NEEM deep ice core project

Field season 2011

Field season 2011 has been finalized

NEEM camp is closed after a succesful season.

Taking the last surface tents down

The D-day for camp pull out is closing in and today the last surface tents where taken down

Celebrating Gunnars birthday

The last Saturday in camp AND Gunnars birthday.

Grey, white and snow

Waking up to another overcast, foggy and snowy day!

Goodbye to 16 from NEEM

At 4:00 am when the weather reporting started we had ground fog with no visibility.

A really warm and foggy day

As we have seen many times before the weather changes just when the flight period starts.

Last day in camp – perhaps?

Today all science equipment is palletized in preparation of the skier mission tomorrow.

Packing everywhere in camp

The next flight period is getting closer and all science, drill and UAV equipment will leave camp 10-12 August.

Last day of science

Days are counted because the closure of camp is getting close.

Moving the Dome again

The time has come to move the Dome back to its original position but 4.5 m higher.

Recovering the AWI drill

Waking up the first thought went to the AWI drill.

Back to science

After the great event of moving the Dome yesterday life is back to normal.

D-day for moving the NEEM Dome on sledge

After a night with stage fever and nerves, time came to move the Dome.

Meridian wins the race

The weather was perfect for outdoor work and for flying.

A good start of the last science week at NEEM

August already! It is time to finish all projects and start thinking about packing down.

Sunny and windy day

The weather forecasts had predicted clearing weather and decreasing winds.

Big game evening

During Saturday the wind picked up to 26 knots and the morning was used to secure camp for the strong winds.

The Main Dome is standing on skies

At 10:33 local the last supporting leg of the Dome was cut and the Dome solely was standing on the four skies.

Drill traverse departs NEEM

After training of the team and packing the sledges the Traverse team is ready to depart. The traverse leaves with two skidoo’s and 5 sledges.

The first skies are placed under the Dome

The Skies of the Dome weigh 1250 kg each and nearly match the skies under a Hercules in size – at least in the mind of NEEM

Shallow drilling is on again

Today the weather is good and cold with blue sky and winds up to 20 knots and the shallow drilling programs continue.

Dome sledge construction dominates life in camp

You cannot avoid noticing the banging and shaking of the main Dome.

Active day with preparations for new projects

With a new team, new projects are starting up

A warm day with a very successful Skier mission

After a warm night with temperatures no lower than -3 °C Skier 61 came early to camp at 08:14 local.

Last day in camp for many

Now all setups have to work before the science groups leave camp.

High school students visit

Today highschool students from Denmark, Greenland and Norway visited NEEM.

D-Day for the Dome Sledge Project

The day has come where Alli, Villi, Sepp, Gunnar and Sverrir mounts the first panels of the ring of fifteen panel that form a ring around the Dome legs

Good flight weather and digging again

Finally we have cold night temperatures and the Skier mission to NEEM could be done.

A day of digging

Again a very warm day with no hope for efficient Skier missions. After weather reports from 4 am to 6 am local we decided to cancel the mission for the next 24 hours.

ATO take off at 01 am towards Thule Airbase.

During the evening of Saturday the temperatures barely dropped to -3 deg C. It was decided to stick to the decision of a 0100 am departure but to attempt as light a skier as possible

Warm weather no go

Our Distinguished Visitors experienced a night at NEEM sleeping in the weatherports at NEEM. After breakfast the first attempt for take off was made with no luck

Showing our camp to our Distinguished Visitors.

Finally the great day came where our DV’s managed to get to camp for a three hour visit. The camp was ready and we had carefully planned a program that would present the ongoing science at NEEM.

Very warm weather at NEEM delays the DV visit

The weather at NEEM at 4 am was foggy with temperatures no colder than 5 deg C. The DV mission to NEEM was cancelled and the camp hurried to finish project – taking advantage of the extra day.

Preparations for crew and activity exchange

The DV visit and the exchange of crew will be tomorrow.

Packing the science trench

Time has come.. The processing of the deep ice core is finalized and it is time to pack much down and return it to Europe.

The last run?

The drilling is followed with great attention by all in camp. Will this be the final run?

Work goes on at NEEM

After a slow start we had brunch with omelette and fresh garden salad.

Royal visit at NEEM

A very special day at NEEM. Most of the morning was used by all to prepare the Royal visit of Her Majesty and His Royal Highness from Denmark, Kuupik Kleist from Greenland and Rigsombudsmand Mikaela Engell.

Refrozen basal water under the drill!

After the ice core from yesterday with a very high content of basal material we decided that there was a high chance that we were at the bedrock.

A day with big events

The morning started with preparations for the airdrop that happened at 1100 local.

A basal ice core with stones

Today the HT drill was used with the new and innovative carbide step cutter and they drilled through ice, sediments and rocks!

Mystic ice from the rock drill

There is great excitement around the drilling at the base of the deep NEEM borehole.

Drilling in the deep hole

Today was the first day where we drilled in the 2537 m deep borehole.

A perfect Sunday

After waking up to a calm and sunny day many went for a morning walk on the skiway.

A really nice and sunny day

The wind is down and the sky blue with light clouds from time to time.

An amazing day with great successes

Finally the 2011 S2 hole was completed with an angle of 3-4 degrees to allow us to test replicate drilling. NEW - Video sequence of the bottom of the borehole is now up-loaded!

A very productive day at NEEM

Again we have had a day with perfect weather: very light wind and blue sky.

The work in camp continues - but in a new way

The big working groups like the science trench and the big CFA teams are no more in strong routine.

A day of exchange of personal in the NEEM camp

The science processing of ice cores from the 411m deep shallow ice core and the CFA processing of the deep ice cores are finalized.

CFA analysis of NEEM main core terminated and packing

Last night the last samples of the NEEM main core brittle zone ice were measured in the CFA lab.

Final processing of NEEM 2011 Shallow Core 1 (S1)

This afternoon the deepest part of the S1 shallow core was processed in the science trench and the 79 AD Vesuvius eruption was clearly identified.

Initiation of the NEEM 2011 Shallow Core 2 (S2) drilling

Yesterday night the drilling of the S1 ice core was terminated and this morning drilling of the S2 core was initiated.

Termination of the NEEM 2011 Shallow Core 1 (S1) drilling

Due to logistical constraints the drilling of the S1 borehole in the sauna tent terminated this night at 11 pm at a depth of 411.83 m, which corresponds to an age slightly older than 79 AD.

No midsummers eve at NEEM this year

Today is midsummer, ‘Sankt Hans’ in Danish, and normally we should have a small bonfire this evening, sing a few songs, and say cheers to one another

Full speed ahead

Early next week we’ll have a major crew exchange in camp and new people with new projects will show up.

A day of many different tasks

A productive day

The drilling of the S1 core is now in a stable mode running 16h a day. This has produced enough core for the science trench to be open today to catch up with the drilling.

Drilling at two sites and maintenance

After a slow Sunday morning camp came up to speed after lunch

Hard core breaks and science trench dream team dinner

With the higher liquid level in the bore hole the core quality is now consistently good. Today, however, several runs had a hard core break

High quality cores and very shallow drilling

Core breaks and sushi assembly line

Today drillers have been...

2011-06-15

Setting up flag line on Main Street

2011-06-14

...a bit of a hard time in camp...

2011-06-13

Ice core processing passed the very significant 1259 AD eruption...

2011-06-12

The drill was cooled in the drill liquid....

2011-06-11

The CFA team dug a pit...

Tomorrow we have a flight again and we are busy preparing.

The mood in camp today is special.

A successful flight today!

As the plane flew overhead, fog came...

Tomorrow we have a flight and we are busy preparing

Much work was done on the skiway

It is warm and we have Christmas snow

And it snows...

It is getting warm

Today camp has been covered by....

Weather is improving and we can see camp again

During the night....

The wind gets stronger with clouds and snow on top!

Bad weather continued today, and it got even worse. For more than 24 hours, strong winds have been blowing through camp.

The wind came!

This morning the bad weather began. Wind picked up, and soon the snow began to move.

Processing brittle ice is finished

The drillers were eagerly going to work this morning, hoping that their new winch contraption would live up to expectations, and the rebuilt winch worked really well.

A happy day for the drillers

It was a good day for the drillers as mechanical work over the past few days paid off and the reconstructed winch with a new motor worked well.

A good day for processing and we got visitors

In the processing line everything is running fine. Although one instrument for gas analysis has broken down (SARA), we have a back-up instrument (JUDY), and now it is running fine.

A good productive day, except for the drillers; but they have ideas.

For most people in camp the day was productive; but the drillers had to face the fact that they now have two broken motors for the winch, however, as the Danish proverb goes, “Need will teach the naked woman to spin…

A beautiful Sunday

We take a sort break ... it is Saturday

Many in camp need a weekend break. This week, all have been working hard

We have visitors and enjoy the company

The six members of the GRIT traverse joined us for meals today and it was nice to spend an evening in new company.

Today the wind relented and we have to push snow again

There was some cleaning up to do after two days of strong wind from the East. Several entrances had to be excavated

Outside the wind blows; but we are all busy inside

Again, our forecasters were spot on. Strong winds came to camp this morning; but we were prepared

Camp in full swing

Now things begin to happen. The drillers made good progress today...

We receive the second plane

A drama is unfolding regarding air traffic in Greenland.

A Saturday on Sunday

No, we haven’t got the calendar wrong; but because of the three days delay of the last plane, we decided to move the week-end one day.

Finally the plane made it

Today it happened. The plane finally made it and 15 new members made it to NEEM camp.

Plane cancelled again today

As there only was one plane available today, the decision had to be made whether it should fly to the American camp at Summit or to here.

Plane cancelled today

Today we found ourselves in a bizarre situation. There were very few clouds (that later disappeared) and we had good visibility. All o.k. for a flight.

Plane tomorrow, and we are ready to receive it

Today we put the finishing touches to the flight operations area. Everything is now ready to receive the plane tomorrow.

Building up for the plane on Thursday

On Thursday we hope to receive a plane with cargo, food and 16 new members of the NEEM staff. We are busy preparing everything in camp for the new arriving people.

Fine weather continues - we make good progress

As weather continues to be good to us, work on getting camp into shape before reaching full manning this week is going fine

Preparations for the flight next week

In the coming week we are expecting a flight with many new NEEMers.

First core in 2011

We drilled the first ice core today.

Nice, but a bit chilly to work outside today

During the whole morning temperatures stayed well below -20 °C and with a constant wind, work with erecting weatherports became a chilly affair

We are enjoying the weather and camp is changing shape

We erected a weatherport today, and two more will go up soon.

Busy – making up for lost time

Weather is good now, and the forecast gives us several good days ahead.

Beautiful weather - let's get digging

While there were some clouds and wind in the morning, weather improved and the afternoon was beautiful.

Strong wind continues into the evening

Another day for in-side or trench activities. Today a lot of snow decided to change position...

First blusterous day of the season

Just as our Belgian forecasters had forecasted, we got hit by strong winds today

A cold Saturday

The night to Saturday was very cold. Some people moved from the red dome to the main dome, as temperatures in the red dome did not exceed -15 °C

First day at NEEM after the usual cold night

First night in a cold camp is always something special.

Finally we go to NEEM

Today we had a successful put-in. We departed Kangerlussuaq at 9.25 and landed at NEEM 11.30

Arrival in Kangerlussuaq and awaiting put-in

Daily for the period 2nd., 3rd., and 4th. of May 2011