The 8th International Ice Drill Symposium

The BAS Rapid Access Isotope Drill, a new lightweight ice sheet reconnaissance tool.

1 Oct 2019, 16:40

20m

The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters

Oral Session 4

Speaker

Julius Rix (The British Antarctic Survey)

Description

The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Rapid Access Isotope Drill (RAID) is an innovative new class of electromechanical ice drill, which has recently been used to drill the deepest dry hole drilled by an electromechanical drill. The record breaking depth of 461.58m was drilled in just over 104 hours at Little Dome C. The drill is described as well as modifications since it was last used. Borehole temperature and stable water isotope results from Little Dome C are presented.

The next drilling season at Sherman Island is outlined with the addition complexity of reaming during the drilling process due to borehole closure at this relatively warm site.

Future developments are presented, including the ability to obtain a subglacial rock sample once the bedrock has been reached (P-RAID), borehole logging and a large version of the drill, BigRAID.