After years of planning and preparing and so much hard work of so many, including three weeks of set up time, trouble shooting and dry runs of hotwater drilling (HWD) and sediment drilling (AIDD) systems, our team has broken through the ice!
The hot water drill has successfully melted through almost 590 m (1,935 ft) of the Ross Ice Shelf and broken through its base to reach the ocean cavity below. Congratulations, KIS-3 Team! The drillers successfully made the small pilot hole through the ice shelf and are now “reaming” the hole to increase the diameter to 35 cm so that the tools we will deploy can fit through it.
After widening the hole, we'll take water samples & deploy the CTD, which measures conductivity (which will tell us the salinity), temperature, and depth of the ocean cavity. Then it will be time for to position the drill rig over the ice hole to deploy the riser and start coring with the AIDD system.
