seconds South
Longitude: 136 degrees, 5 minutes, 2.4 seconds East
Temperature: −36°C ( −33°F)
Wind Speed: 16 knots
Wind Chill: −53°C (−64°F)
Elevation: 2490 meters (8169 feet)
Kilometers Traveled: 232
Ice Core Drilled: 39 meters
Written by: Nicky

Gordon and Dan B. begin drilling with the 2" drill early in the day in hopes of being finished with their 25m. Once drilling is finished Dan B. will send his new instrument down the hole to have a look at the changes in density over the length of the hole and the cores will be taken back to Orono where radionuclide tests will be performed on them.

The 3" Eclipse drillís journey towards 50meters begins this morning as well, but in an entirely different manner than that of the 2" drill. The barrel on this drill is so long that a meter and a half snow pit must be dug in order to swing the barrel into drilling position. This digging is done by Mike and Paul. Eventually, when the hole is the right length and depth and the core handlers (Dan D. and Elena) are ready, drilling with the 3" begins.

The final drilling project to regale you with is that of the 3" Kovacs. This is a hand operated drill meant to collect the upper 2 meters of firn that is lost by the digging of the snow-pit for the Eclipse. During this activity, Dan D. and Elena don white Tyvek suits (because they are non-particulating and wonít contaminate the coreÖ but they also have a huge amount of entertainment value). They drill a total of four times (~4m). The sampling process involves cleanly cutting the core into approximately 2cm discs and sealing them individually in sterile Whirl–Pak bags.

It turns out that at this site my stratigraphy set up works very welland my day is spent alternating between labeling baggies for the 2cm discs and doing stratigraphy on all the cores as they are pulled up. Brian uses ingenuity and an ice core box to design a home for his generator that is insulated, yet ventilated, and will hopefully stop it from continually dying during our driving runs. Luke and Josh perform a PM on the PB and both the CATS and (perhaps most importantly) Luci melts snow (large blocks cut from the drill snow pit) for water and tests out the stove-top oven by baking a pie for Thanksgiving tomorrow.

 

Date: November 22, 2007
Location: East Antarctic Plateau, Drill site 1
Latitude: 81 degrees, 39 minutes, 29 seconds South
Longitude: 136 degrees, 5 minutes, 2.4 seconds East
Temperature: −33°C ( −27°F)
Wind Speed: 14 knots
Wind Chill: −49°C (−55°F)
Elevation: 2490 meters (8169 feet)
Kilometers Traveled: 232
Ice Core Drilled: 62 meters
Written by: Nicky

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! For this entry, we'll start with the end first! Luci prepared a wonderful semi–traditional Thanksgiving Feast for this evening. We have chicken (all the flavor, none of the Tryptophan!), mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin and berry pies. Our meal is alternately silent (don't talk with your mouth full) and resounding with laughter. We don't talk about it, but I think these are things that happened today that we are all thankful for.

1) The reconnaissance (RECCY) flight today flown by the Bassler crew and taken by Paul, Brian, and Gordon revealed a crevasse at a crucial junction in our intended path. Now we plan to deviate 5–10km towards the coast in order to avoid it.

2) After having to change the shoes (a drill piece that effectively determines the aggressiveness of the drill cut) a few times on the 2" drill in order to make it drill more aggressively, 25m depth is achieved and the stratigraphy on all 25m is complete. Not to mention with all the cranking, those involved are a little more buff.

3) The 3" drill beats yesterday’s hurdle and accumulates many more meters by the end of the day. While it’s true that it was a frustrating day and at the end of it the drill was non–functional, we can all be happy about the fact that Mike, via a process of trial and error, found the location of the problem and believes he can fix it tomorrow morning.

4) Josh and Luke spent the day diligently ferrying fuel, 2 barrels at a time, from the cache over to the train and we were able to send out the Bassler with all 22 of our empty barrels, 2 barrels of waste fuel, a tri–wall of trash, and the broken section of crevasse radar boom. What are we thankful for here? A lighter load, of course!