Position: 76 deg 4 min S, 22 deg 28 min E, 3587 meters a.s.l.

Site 91 is our first major science stop, and today was our first full day here.  After a short meeting this morning, everyone picked up where they left off last night.  The largest task at the major science stops (Sites 91, 92, 93, 94) is the ice core drilling.  This morning, Lou, Stein, Glen and Tom finished setting up the Eclipse drill, and reached 31 meters depth by the end of the day; Atsu and Jan-Gunnar used a hand-powered drill to collect shallow cores; Karsten and Helgard worked on processing radar data and replacing some parts on their systems (and we hope Karsten’s mother is feeling better!); Stian assembled one of the UAVs and is hoping to do a test flight tomorrow; and Einar, John and Kjetil worked on projects around camp.  Drilling started off a bit slow, but improved when Stein began singing to the drill.  Atsu and Jan-Gunnar invited Stein over to sing to their drill as well, and notable improvements were achieved.  (Stein’s services are available for all manner of mechanical and electro-mechanical drills, and he is also available for weddings.)

- Tom

Image: Karsten checks some preliminary data, while Glen works on the core processing area.

Below is the Polar Puzzle of the Week* for week 4, and the answer is below it.  A new

Polar Puzzle for week 5 is on our web page – click on the Education button to see it!

"Polar Puzzle 4:  You are driving across the ice sheet to collect ice cores for climate science.  You fill the gas tank of your new tracked vehicle, which holds 200 liters and gives you ¼ kilometer to the liter.  That should easily get you to the next drilling site, which is 40 km away. Unfortunately, about 10 km from the site, the vehicle stops because the gas tank is dry. You can see the last drops leaking out of the tank.  How many liters of gasoline were lost due to the leak?"