We have drilled and processed about 44 meters of firn so far while at Summit. The goal is for 120 meters, so we are about one third of the way there. The pore close off between firn and ice is approximately 80 meters. Dr. Jeff Severinghaus and Vas Petrenko continue to sample firn air about every 10 meters. Every time a core sample comes out of the drill barrel it is really fun…and exciting. Sometimes there are differences you can see, such as the large ice crystals that have been found at the same depth in various drilling locations at Summit indicating a melting and refreezing of the snow. This occurred approximately 30 years ago.
While the drilling team was working to bring up new core samples, and the core processing team was preparing the core samples, Zoe Courville was digging another snow pit next to the one she had dug several days ago. This second pit had a wall in common with the first. The sun provided the lighting and when in the second pit with the plywood covering the top, you could see the various layers of accumulation from winter and summer snow. Summit receives about 60 cm of snow a year. In the picture the bands of darker snow represent winter accumulation and the lighter bands, summer accumulation.
Before leaving to go back to the main camp, we all took time for a group picture with the O'Leary Junior High School flag. Go Cubs!
After dinner, Mary Albert presented her involvement with the Norwegian/US traverse of East Antarctica. The group will leave Troll, a Norwegian base, and traverse about 1600 km to South Pole. They will start the end of October and plan to arrive at South Pole near the middle to end of January. Mary and Lou Albershardt will both be on that trip and they will be using the same drill that Lou is using for our project here at Summit.
