WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: Ice Core Drilling 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:14.440 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.480 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:20.159 and How the Tech Are Young. We are about to 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:23.279 listen to a classic episode of tech Stuff. This episode 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:29.800 originally published in March. It is called ice core Drilling. 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:34.760 Pretty cool if you asked me, enjoy. I like to 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:40.280 think about ancient times, so when I come on other shows, 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:42.520 I like to be able to look to the past sometimes. 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:46.040 So Jonathan, I want to talk to you about Lake Vostock. 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:50.680 All right, So what is Lake Vostock. You've never heard 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.320 of it. I know Lake Lanier. Is it near Lake Lanier? 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:57.880 It's pretty close. No, it's a lake in Antarctica. But 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:01.400 it's not just any kind of lake. It's a sub 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:06.040 glacial lake, the biggest one in the world actually. So 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:09.480 it is a lake that is under a glacier, a 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:13.280 giant sheet of ice, and that glacier is really thick. 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:17.360 I've seen estimates from about two miles thick to about 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:20.520 four thousand meters of glacial ice over the lake, which 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:22.160 would be like two and a half miles. I guess 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.920 they're probably different segments where the ice is a different thickness, 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.200 and it's been buried in ice for millions of years, 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:34.720 al right, So in recent decades, scientists have been drilling 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:38.400 samples of the ice above this lake to study what's 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:41.319 down there. Um And whenever I picture this lake in 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:44.480 my mind, this lake buried under ancient ice, it makes 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:47.200 me think of Gollum's Lake under the mountain in the 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:50.600 Hobbit in the misty Mountains. Yeah, misty mountains. What did 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:52.160 the lake have a name or was it just where 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.320 the yummy fishes. I don't think it had a specific name. 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:57.240 If it did, it would have been a Goblin name, 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:00.320 so I would be, you know, unpronounceable for a mere 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:02.680 mortal that I am. Oh, I assume you speak Goblin. 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:06.160 I know grish Nacht is fire. That's the only thing 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:08.360 I can I can rattle off off the top of 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:13.040 my head. Well, anyway, when scientists drill down into this deep, 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:17.360 deep Antarctic golem lake below the ice, one of the 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:21.520 craziest things is that they've found d n A and 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:26.919 evidence of microbial life. And I remember there were stories 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:29.880 about how some ice samples indicated there might even be 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:35.320 more complex life like fish and arthropods in that water. Um. Now, 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:37.760 I know that was highly controversial at the time. I 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:40.720 just recently looked it up again to see if there 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:42.720 were there were any developments on that. I found a 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:45.240 piece of coverage from Nature News at the time throwing 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:48.720 some serious doubts on the on the live fish and 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:53.040 arthropods claim. So that's I'm sure not all that widely accepted, 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:56.480 but just the idea of it is so cool that 0:02:56.560 --> 0:03:02.480 you have this completely sealed off ancient alien life in 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:06.400 this lake below a mountain of ice, and things like 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:10.120 that make me think about deep time, Like how ice 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:15.720 is a cross section of geological time on Earth right, 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:19.880 Like there is layer upon layer of evidence of what 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:22.720 has happened in the past. Yeah. And and just in 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.000 case people are curious, like how could a subglacial lake 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:28.040 remain Why would you call that a lake? Why would 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:29.800 that not just be another part of the glacier. Why 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:34.560 wouldn't that just be ice? Geothermal heat actually counteracts the 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.640 freezing action of the ice above it, allowing the lake 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:40.240 to remain liquid. Oh, I actually didn't know why it 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:44.200 was liquid. Oh yeah, it's because of geothermal geothermal vents 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:48.440 that continue to keep the temperature of the lake above freezing. 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:52.839 So yeah, that's why, uh there can be a lake, 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:55.120 a sub glacial lake, because otherwise you would say, like, well, 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:58.080 wait a minute, how could it still remain how could 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:02.000 it remain unfrozen unless there are some other chemicals in 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:05.920 the lake that would uh lower its freezing point below 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:10.480 that of water. That's fascinating. Yeah, well, okay, you might 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:12.320 be wondering, wait a minute, what does this have to 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:15.280 do with technology. Well, we're getting get there in just 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:19.400 a second. So when you think about glaciers, I guess 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:23.360 at the polar regions. How do things like that form? 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:27.320 It's actually a pretty simple process. Every year it snows, 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:32.279 it'll it'll snow, and you get heavier snows in the 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:34.920 winter and lighter snows in the summer. Right, But in 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:38.760 some places in the world, unlike probably wherever you live, 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:41.080 if it snows around your house or your yard, eventually 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:43.080 that snow melts, right, right, you get to a point 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:46.400 where the season's warm, the snow starts to uh to 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:48.960 melt away, and then eventually you have no more snow. 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:52.880 But there's some regions where either the snow accumulation is 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:56.040 so great that it never completely melts or the temperature 0:04:56.160 --> 0:05:00.720 never rises above freezing and therefore it just continues to accumulate. 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:04.240 So every season you get a new layer of snow. 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:07.359 What happens when a new layer of snow goes on 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:09.919 top of the old layer of snow, Well, eventually it 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:12.839 gets kind of heavy. Yeah, it compresses in to the 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:16.599 point where the lower layers of snow are compressed into ice. 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.200 So then you get layers of ice. And if you 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:24.200 were able to look at these layers of ice collectively, 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:27.320 you could start to draw some conclusions about what had 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:32.400 happened the years when that snow first accumulated. And this 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:36.440 is what leads us to the practice of drilling down 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:41.160 into ice sheets and glaciers to retrieve samples to kind 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.479 of get a look back into the geological past of 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.760 the Earth. Yeah, exactly, So ice core drilling is a 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:52.800 way of getting at this cross section of geological time 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:57.480 that we can see in the ice layers of glaciers, 0:05:57.920 --> 0:05:59.599 and a lot of it's going to be you know 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:03.039 and play like Greenland or in Antarctica. Those are the 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:07.480 two chief sites for ice core drilling, where people have 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:12.359 to come up with these huge vertical samples of ice 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:16.640 that might be miles thick, right, And what I wanted 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.039 to know was, how on earth do they do that? 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:22.240 It can't be all that easy, can it is? It's 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:26.920 well easy, It is not simple. It is similar than 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:29.159 I would have expected, actually it is. It is a 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:32.640 simple method in the sense that it doesn't require tons 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:37.800 of complex machinery or techniques. But it is not easy 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:42.080 to do because it is difficult to reach to access 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:47.000 the areas, and the methodology can often require people to 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.479 essentially live on an ice sheet for a very you know, 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:52.960 like like a month at a time, depending on how 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:56.920 deep they want to drill. Right. So, uh, Within each 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:59.520 of those layers of snow that have turned into ice, 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:03.760 there are records of things of the past, like the 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:08.000 you know, ice can trap chemicals, for example, precipitation can 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.400 trap chemicals, and as that precipitation, in this case, snow 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:13.920 hits the ground, then you have a record of what 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:18.320 the chemical composition was at that given time. And then 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:20.880 other layers will pack on top of it and they 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:25.480 will have their own kind of you know, unique chemical fingerprint, 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:28.040 if you will. The layers don't just show you a 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:31.720 cross section of time. Each layer has data from the 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:34.560 time it comes from. It might even have like ash 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:38.040 from volcanic eruption. You can see chemical data like you 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:41.000 were just talking about the concentrations of different gases in 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:44.480 the atmosphere that become dissolved in little bubbles in these layers, 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:49.920 or you can see exactly ash from volcanic eruptions. You 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:53.560 can even discern things about the local weather patterns where 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:57.880 the glacier was at certain times in the past. We'll 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:00.240 be back with more about ice core drilling in just 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:10.080 a moment, but first let's take a quick break. Another 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:11.520 thing that I think is kind of cool with the 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:16.160 volcanic ash layers is that it lets you compare one 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:19.120 sample against another sample that was gathered somewhere else and 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:23.520 not necessarily justin ice. There are other core uh coreing 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:27.400 methods like that, going through peat bogs, for example, And 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:30.400 if you find a layer of ash that corresponds to 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:32.600 another layer of ash and a completely different sample, you 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:35.720 can say, oh, well, these both came from that same eruption. 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:38.840 That allows us to to corus correlate these two dates 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:41.960 together by the chemical composition of the ash and the 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:44.000 two layers, because the chemical composition is going to be 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:47.360 unique each eruption, So that way you can actually start 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:51.320 to build a global view of what had happened during 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:54.960 any given you know, uh year or span of years 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.439 in Earth's past, which is really interesting. I think. Yeah, 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:00.640 it's way cooler and more full of creep be ancient 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:03.640 power than you would have imagined ice drilling to be. 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.240 But I want to hear about the drilling itself. How 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:09.679 do they get these cores out of the glacier? Okay, Well, 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:14.199 there are two basic categories of drills, and then there 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:18.199 are are of you know, different examples of each category. 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:21.439 So the first big one are mechanical drills. Now, these 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:25.680 are drills that drilled down into the ice through mechanical action, 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:29.200 essentially rotating. Right. But normally when you think of a 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:33.120 drill that's making a hole in something, you are not 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:38.480 removing any section of that substrate intact. You're just making 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:41.560 a hole. I'm drilling in the wall. Well, it's going 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:44.760 to be this sort of like you know, cylindrical object 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:48.000 that's got screw thread kind of things on the outside 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.280 to move the shavings out of the hole as it 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:52.880 goes deeper in. It's just a solid knot. Yeah, it's 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:55.040 not going to give you a cross section of the wood. 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:57.520 So how do you get that? So in order to 0:09:57.559 --> 0:09:59.600 do that, you have to have a drill bit that 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:04.199 is is an actual hollow cylinder right the middle of this. 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:06.840 Instead of it being a solid shaft, it's a cylinder 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:09.640 that has cutting teeth on one end of it, so 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:13.640 that when it rotates, it creates this the the the 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:18.800 actual drill itself rotates around a column of ice, it 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:21.960 creates a column of ice cuts away so that you 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:25.000 know the center of the drill bit starts to accumulate 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:28.120 this ice. It goes straight down until you get to 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:32.160 the length of the drill itself, and obviously then you 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:34.800 can't go any further because you hit the cap, like 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:36.800 the top of the drill, and that's where you would 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:38.920 have to stop and try and retrieve the ice that 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:41.680 you've just drilled. Right, So you might think about it 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:45.280 kind of like this. Imagine like a tin can or 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.439 like a pipe, and then the lip of that pipe 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:52.720 is sort of like a circular saw blade. It's got 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:56.319 the blade is parallel to the length of the pipe obviously, 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:59.839 so it can screw down in right, and it's also 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:03.640 the teeth are usually adjustable, like you can either uh 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.240 extend them or attract them a little bit, depending upon 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:09.719 the nature of the ice that you're cutting into. So, 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:13.839 for example, if they are if the if the teeth 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:16.719 are retracted too far, it's gonna be really hard to 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:19.600 get purchase on the ice. It's gonna kind of skitter around. 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:23.000 Anyone who's had any experience with ice, nos, it's slippery, 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:24.559 and so you'd have to have the teeth be a 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:27.600 little bit longer. If they're too long, then they're going 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:30.960 to get caught in the ice. So it'll make it 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:34.960 more difficult to turn the drill and drill down into 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.720 the ice. So you have to find that that sweet spot. 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.640 And that's usually why the the teeth are adjustable, so 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:43.760 that you can make it the perfect length for whatever 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:47.480 conditions you encounter. You when you turn the drill the 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:49.920 proper way, it cuts into the ice and it and 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:53.040 it pulls in that cylinder like we were talking about. Now, 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:56.560 there's also gonna be some waste product from this drilling 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:59.640 in there. Yeah, chips of ice obviously are going to accumulate, 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:03.960 so uh often these drills have treads on the outside 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:08.120 of them, which will put push chips up to the surface. 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:11.240 Some of them have chambers that will hold chips to 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.079 keep it away from the ice core sample, because obviously, 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:17.880 if you're looking at at creating a sample for you 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:21.040 to study in the lab, you don't want to end 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:24.319 up mixing that material all up, because then you don't 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.760 have an accurate representation of what happened over any given 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:31.440 length of time. Right, You've you've corrupted your sample. So 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:35.480 most of these have a method of funneling chips up 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:39.840 into a chamber. Uh. And you know, are the the 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:44.200 simplest of these mechanical drills are the hand powered augers. 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:48.880 You actually move these by hand. It looks like a 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:53.320 kind of like a very long can, right, and the 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:56.680 top of it has like a t junction handle, and 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:59.480 like in cartoons when people have a dynamite box and 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.520 they push it right or like a jackhammer, you know 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:04.439 that kind of thing, And except of course, instead of 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:06.960 going up and down, you're twisting this in order to 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:11.520 create the rotational force. This translated into lateral force because 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:14.000 the drill is kind of like a the inversion of 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:16.760 a screw, right, So you're you're drilling down that way. 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:20.040 And you might think, well, you were talking earlier about 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.760 how some of the UM the core samples. We look 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:28.240 at our our kilometers long. How could you possibly get 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:32.000 a sample that's that long using a handogger? Well, first 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:35.880 of all, you can't, but secondly, uh, when we talk 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:39.040 about these core samples, Yeah, the entire sample might be 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:44.520 several kilometers long, but that's made up of segments. So 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:48.320 depending upon the drill you're using, your segments maybe between 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:52.880 one and six meters long, right, so uh, that's between like, uh, 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:56.439 you know, around three ft two around twenty ft long roughly, 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:00.640 um And in order for you to create a full 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:04.240 uh core sample, than what you would have to do 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:08.080 is lower the drill back down into the borehole that 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:11.640 you've started until it reaches the bottom, and you have 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:14.720 to use extenders to come up out of the borehole 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.920 so you can continue to drill downward. That sounds like 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:21.760 you pretty quickly reach a sort of maximum depth. For 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:26.120 these hand operated versions, you absolutely do, yeah, because eventually 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:29.320 you're not going to the the amount of rotational force 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:32.720 you'll have to create to rotate the entire thing, the 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:36.880 the drill and all the extenders will exceed the strength 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:40.760 and flexibility of that device, So you can't you can't 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.440 indefinitely use a handogger. It would also just seem to 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:46.920 be that that combined with whatever you have to hang 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:48.840 it on to get it deeper and deeper, would get 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:52.080 really heavy. Yeah. Yeah, you know, you keep in mind 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:56.520 like you're talking about lifting up six meters of ice. Uh, 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:58.760 And of course the diameter of this depends upon the 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:01.720 drill to write the drill, the drills diameter will determine 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:04.760 the diameter of the core sample. But you're still talking 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.160 about lifting all that ice, which is heavy lifting the 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:09.640 drill itself, which is heavy lifting all the extenders, which 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:11.560 are heavy. So eventually you get to a point where 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:15.040 you know you're just not gonna have the integrity to 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:17.840 keep that all together, which is when you need to 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:21.920 look at possibly switching to something else. So your typical 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:25.320 handoggers can go pretty darn deep. I mean, we're talking 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:29.520 twenty to thirty meters, that's like sixty six ft. That's 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:31.840 deeper than I would have expected. Yeah, me too, And 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:33.840 according to some of the things I read, it's more 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:37.000 like fortys is the maximum. Twenty to thirty tends to 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:39.520 be what people limit themselves to. But I think the 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:44.600 record was somewhere around forty so it's even further than that. Um. 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:47.040 So what do you do when you reach that that 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.080 limit where you can't use the handoggers anymore? Well, that's 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:54.560 when you try try kind of. You're using the electro 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:58.240 mechanical drills. These are suspended on a cable, so instead 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:03.160 of it having like a physic cool um turning mechanism 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:05.680 that extends all the way up to the surface there, 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:08.840 they they are actually suspended by cable lowered into a 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:13.920 borehole and they consist typically of two barrels. You have 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:18.800 an external barrel that remains uh motionless, it is, it 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:22.560 does not turn all right, So the external barrel is 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:28.000 uh just a stationary holding device. Then the inner barrel 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:31.760 is the one that can rotate, all right. So the 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:36.720 cable that suspends an electro mechanical drill, the cable doesn't 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.680 move at all either. It's just there to supply the 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:42.880 suspension mechanism and the power. So it's it's got the 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:46.200 power lines that go down to power the drill. The 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:50.080 inner barrel will rotate in the proper direction to continue 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:53.640 drilling down. And the inner barrel also has treads on 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:56.720 the external side of it, right, So those are going 0:16:56.760 --> 0:17:00.360 to be like the threads on your drill little bit 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:02.280 that are getting the shavings out of the wall and 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:05.159 the expa they're transporting the ice chips up along the 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:08.560 length of the drill. That's right, and so you would 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:11.560 use this the same way you would use your handdogger, 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:15.280 except of course, in this case it's an electrical uh action, 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:18.879 electro mechanical action that is causing it. So it's you know, 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:21.480 it's a it's a little bit easier on the people 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:23.320 who are operating it. They just have to make sure 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:27.360 that they're lowering it properly, and then it's at the 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:29.440 correct depth all of that kind of stuff, and and 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:31.479 that the teeth are at the right length. It's just 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:34.200 like the handdoggers. You've got to make sure that those 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:37.160 those teeth are are proper so that they can cut 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:40.760 into the material to ice properly. Uh So, usually you 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:45.080 also have another cool mechanism literally to hold the ice 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:47.720 in place. Once you've reached the point where you're ready 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:51.280 to lift up the next segment. They have spring loaded 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.840 lever arms inside that inner barrel that think of it 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:57.800 like little pincers that come in and hold that core 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.080 in place. Because you want it to be really steady. 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:04.440 When you're lifting that drill up. You know, you're talking 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.879 forty or more up a borehole. You don't want to 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:11.720 lose the grip on that ice core sample because that 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:15.080 would be bad. So the spring loaded lever arms hold 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:20.320 them and they are called something that I love, core dogs. 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:24.240 It's like it's like going to the county fair. You 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.439 get yourself and a couple of core dogs. I like 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:31.119 to go to Pelucaville to get my core dogs. Local 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:33.840 establishment here in Atlanta. Now there is another type of 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:37.400 drill that I love. Yeah, I think this is excellent. 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:39.600 I love looking at the picture. I was looking at 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:42.040 a picture of this before I read about what it was, 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:44.399 and I was like, I don't understand how it cuts 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:47.040 because it just looked like a pipe with kind of 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:49.800 a strange lip. It didn't have any teeth, right, And 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:51.480 then I read about it and I was like, oh, 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:56.040 I see it doesn't thermal drill. Yeah, so it's using heat. Yeah, 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:59.119 So imagine sort of a pipe that on the end 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:01.199 of the lip at the pie ape has a heating 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.840 element and it gets hot, melts straight through the ice 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:08.600 and just sinks on down there. Yeah. Yeah, until you 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:11.439 get to again to the end of the capacity of 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:13.440 the drill, and then you have to lift it back 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:16.719 up again. So yeah, it's really I love that idea, 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:19.600 the idea of of of let's just use heat to 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:21.640 work our way. I mean, come on, it's ice, let's 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:24.720 use heat to melt away down there. Yeah. That actually 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:27.240 does seem like you would have some limitations though, and 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:30.320 it does. In fact, you are you're more likely to 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:36.040 use that when you're using ice that is above minus 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:39.080 ten degrees celsius for example, you don't know, which is 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:41.960 fourteen degrees fahrenheit. By the way, you wouldn't use that 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:46.040 in colder areas because the melt off the water that 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.119 you would be creating as the heating element melts, the 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.480 ice would likely start to refreeze and that would become 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:56.520 a problem. So you are more likely to use it 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:00.639 in uh in quote unquote warmer since you waitions it 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.960 will still be really cold. Um. And then if you 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:06.600 were to encounter those colder situations, you would use electro 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:11.000 mechanical drill. And in fact, there are plenty of ice 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:15.640 core drilling projects that that will switch out the drills 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:19.320 based upon whatever the current conditions happen to be as 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:21.840 they are drilling. You've got a little bit more show 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:23.800 to go before we get to that. We're gonna take 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:37.119 one more quick break now. I would imagine that once 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:41.520 you get down to a certain depth, the whole enterprise 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:45.200 sort of changes. I mean, once you're getting two thousands 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:48.680 of feet down, you're going to start dealing with the 0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:52.840 ways that ice behaves kind of like a plastic and yeah, 0:20:53.200 --> 0:20:55.359 do you know what I mean. You gotta remember this 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:58.280 ice is under a lot of pressure. I mean, just 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:00.480 from wait alone, it's under a ton of pressure. But 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:04.640 there's also there are other elements there too. There's glacial flow, right, 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:09.159 glaciers move, they don't move very quickly, but there is 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:13.159 this pressure from glacial flow where the glacier is potentially 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:16.240 moving in a specific direction, which means that's putting pressure 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:19.480 on the borehole too. And if the pressure is too great, 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:23.120 that borehole can close, and by clothes, we've pretty much 0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:27.119 mean collapse in on itself. Like closing sounds pretty gentle, 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:30.159 it's not a gentle thing. Well, whether it's gentle or not, 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:34.200 it's a big problem for your research project exactly. So, Uh, 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:37.960 there are times where you will have these these projects 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:40.280 where they will start pumping liquid down the whole, and 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:42.560 there's a couple of different reasons for this. Some will 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:45.680 pump anti freeze liquid down the whole in order to 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:48.679 make sure that any melted runoff, for example, if you're 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:51.959 using a thermal drill doesn't refreeze, but then you may 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:55.560 need to put down a different type of liquid, another 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:58.360 one that would be less likely to freeze, in order 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:02.240 to equalize the pressure from inside the hole to what 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:05.280 what is outside the hole. Yeah, I read somewhere that 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:08.399 the drill fluid that they would normally use can be 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:12.919 something like kerosene, like a petroleum derived fluid. Uh, And 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:16.720 it just basically has to have the right freezing point. 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:19.479 And they wanted to be of a certain thickness right 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:21.199 right because they have to you know, if it's if 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:24.240 it's too thin, then it's not going to create the 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:26.880 pressure that they need in order to keep the whole stable. 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:30.760 And if the freezing point is too is too high, 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:34.040 then it's going to just end up mucking everything up anyway. 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:37.359 So it is a delicate balance. There's one project in 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:39.520 particular I wanted to talk about the kind of give 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:42.160 an idea of what it's like to work on one 0:22:42.200 --> 0:22:45.800 of these. Again, it all depends upon how deeply you 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:48.960 need to go when you're retrieving the ice core sample. 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:51.959 You know, how far back are you going to be looking. Uh. 0:22:52.119 --> 0:22:55.960 There's one called the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide Project. 0:22:56.240 --> 0:22:59.240 There's a recent effort by the United States and which 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:01.880 an ice core that was three thousand, four hundred five 0:23:01.920 --> 0:23:06.320 meters long, so three point four kilometers long, was retrieved 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:10.000 over the course of six field seasons. Now, they defined 0:23:10.000 --> 0:23:14.639