January 17 2018

Completion of deep drilling

A nice early-evening sun halo with reflection above it.

After 5 days of dry drilling and 15 days of wet drilling, the Mt Brown South ice core was completed at a depth of 294.6 metres on Sunday 14th January. We were unable to continue drilling because the cable holding the drill, and necessary for breaking the ice cores, was slowly degrading. Therefore the drilling was terminated, with excellent ice quality and the drill on the surface.

Over the past few days, we have undertaken surface science tasks such as drilling 20 metre snow cores and collecting samples from a 2 metre snowpit. The temperature profile of the borehole is also being measured, to provide a complementary climate history of the site. We have started preparing items for retro to Davis station, packing down the Hans Tausen intermediate depth ice core drill and securing items on the surface in case of bad weather.