I’ve got a long story to tell so Ill try to make it short and just get to some fun pictures. I was originally planning on (as was the rest of the WISSARD project) an early winter deployment to the ice this year. As a result of the government shutdown the scope of this years work was significantly reduced as well as the required personel. Instead of going to the grounding zone with the big WISSARD drill this year it was decided to deploy a small crew and use the mobile drill developed at UNL to drill 2 sites 50-100 miles from Lake Whillans and deply geophysics instrumentation in Ice Stream B.
I was originally not going to deploy but Dar Gibson (hot water driller) was unfortunately injured and flown back to New Zealand. I was asked to come down and replace him for the field season and was very fortunate to be in a position to do so (with many thanks to my employer, Davis Tool, Inc.).
Im currently in McMurdo and am scheduled to go out to the field camp 1/13. In the meantime, Ill be posting pics about the trip south and try to touch on what it is that we are doing this year and some of the technology that is part of this years field season. Pictures from the field won’t be posted until Im back in Mactown because we have limited communications from the field. In the meantime, as secondary resources to this blog, there are two sites that are regularly posting a lot a good information and updates on this years field season:
Last years work at Lake Whillans was a huge success and we plan on delivering this season as well. Discovery magazine ranked the Wissard project as the #12 out 100 top science stories of 2013.
http://discovermagazine.com/2014/jan-feb/12-the-search-for-life-trapped-under-ice#.Usx8MPRDtBY
We will be flying out to the same location as last years WISSARD camp on a C-130 and snowmobiling out to this years field camps from there.
More details and pictures to follow. I’m off to a cold weather survival training refresher and to help out with some instrumentation mods for the afternoon.
lemarctica 