Little Dome C - Beyond EPICA Oldest Ice Drilling Site (75.29917 °S, 122.44516 °E) – Season 2023/24
Situation Report #50, 15 January 2024
Arrival of the -50°C (and it spare) container at MZS. Photo: F. Joos. Credit: Joos©PNRA/IPEV
Celebrating the last processed ice core of the season. Photo J. Westhoff. Credit: Westhoff©PNRA/IPEV
Stable water isotope plot of EPICA and Beyond EPICA – note the peak of MIS 5e (the last interglacial) (from A. Landais)
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), and Inès Gay (IPEV)
Personnel @MZS: Fortunat Joos (UNIB), Michaela Mühl (UNIB)
Weather at LDC 1 pm: cloudy and windy, T = -21.9°C, Wind = 7.5 m/s
Today we continued the shift drilling.
In the morning we processed the last ice cores for this season. Processing stopped at 1,695 meters, resulting in 1367 m processed throughout the season 
. The cores that will be drilled in the next three days, will be logged, and stored for next season. The processing team began packing up the scientific trench this afternoon. Tomorrow we will move the last ice core boxes from LDC to Concordia.
At the same time, we carried out some more test down to 30-meter with the IGE's 300-meter corer (F2G).
The -50°C refrigerated container was unloaded from the Laura Bassi boat and transported to MZS today.This container will transport our temperature sensitive cores (b-cuts) back to Europe
What we did today at LDC:
- drilling in shift;
- processed the final 27 ice cores;
- started packing the science trench;
- started packing the camp;
- drilled a 30 meters core just outside of camp.
End of day statistics at 19h30:
- Driller’s depth: 1735.99 m;
- we made 7 drilling runs between yesterday 19h30 and 19h30 today. The length of the cores was: 4.51, 4.54, 4.48, 4.49, 4.5, 4.44 and 0.22 (driller length), for a total of 27.18 meters.
- Logger’s depth: 1735.77 m.
- Current processing depth: 1695 m; daily total: 27 m; season total: 1367 m.
Olivier Alemany, Matthias Hüther, Julien Westhoff and Saverio Panichi. LDC, 15.01.2024