Field Season 2022/2023
The season 2022-2023 begin! Credit: Panichi@PNRA
The first fly over the LDC camp. November 2022. Credit: Augusto Piccioni-RaiNews24©PNRA/IPEV
Round trip to Little Dome C: "The situation is better than last year, but a lot of snow!" Credit: Panichi©PNRA/IPEV
Credit: Panichi©PNRA/IPEV
Credit: Panichi©PNRA/IPEV
Credit: Panichi©PNRA/IPEV
Credit: S. Panichi©PNRA/IPEV
Credit: Panichi©PNRA/IPEV
Drill tent open!!! Credit: Panichi©PNRA/IPEV
Credit: Panichi©PNRA/IPEV
Hard day at LDC: a severe storm wiped out the work done! Credit: Panichi©PNRA/IPEV
Day 1 - Romain working on the maintenance of the winch. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 2 - Sunlight on the logging table .... We are working on it. Photo: G. Celli (Leica Q, 18 mm, f5.0, 1/100, ISO 100); credit: Celli©PNRA/IPEV
Day 3 - Alignment of the core extraction table and electrical wiring of the FED (fluid extraction device). Photo: G. Celli (Leica Q2, 18 mm, f5.0, 1/200, ISO 100); credit: Celli©PNRA/IPEV
Day 5 - A lot of work on the drill today. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 5 - Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 4 - Mathias manufacturing anti-torque adaptor for EGRIP electronics. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 6 - The artificial ice core prepared by Florian and Markus to test the Swiss saw. On the background the old glorious EPICA workshop in Concordia. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 6 - Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 7 - Tired scientists are taking a little nap after lunch before being catapulted in the warm atmosphere (- 40 °C) of the drilling tent. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 7 - The perfect horizontal cutting made by the Swiss saw masterfully operated by Markus and Florian. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 8 - A new landscape today. Putting up the fiber-glass sticks for the photogrammetry project. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 9 - Saverio (Panichi) with the drill and the first deep core. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 9 - Close-up of the first deep core. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 10 - Markus and Florian are proudly celebrating the opening of the cold lab in Concordia. They will start working on the last season core in the coming days. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 11 - Giuditta, Rob and Julien in front of the logging table with the last (3.2 m) core of the day. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 12 - A detail of the drill head with some plastic pieces coming from the casing tubes. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 13 - The DEP setup in the cold lab of Concordia. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 13 - A detail of the the temporary core storage facility in the cold lab in Concordia. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 14 - Rob after putting the first core of the season into the buffer. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 15 - The cup of the gear with lot of metal shards from screws, bearing-balls and bearing cages mixed with the oil. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 16 - Details of the German drill. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 17 - Matthias and Frank after a long victorious fight with drill electronics. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 17 - Matthias and Frank with the first core drilled with the new AWI motor system, with Copenhagen outer and core barrels and AWI anti-torque system. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 34mm, 1/60, f11, ISO250). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 17 - Lunchtime with the visitors from Concordia Station. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2S, 24mm, 1/50, f5.0, ISO200). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 17 - The Arctic truck about to depart from Little Dome C camp to Concordia Station. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2S, 59mm, 1/640, f5.6, ISO100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 18 - Lemmie adjusts the AWI fluid pump while Frank looks on; to the left of the fluid pump is the connector that holds the core barrel, while to the right of the pump is the lowest part of the ‘hollow shaft’. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 16mm, 1/60, f8, ISO100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 18 - Martin raises the mast and drill from the horizontal to the vertical, in the midday sun, ready to send the drill down the borehole. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 24mm, 1/800, f8, ISO400), Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 19 - New day, new cutters on the drill head. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 16mm, 1/30, f14, ISO160). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 19 - Lemmie cuts away part of the lower outer barrel to make triangular slots to better capture the chips produced by the drill head. (Photo: Leonhardt, Leica SL2, 16mm, 1/160, f8, ISO400). Credit: Leonhardt©PNRA/IPEV
Day 20 - Romilly catches the drillers in an off-guard moment through the door of the drill control cabin (Julien in the centre, Giuditta to the rear, while Frank blows a raspberry in the foreground). (Photo: Harris Stuart, Leica SL2, 24mm, 1/20, f8, ISO400). Credit: Harris Stuart©PNRA/IPEV
Day 20 - Saverio and Michele refueling the drums that supply the heaters in the communal tent from the fuel tank on the Caterpillar Challenger tractor. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 31mm, 1/640, f11, ISO400). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 21 - Robert measuring a newly drilled, unbroken, 2.93 m long core on the logging bench. (Photo: Harris Stuart, Leica SL2, 16mm, 1/200, f11, ISO400). Credit: Harris Stuart©PNRA/IPEV
Day 21 - Romilly prepares to cut the core at the 1.0 m mark ready for bagging and onwards transport. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 27mm, 1/200, f8, ISO400). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 22 - Bound for Concordia! (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2S, 33mm, 1/400, f11, ISO100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 22 - Christmas Eve dinner. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2S, 24mm, 1/400, f3.2, ISO800). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 22 - The BE-OIC team in the Little Dome C drilling camp. (Photo: Leonhardt, DJI Mavic Pro 3 drone with L2D-20C camera, 12mm, 1/2500, f2.8, ISO100). Credit: Leonhardt©PNRA/IPEV
Day 22 - The BE-OIC team. Back (L-R) Matthias, Markus, Frank, Gunther, Florian, Julien, Giuditta, Andreas; middle (L-R) Martin, Romilly, Lemmie, Robert, Michele; front Saverio. (Photo: Leonhardt, DJI Mavic Pro 3 drone with L2D-20C camera, 12mm, 1/2500, f2.8, ISO100). Credit: Leonhardt©PNRA/IPEV
Day 23 - Lemmi prepares the hollow shafts for the long AWI drill which has a 4 m long core barrel. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 24mm, 1/16000, f4.211, ISO800). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 24 - We wave goodbye to Markus (left) and Florian (right) as they head back to Concordia after spending the holiday season with us. Vito looks on in the background. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2-S, 45mm, 1/500, f8, ISO100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 24 - The Arctic Truck departing the drilling camp, passing our welcome flag and sign, on a cloudy, low-contrast morning. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2-S, 90mm, 1/600, f8, ISO100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 24 - The 4-meter core barrel system laid out ready to set up on the drill tower. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 12mm, 1/2500, f2.8, ISO100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 24 - Photographing the halo around the sun. (Photo: Westhoff, GoPro Hero10, 3mm, 1/5400, f2.5, ISO100). Credit: Westhoff©PNRA/IPEV
Day 25 - Photo held over from previous day…. The 4-meter system outer barrel, which is 10 m long, is brought into the drill tent by (left to right) Matthias, Lemmi, Frank and Gunther to mount onto the drill tower, and connect to the anti-torque and motor sections. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 35mm, 1/160, f10, ISO400). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 25 - Julien shows of the lost and finally recovered screw. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 20mm, 1/25, f11, ISO400). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 25 - Close-up of the lost screw from the locking pin, jammed between the inner and outer barrel. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 35mm, 1/25, f11, ISO400). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 26 - Martin emerges from the inclined trench, tools in hand, after repairing the broken well-head hatch with a new piece of polyethylene that should cope with the temperature at the bottom of the trench. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2-S, 70mm, 1/125, f7, ISO400). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 27 - Saverio gets help making the pizzas from (left to right) Andreas, Giuditta, Julien, Michele and Saverio. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2-S, 36mm, 1/80, f78 ISO1000). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 28 - Romilly’s colleague Roxanne operates the vacuum and pressure pumps to extract air from a tube let into the near-surface compacted snow and compress into a ‘Silcocan’ gas canister for later measurement of the mix of gases in the laboratory at LSCE. (Photo: Harris Stuart, iPhone screen grab of video file). Credit: Harris Stuart©PNRA/IPEV
Day 29 - Arnold – the hardened steel cone cutter designed to isolate any debris in the borehole into a cone-shaped indentation on the top of the next ice core drilled. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2-S, 50mm, 1/100, f11, ISO400). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 29 - Markus and Lemmie carry an ice core box from BELDC into the Tubosider storage cave at Concordia Station. The tunnel is about 10m under the surface, and maintains a year-round temperature of around -50°C. (Photo: Mulvaney, GoPro Hero11, 3mm, 1/160, f2.5, ISO1000). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 30 - The drill head with flat cutters. (Photo: Mulvaney. Leica SL2, 35mm, 1/60, f9, ISO320). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 30 - The drill head with staggered cutters. Each cutter is designed to cut only one third of the kerf of the normal flat cutters. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 35mm, 1/60, F11, ISO500). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 30 - Gunther carefully sharpens the cutters for the drill head using a series of coarse to fine carborundum stones. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 25mm, 1/50, F8, ISO500). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 31 - Long cores are back! Romilly measures the length of a newly drilled core on the core-loggers bench. (Photo: Mulvaney. Leica SL2, 16mm, 1/30, f11, ISO100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 32 - Giuditta (right) and Romilly (left) with bag number 424 on the cutting bench. The break in the ice is the join between two runs of the drill. (Photo: Mulvaney. Leica Q2, 28mm, 1/250, f11, ISO1250). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 33 - Andreas with his birthday tiramisu, which was prepared for him by Franco, one of the chefs at Concordia Station. (Photo: Mulvaney. Leica Q2, 28mm, 1/80, f3.2 ISO100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 33 - Julien with ice core bag number 500 – the bottom of the one-meter length of core is 500 m from the ice surface. (Photo: Wilhelms, Leica Q2, 28mm, 1/250, f11, ISO5000). Credit: Wilhelms©PNRA/IPEV
Day 34 - The arrival of the French scientific traverse on a rather dull cloudy day. (Photo: Mulvaney. Leica SL2-S, 63mm, 1/640, f11 ISO100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 34 - We celebrate the 500 m drillers’ depth with all the BE-OIC team and with members of the French scientific traverse team with a perfect 3 m core on the loggers’ bench in the background. (Photo: Leica SL2, 16mm, 1/40, f9 ISO100). Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Day 34 - A geophysics survey site and the PB100 in the late-evening light. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica Q2, 28mm, 1/1000, f6.3, ISO100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 35 - Inside the core buffer – three shipping containers welded together with a door at each end. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2-S, 17mm, 1/30, f13 ISO5000). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 35 - Michele pushes clean snow towards the snow melt tank with the PB300. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica Q2, 28mm, 1/2000, f8, ISO100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 35 - The snow melt tank, attached to the end of the ITASE living module is almost submerged by snow pushed up by the PB300. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica Q2, 28mm, 1/1600, f8, ISO100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 35 - Saverio shovels snow into the melt tank in the evening sun. (Photo: Mulvaney, iPhone 7). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 36 - Pizza night with the seven colleagues from the French science traverse. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 16mm, 1/30, f13 ISO1250). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 37 - Martin and Robert with the PB300 at a GPS survey station R-1.5. (Photo: Leonhardt, DJI Mavic Pro 3 drone with L2D-20C camera, 12mm, 1/320, f2.8, ISO100). Credit: Leonhardt©PNRA/IPEV
Day 38 - Lifting ice core boxes from the core buffer onto a trailer to transport them to Concordia for long-term storage. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2-S, 36mm, 1/200, f8, ISO100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 39 - Martin and Robert extracting the core barrel from the main barrel of the drill. (Photo: Gunther Lawer, Nikon Z50, 1/2500, f2.8, ISO100). Credit: Lawer©PNRA/IPEV
Day 40 - Gunther returns to camp with the GPS survey instrument. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica, 33mm, 1/320, f8, ISO100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 42 - Romilly collects a series of 30 cm short cores along a photogrammetry transect. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica Q2, 28mm, 1/500, f5.6, ISO-100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 43 - The combined personnel from the BE-OIC drilling project, the French science traverse, and the Australian MYIC traverse. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2-S, 35mm, 1/500, f8, ISO-100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 43 - Relaxing on a Saturday night with the neighbours. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2-S, 16mm, 1/30, f8, ISO-400. Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 46 - The Australian Antarctic Division chartered Ken Borek Basler at the BE-OIC camp. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 37mm, 1/800, f9, ISO-100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
The Basler overflies the BE-OIC camp. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 30mm, 1/400, f10, ISO-100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 47 - Drilling reaches 800 m depth – this is the full team at the Little Dome C camp: (back, left to right) Martin, Florian, Gunther, Lemmi, Matthias, Michele, Frank; (front, left to right) Robert, Romilly, Saverio, Andreas, Julien, Markus. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 27mm, 1/50, f8, ISO-100). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 47 - The AWI engineers (L-R Lemmi, Mathias, Gunther, Frank) with the longest ever ice core drilled by a European team, 4.52 m in length, on the logging bench. (Photo: Mulvaney, Leica SL2, 24mm, 1/50, f11, ISO-500). Credit: Mulvaney©PNRA/IPEV
Day 47 - Robert stands alongside what he claims is the last ice core he will drill in a long polar career. (Photo: Leonhardt, Leica SL2, 24mm, 1/50, f13, ISO-125). Credit: Leonhardt©PNRA/IPEV
Sample storage trench at Concordia. Credit: ©PNRA/IPEV
Arrival of one of the -50°C sample transport containers at MZS. Credit: ©PNRA
Arrival of one of the -50°C sample transport containers at MZS. Credit: ©PNRA
The Beyond EPICA samples take flight! Credit: ©PNRA