Little Dome C - Beyond EPICA Oldest Ice Drilling Site (75.29917 °S, 122.44516 °E) – Season 2023/24
Situation Report #32, 28 December 2023
Outer tube pins and antitorque blades, which we fine tuned today. Photo: O. Alemany. Credit: Alemany©PNRA/IPEV
Personnel @LDC: Saverio Panichi (ENEA, Camp Leader), Olivier Alemany (CNRS), Philippe Possenti (CNRS), Matthias Hüther (AWI), Remi Dallmayr (AWI), Gunther Lawer (AWI), Johannes Lemburg (AWI), Andrea Ceinini (ENEA), Federico Scoto (CNR), Tamara Gerber (UCPH), Iben Koldtoft (UCPH), Julien Westhoff (UCPH), James Veale (BAS), Michaela Mühl (UNIB), Fortunat Joos (UNIB), and Inès Gay (IPEV)
Weather at LDC 1 pm: sunny and windy, T = -20.9°C, Wind = 3.5 m/s
Preoccupied by the increase in inclination, we decided to mount the 3-meter version of the AWI drill, and to fine-tune the adjustment of the anti-torque blades and the six screws used to center the corer in the borehole. It took some time to find the right fit. After some tries, we find the good setting, first with the 3 meters long drill, and then with the four meters long drill. We went back drilling with this set up tonight. It seems that we are now able to drill again more than 4 meters core.
We processed 74 ice cores today, reaching a depth of 1237m.
We also started using the new sanitary module, trying to find the right operating mode. Our thanks again to IPEV and PNRA for their support in enabling us to benefit from this module.
What we did today at LDC:
- troubleshooting the drill setup, to reduce the high load on the drill head;
- processed 74 ice cores;
- drilled with the new IGE/F2G shallow drill.
End of day statistics at 19h30:
- Driller’s depth: 1277.00 m;
- we made 8 runs between 19h30 yesterday and 19h30. Our production hasn’t been so good du to our antitorque problems. The length of these core was: 4.47, 1.82, 0.32, 0, 1.83, 3.39, 0.85 and 4.43 (driller length), for a total of 17.11;
- Logger’s depth: 1278.85 m
- Current processing depth: 1237 m; daily total: 74 m; season total: 911 m.
Olivier Alemany, Matthias Hüther, Julien Westhoff and Saverio Panichi. LDC, 28.12.2023