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THE ARCTIC

DISC

Photos © 2005 Seth White

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So there's this big while building that is here now that was not here in May. I noticed this shortly after I got off the plane, and subsequently found out that this was the "DISC tent". DISC is an acronym for Deep Ice Sheet Coring drill, and I understand there are some innovative technologies being put to the test for the first time in this drill. The ultimate destination for this drill is the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide project (WAIS Divide), where it will drill the first deep ice core from West Antarctica.... all the others have come from the East Antarctic plateau. Lately it has been found that paleoclimatic (is this a word?) histories derived from these ice cores don't necessarily provide an accurate record of the history of West Antarctica. Essentially, Summit is a test for this system before it is taken down south for the 7 year project. So this facility is being constructed here this summer and next year, the drilling crew will come up and start the drilling. A nice by-product of this effort will be a core from this location, which will compliment several others taken from nearby sites around the Summit area.

The entire thing will be disassembled and then shipped down to Antarctica...plywood flooring and all (no kidding). The Summit construction coordinator this summer, Billy, will be going down this summer to help get the site set up for next year. With some major luck, I might get out there...but probably not. Here is the gantry crane.

This area will house the drill motor. This whole structure was built upon a snow berm, but prior to that this area of snow was built up and compacted to take the compressive loads of the motor without settling too much. The motor itself will be placed into this hole and rest on a set of footings.

Here is the snow pit that Eric, Robert, and Tom are digging out. This pit is here so that the drill itself can swing up horizontally and release the ice core segment. As of today, they are at around 27' and should have the thing down to the goal of 32' by tomorrow. There was a little delay yesterday when the winch used to hoist up the snow blocks failed. So Al took the winch off the Tucker Sno-Cat and rigged it up on the gantry.

The operation the guys have going here reminds me of hard rock mining. Well, there isn't any rock and there is plenty of light and it's cold as hell in the hole and there are no explosives or air tools or mining carts and there's no risk of silicosis, but other than that, it reminds me of a hard rock tunnel. They made a wooden box which is lowered down into the pit with a winch, filled up with snow blocks that are cut with shovels and electric chainsaws, then lifted and emptied on a sled to be dumped outside. The cross beams in the pit probably aren't necessary, but if it were me working 30' down in a snow pit I'd rather have them there too.

Here's a snowmobile backed up and ready to take the load of snow out.

So after the box is raised Tom comes over and puts this piece of plywood under the box. He lowers the box and then undoes one of the cables. Then when the box is raised, the bottom opens up and the snow blocks slide down onto the sled. So why the hell am I babbling on about this operation? Well, at this point there aren't many things here that are new to me. There are a few nooks and crannies and spots around station that I haven't completely explored, but not many. And making these webpages has become sort of a ritual for me when I'm on the ice. So even when there isn't a tremendous amount to talk about I still sit down and type away. Nonetheless, I still had never seen a legit drill camp before this, so this whole scenario is somewhat of an ice novelty to me.

The last stage in the process.

Three more pictures to round out this page because. This is a little trench dug out where they dump the snow, and yup, this is it: the tailings pile. It's kind of scenic actually, in a geometric sense. So here is one pic, to be followed by two more. They are going to take one of the blocks from 32' and cut it up for use in drinks. The snow at that depth is pretty hard actually, well on its way to becoming pure blue ice. Earlier during my stay I had a glass of Bailey's on the rocks, where the rocks were shards of ice from about 140 meters down on an ice core.

Another one of the snow blocks. I'm sitting here watching O Brother Where Art Thou, part of tonight's double feature with Pulp Fiction. O Brother is one of the most excellent films ever produced if you ask me. It's epic, and has that all-important rewatchability factor in spades. Last week, some people decided to put in the Jerri Nielsen movie. I don't know why the hell they did this, but they did. I was doing House Mouse at the time in the Big House, so I only saw a few parts of it. There were a lot of laughs, sarcastic comments, and groans from the Polies here...at least those who watched it. Some of them refused to waste their time with it. The funniest moment was when my back was turned and I heard this loud noise, coming from several people. I thought they were reacting to something really dumb in the movie, but no - it was just a couple Polies who had just walked in the building. Just realizing that movie was on was enough to get them to groan in unison. I have heard many, many stories about this whole episode from various people on the ice, including several who were at Pole at the time. And not one of these people had positive things to say about Dr. Nielsen or about the way the whole thing happened. During this movie, I overheard one such person comment to the effect that "Even before all this happened, she was not the kind of person I would have stood up for... and that's all I'll say about that". 'Nuff said.

Between tonight's films, I walked back to the Green House to get a bottle of Pinot Noir brought up by Jim in May. I figured a double feature was worth a glass of good wine. Earlier this evening we had our first period of legit sunshine since I got here. I thought it might be nice to walk around and take a few pictures, but sure enough an hour later the fog had rolled in and that put the kabosh on those plans. But on the way to the Green House I noticed a great fogbow over the Swiss Tower. So I went inside to get the camera and put the polarizing lens on, and a few minutes later when I came out it was nearly gone. It's amazing how fast the skies can change around here, but at the same time it's amazing how constant the crappy overcast weather has been for the past two weeks. Everyone here keeps commenting on how dismal it has been lately, and everyone is wishing for just one good day of sparkling sunshine before we leave. We'll see if that pans out. Tomorrow is the first bona-fide sunset of the season, and we're all hoping for clear viewing conditions. Again, we'll see.

Note: now it is "tomorrow", and the day has been the nicest we've had so far. The sun is out and we even got a decent halo earlier. Since I don't have anything to do for BSI until Monday, I have been outside most of the day doing stuff around the camp.