Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 12/02/2007 - 17:15
Forums
Antarctic Ice Sheet Studies

Mr. Gillette:  My husband and I are tracking your expedition and wondered just how thick the ice is at WAIS.  Judging by the info given we are figureing it is about 2 miles thick.  Just how do you drill in ice that thick?

 Karin and Paul Schepmann

Sun, 12/02/2007 - 19:02

Brandon Gillette

Glad to hear you're following along.  It's nice to see different people on here, even if we haven't met.  It's very interesting to see who starts following along.  As far as your questions, Huw looked up the information using some GIS package and was able to find that the thickness of where we will be is right around 3,430 meters thick!  As far as drilling in concerned, we will be using a hot water drill that heats up the bit as well as uses pressurized hot water to essentially melt the ice.  We're only drilling down about 35m, just deep enough to drop the explosive charges we'll use to take our measurements.I hope this helps and adds some clarification.  You'll hear much more about this process in journals later this week!
Thank you for following along and be sure to check back often!
Cheers,~Brandon