The transition ice has been drilled

The NEEM’s celebrating the transition with a glass of champagne.

Today we celebrated that we have drilled past the glacial to interglacial transition 11.703 years before 2000AD. The transition has been seen by the appearance of cloudy bands in the cold glacial ice and also by running a hand held version of ECM over the cores as they where logged. We celebrated that we have passed the depth of the NGRIP1 ice core at 1372 m, the depth of the Camp Century ice core at 1389m and of course the transition. The depth – in bag 2580. Details will be revealed  later when the ice cores have been processed in the science trench.

What we have done today:

1.Drilling with the NEEM long drill: 20.36 m. Drillers depth: 1422.02m
2. Logging 26.50 m of core. Logging depth 1437.97 m
3. CFA analysis: 13.20 m. Depth: 580.25 m.
4. Processing 19.8 m. Processing depth: 1397.00 m (bag 2540)
5. Packing in the firn-village
6. Collecting cargo on pallets.

Ad 1: Drillers report 29 July: “Good drilling today.  Seven stable runs but some time lost due to the depth counter malfunction.  We remounted the rear set screw on the flexible shaft which had started slipping.  This had also occurred once during May of this season.  We will cancel the night shift to allow the three departing drillers to enjoy the special dinner and begin to rearrange the shifts in the morning.”

Weather: Overcast with light snow. Wind 9-15 kn from S. Temperature -11 to
-7°C.

FL, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen

Brandon in the snow - the story told in the sun glasses.