7 February 2018 Back at Dartmouth College

After school on Monday, I flew up to New Hampshire to spend a few days at Dartmouth College observing how the ice core samples we collected were to be tested. We spent most of yesterday and today working on setting up the equipment. Unfortunately, the micro-CT machine isn't operational and will require an outside assist visit to repair. We got the other test apparatus working today and ran a couple of test runs.

A small piece of ice is placed under a brass plate with a piece of equipment called an LVDT (linear variable differential transformer) attached to it. The LVDT has a threaded metal plunger which is pressed in as the brass plate pushes down on the ice sample. To simulate the weight of the ice that would have been piled on top of the sample in Greenland, weights are put on top of the brass plate. Over a period of several hours, the ice is slightly deformed by the force being applied to it. This deformation is what we are looking for because it will show how ice in the Greenland Ice Sheet evolves over time.

We had hoped to do more tests today, but we stopped a bit early due to a winter storm which is currently dropping 6-10 inches of snow. My winter driving skills are a bit rusty, but I love seeing a good snowstorm. We don't get this kind of beautiful winter weather back home in Florida!