One of the research projects that is new at South Pole this year is South Pole Ice Core drilling, wonderfully shortened to "SPICECORE." There are close to a dozen drillers and scientists (core handlers) down here working on this project. They had to build the structure you see below that goes around the drilling equipment and have so far drilled down about 500 meters, straight into the ice sheet of the Antarctic plateau.
One evening recently, the night crew sweetly took me out to the drilling camp (just a few kilometers from station) with them and gave me a tour and even let me help with some of the more no-brainer aspects of the drilling. I was out there for 2 hours, which is about how long it takes to lower the drill 1500 feet, drill a length of core (around a meter long), bring it back up to the surface, clean/measure/document it, and pack it up for transport back to the States. (The samples are flown to McMurdo, sent by vessel to San Francisco, and then trucked to Denver; they have to be accompanied the whole way by someone responsible for making sure they stay frozen.)
Recently the night team pulled up a core that had a visible ash layer in it from a volcanic eruption hundreds of years ago. So amazing to see this stuff.
G & D in their protective clothing to guard against the noxious drill lubricant that is all over everything in this building...and somehow all over them by the end of their shifts. In this part of the building it's basically the same temp as outside, so it's a chilly night for them.
J operating the drill from the warmed control room.
The core of ice we brought up while I was there.
Scientist K examining the core before packing it up for shipping.
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