Here are some photos of the ice drilling, and the site where we are working. All come courtesy of David Christenson, Greg Chmura and Ario Samudro, the video/photography team from Freeport McMoRan, which has been helping us with all phases of logistics.
The drill, powered by a generator, contains a hollow-bit tip. This is followed by sections of pipe that allow us to pull up cores of ice as the bit penetrates—much like drilling an oil well (but without the same problems). On left: Team member geoscientist Keith Mountain of the University of Louisville.Working the drill siteBy midmorning nearly every day, fog socks in the drill–then, in midafternoon, fearsome lightning storms regularly move in. Thus, for safety, we evacuate the site every day at 2pm.The site before weather moves in; note the crevassesA further viewOn the way back to our camp, the crevasses require careful stepsThe video/photography team. On left from left, Greg Chmura and David Christenson; right, Ario Samudro and David Christenson.Team member Vladimir Mikhalenko of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a veteran of many such expeditions, logs his notes for the day.
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What an amazing view of parts of the earth some of us will never see but thanks to fine photography we a get a glimpse of it.