Reports from the Ross Ice Shelf

Our mission to deliver globally important science has been a roller coaster of highs and lows over the past few days.

Happy Holidays and Merry KIS-mas, from the SWAIS2C on-ice team at KIS3 on the Ross Ice Shelf!

After the night of ‘open hole’ science, it was time to move the ‘big rig’ into place – our AIDD (Antarctic Intermediate Depth Drill).

It’s ‘open hole’ science time at KIS3.

We have a full house at ‘Tent City’!

In the early hours of the morning, our team of hot water drillers successfully melted their way through 587.

Big changes are afoot at KIS3. We are making great progress with our hot water drilling, so it’s time for some of the teams to move into 24-hour operations.

We have a great team spirit here at KIS3, and everyone pitches in to make the camp run smoothly, whether that is helping out with the dishes and sweeping the…

Our science and AIDD (Antarctic Intermediate Depth Drill) teams had a productive hands-on session today.

The hot water drillers have begun to melt the main borehole.

While our hot water drillers are busy getting our hole through the ice shelf underway, our AIDD (Antarctic Intermediate Depth Drill) team have also been hard at work with our…

The last members of our on-ice team have arrived in Antarctica, and have taken part in Antarctic Field Training (AFT) to learn essential skills required for life at our deep-field…

Today the team began boring the well hole through the Ross Ice Shelf.

Running out of clean socks on the Ross Ice Shelf? Camp mini-washing machine to the rescue!

The hot water drill team are making excellent progress at KIS3.

Five members of the science team, including the two Co-Chiefs Richard Levy and Tina van de Flierdt, flew to the drilling site at KIS3 on 4 December on a Basler…

The wind at KIS3 has eased, allowing the drill teams to complete the final step of assembling the drill tent – putting the skin on.

The Antarctica New Zealand traverse arrived at KIS3 on 15 November, after a 15-day, 1328 km journey across the Ross Ice Shelf.

The first SWAIS2C field season at the KIS-3 drill site on the Ross Ice Shelf is over, and our on-ice team is heading home with some cool new data and…

What is an interstitial water sample and why do we care?

Merry KIS-mas from the SWAIS 2C Team! We here at the SWAIS 2C KIS3 camp wish everyone a happy and joyful holiday season!

Today we took a little time to make our camp feel a bit more festive in preparation for Christmas!

Our team are on the largest shelf they can think of, and it's nearly Christmas (for those who celebrate). So of course there needs to be an elf!

The larger hole (~35 cm) through the Ross Ice Shelf was completed today!

It’s the small luxuries… Remote field work in Antarctica often involves going weeks without a shower or clean clothes.

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…

When the wind blows… After a beautiful day on Tuesday with sunny skies and very little windy, today started out grey and windy and it kept getting windier and colder throughout…

Once the hot water hole is completed through the Ross Ice Shelf, we will have about 12 hours to do science operations in the ocean gap between the ice and…

The Antarctic Intermediate Depth Drill (AIDD) has three coring systems that we can use: a hydraulic piston corer, a push corer, and a rotary corer.

Undertaking a drilling project of this scope in a remote area along the Siple Coast of the Ross Ice Shelf requires a lot of careful preparation and a well-designed camp.

An important part of the Antarctic Intermediate Depth Drill (AIDD) system is the sea riser, which helps to support the drill string when drilling from floating ice.

Preparations are gearing up to begin operations soon.

Where do you go when you need to go on the Ross Ice Shelf?

Antarctica is the driest place on Earth, so even though it is cold, we have to drink a lot of water to stay hydrated here.

Today the science team members still at Scott Base got up early and waited for the go/no-go announcement for the flight to the drill site.

The Antarctic environment poses many challenges to deep field operations, including scientific drilling for the SWAIS 2C project!

One of the most important things at a remote camp in Antarctica is feeding all of the people at the camp!

All of the camp structures are set up, connected to power, and working well! We also completed the food inventory and stored everything away.