23 May 2010

Gone fishing

tekst

Today is one of those days where many things go wrong. In the morning, the drillers changed cutters, and in the first run they lost the core barrel on the way down. It had become unlocked. While the drill is designed to be able to disengage the core barrel at the bottom in case of a stuck drill, it should not do it by itself. Drillers then had to mount the special core barrel retrieval tool and fish the core barrel back up. On the surface, several adjustments were made, and the drill made ready for a new run.
Events repeated themselves, and the core barrel wound up on the bottom once more. During the evening shift, the core barrel was back on the surface. Drillers have been analyzing the situation, and the results can been seen in drillers report. And I have an excuse to make: I failed to mention Simon as a co-cook for Saturday night’s extraordinary dinner. Sorry Simon.

What we have done today:
  1. Drilling and logging.
  2. Setting up equipment in warm laboratories. Working on connecting the two warm laboratories with melt water flow lines.
  3. Processing ice cores.
  4. Repairing snow blower. A safety pin and a belt have been replaced.
  5. Carpentry work for warm laboratories.

 

Note: this picture should be vertical. After a fishing round, drillers were able to grab the core barrel with our lock tool and get it back to the surface. The picture is taken as the core barrel (with the spirals) comes out of the hole (to the left).

Ad.1: Drillers report: 

We strongly suspect, that the new cutters, which are 0.5 mm larger than the previous set, touch the sides of the hole during decent. This creates a torque that may unlock the core barrel. As the new cutters are made for 132 mm diameter hole, the hole is slightly too narrow. We therefore consider enlarging the diameter of the hole below 1000 m depth.
Driller’s depth: 1823.44 meters.  Logging depth: 1836.95 meters
 
Ad.3: Processed 20 bags, last bag 3293, 1811.15 m. ECM determination of onset of IS 11 is 1810 m.


Weather: Fine all day. -10°C to - 5°C, 10 knots from S. Visibility:
Unrestricted. Much too warm for the season.

FL, J.P. Steffensen


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