Deep ice drilling, bedrock coring and dust logging with the Rapid Access Ice Drill (RAID) at Minna Bluff, Antarctica

Abstract

Rapid Access Ice Drill is a new drilling technology capable of quickly accessing the glacial bed of Antarctic ice sheets, retrieving ice core and rock core samples, and providing boreholes for downhole logging of physical properties. Scientific goals include searching for old ice near the glacial bed and sampling subglacial bedrock. During field trials near McMurdo Station on a piedmont glacier at Minna Bluff in the 2019–20 austral summer, we successfully completed a ‘top-to-bottom’ operational sequence in three boreholes by (1) augering through firn, (2) creating a borehole packer seal in non-porous ice, (3) establishing fluid circulation, (4) quickly drilling a borehole in ice at penetration rates up to 1.2 m min−1, (5) acquiring a short ice core at depth, (6) penetrating the glacial bed at a depth of ~677 m, (7) recovering a 3.2 m core of ice, basal till and subglacial bedrock, (8) optically logging the borehole on wireline, (9) testing hydrofracture potential by overpressuring the borehole fluid and (10) operating in an environmentally benign yet rapid field mode. Minna Bluff testing, therefore, demonstrates the effectiveness of this integrated system to drill rapidly through thick ice and penetrate across the glacial bed to take cores of bedrock.

In-situ estimation of ice crystal properties at the South Pole using LED calibration data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

“…Yet to date, the overlap in sampled depth between SPC14 and IceCube is unfortunately too small to allow for quantitative comparison. This may be resolved by future drilling projects such as a potential deployment of the RAID drill (Goodge et al, 2021).…”

Drill-site selection for cosmogenic-nuclide exposure dating of the bed of the Greenland Ice Sheet

“…We recommend development of drills that can penetrate thicker ice and potentially ice where the bed is thawed. This could be done by modifying existing drill technology (e.g., Timoney et al, 2020;Goodge et al, 2021) or by requiring the development of entirely new drills. Expanding the area of the GrIS available for subglacial drilling would broaden the range of scientific questions that could be addressed regarding GrIS history and the range of possible targets.…”

“…Additionally, the recent results from the sub-GrIS environment, although derived using legacy material from sites not targeted for cosmogenic-nuclide measurements, have demonstrated the power of this approach. While drilling technology that allows quick access (i.e., in a single field season) to the bed below ice-sheet summits is being developed for application in Antarctica (Goodge and Severinghaus, 2016;Goodge et al, 2021), there is no such drill -or plans for one -to operate in Greenland. However, there are drills designed to quickly access the bed in locations where ice thickness is < 700 m (Spector et al, 2017(Spector et al, , 2018.…”

Progress of the RADIX fast access drilling system

“…Fast access ice drilling could be used to find suitable drilling sites in advance of new deep drilling projects and therefore reduce costs and avoid drill sites with unfavorable conditions. Several fast access drilling projects have been proposed and tested (Alemany et al, 2014;Clow and Koci, 2002;Goodge et al, 2021;Rix et al, 2019) The University Bern RADIX (Rapid Access Drilling and Ice eXtraction) project has been designed for drilling a very small diameter hole with a depth range of up to 3 km. It aims at minimal overall resources and weight.…”