2 June 2009 The Drill Trench

                      Why are scientists drilling ice cores anyway? The history of climate can be found in ice cores by a process called fractionation. Now that’s a spelling word! This just means that they break apart the oxygen molecule that they find in the bubbles in the ice core. They use an instrument called a Mass Spectrometer which separates the oxygen atom into 3 types: O16, O17 and O18. The O18 is heavier so it is left to tell climate history.  

The oldest ice cores drilled in Greenland are 123,000 years old. In Europe the Eemian period (about 130,000 years ago) was about 5 degrees C warmer than today and sea levels were around 5 meters higher. So if scientists knew what happened during this time, they might be able to predict what will happen in our warming world today. Therefore the goal of NEEM (North Greenland Eemian ice drilling) is to obtain a complete ice core record from the Eemian to compare with our present climate. This will not happen this season, but they hope to reach a steady routine of drilling 170 meters per week. They also hope to pass the brittle zone (750m – 1250 m when the gas pressure of the bubbles cause it to break the ice) this season.

Today I went down in the drill trench. To get to it, I walked down an icy ramp to a doorway (a piece of plywood) and slid the door open. Now I was underground surrounded by ice walls, an ice and wood ceiling and an ice ramp.

I was amazed that it had all been dug out. A few steps down and I was in the drilling room.

The scientists are testing the different drills they use and have drilled 200 meters so far this season. I watched a 2 meter core drill and saw it pushed out as well.

Do you think the drilling room needs to be cold? It is -25C or -13 F, but it doesn’t feel as cold because it is not windy. There is another room in the underground which has a lab for analyzing some of the cores and stores the cores they drill. Two drillers showed me around, Krissy and Hans Christian.

Tonight all the camp went down into the trench to watch the new drill on its maiden voyage. This drill can make an ice core that is 3.5 meters long. That is a whole meter(39 inches) longer than the one they have been using. The drilling can go faster with this longer drill. The drillers were successful with their core, but they had problems getting the ice core out and a damaged cable. Tomorrow will be a repair day and another test run.