Written 2 December, 2007
3587 meters above sea level
Minimum temperature: -45 °C

Now that we have been here at Site 91 for three days, several of the main tasks here are done, and the list of things to do is becoming shorter. The big event yesterday was finishing the 90 meter ice core (well, 90.40 meters actually).



Drilling went so well that the core was finished almost a day early. Mary and Tom also finished the work in the snow pit by measuring the thermal conductivity and grain size, and collecting samples for stereology, stable isotope analyses, and trace chemistry. Atsu and Jan-Gunnar finished collecting the short cores, Glen measured the fine scale surface topography, Kjetil worked on keeping the vehicles happy, and Karsten made some detailed radar measurements in the area. The next big tasks will be the installation of Atsu’s temperature string and collecting a 30 meter ice core to examine the physical properties of the firn. In the photo, Mary and Glen pack the last piece of the 90 meter core.

Today was also the last full day for the part time crew (Unni, Torbjorn and Tom) who head toward home tomorrow. This is also the last update that I (Tom) will be writing. I want to thank NP and the U.S. National Science Foundation for the opportunity to participate in this project, the rest of the crew for putting up with me the last 6 weeks. It has really been a great experience and I have learned a lot. I’m looking forward to following the rest of the traverse through these pages. Cheers!

This contribution is from the log of the Norwegian-US Scientific Traverse Team, who are en route from Troll Station to the South Pole Station. Much more information can be found here.