SEA ICE TRAINING

 

SEA ICE TRAINING

This is what we drove off of the base with out to Big John's Crack (I should double check on that name probably).

Left to Right: Hilary, Laura, Dan and McKenzie

We were able to dig approximately two 25 ft long x 2 ft deep trenches to clear the snow in order to reach the top of the ice shelf. I'm trying to dig (back, right) but my hands were not cooperating with me nor with the cold for most of that day.

 After a short training course, we used the Jiffy Drill to drill through the sea ice and into the actual sea. The point of the excercise was to understand how to profile the ice shelf, or really, where a crack has formed and/or healed. We need to know ice depth to map out where vehicles are permitted to cross. 30 inches in depth, I believe, is the rule of thumb here for 'light' vehicle crossing. This year is very different however, and we weren't seeing what you'd expect to see in a typical ice profile, as to say, it's uneven, thinner than usual and a bit more unpredictable. When we go out into the field we'll be using a similar drill - but much larger - and it will require two people to handle it at all times.

Each drill bit is 1 meter long (3 ft) - some places we would use less than 1 meter before hitting the water, in others we used 2 or 3 stacked bits (a 3 meter long drill bit) before we hit.

Sea Ice Training team pic! I'm not sure why my hand is up (bottom right). I might have been trying to see if my fingers were still there or trying to do a thumbs up (unsuccessfully).