Starting in 1989 the drilling project to go through the ice to bedrock at Summit began. On July 1, 1993 the Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two (GISP2) successfully drilled through 3053.44 meters down to bedrock. Snow doesn’t melt here since the average temperature is -31C which makes it an ideal area to study the ice cores and its preserved paleoclimate evidence.
Today, at Summit Camp, we had a webinar involving teachers and students from all over the country learning about physical properties of firn and gases within the pore spaces. Many scientists come to Summit to study and collect data, some even collect data year round. At dinner tonight, the cooks created a cake that looks like the Big House at Summit for the anniversary.
After dinner, Jack Dibb and Tracy Dahl gave a talk about the history of Summit and the future vision of the camp. The vision for this study site is to utilize renewable energy sources such as windmills and solar panels. Also, the buildings are old and technology has improved. Only the Big House can be elevated on jacks with the increasing snow levels and it has been elevated about four times since it was built in 1990. Other buildings need to be continually dug out. Additionally, designing more efficient operations and alternative vehicles (electric snowmobiles, for instance) can help develop a sustainable station which will support the scientists and their needs. They have great ideas and passion for this site and scientific studies.
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