The wind came!

Trevor (on snowmobile), Gregory and Myriam are picking up ice cores in boxes for transport to the science trench in the strong wind.

This morning the bad weather began. Wind picked up, and soon the snow began to move. Around mid-afternoon the wind speeds culminated with mean wind of 30 knots and gusting to 40 knots. Towards evening the wind abated slightly to about 22 knots. Snow is blowing through camp, making it difficult to see, and forming snowdrifts. According to our forecast, this weather will continue at least the next three days – tomorrow slightly worse than today. Camp personnel were briefed on safety procedures during blizzards, and radios were issued to the different teams. The snowmobiles have been parked in the garage, since the low visibility and the appearance of new snowdrifts in camp makes driving dangerous.

What we have done today:
1.  Drilling. 12 good runs. Excellent cores. Depth: 173 m.
2.  Processing NEEM S1 2011 420 m core. Bags 12-53 (6.05m – 29.15m).
3.  CFA measurements.  Measured 26.4 m. Depth 2380.95m
4.  Maintained seismic station in science trench.

Drillers report: We made 12 runs today, each about 1.5 m. The breaks remain easy and controlled, and only a few cores show slight flaking from the core catchers. Drilling was slightly more complicated than normal, as we had to open the garage each time we extracted the core barrel and the air in the garage immediately filled with blowing snow.

Ad.2: The science trench is now set up for processing the 420 m core. It will be measured by DEP and ECM and samples will be cut for physical properties, for U.S. CFA and samples for shipment to France.

Weather: Thin overcast to scattered clouds. Temp. -15 °C to -20 °C, 20 - 30 knots (gusting 40 knots) from SSW and SW. Visibility 200 m, blowing snow.

FL, J.P. Steffensen

A lonely person finds his way in the blowing snow.

Darcy and Andrew are trying to clean the core barrel in the blowing snow inside the storage garage.