Clean subglacial access: prospects for future deep hot-water drilling.
Clean subglacial access: prospects for future deep hot-water drilling.
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DOI：
10.1098/rsta.2014.0304
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发表时间：
2016-01-28
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Siegert MJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Makinson K;Pearce D;Hodgson DA;Bentley MJ;Smith AM;Tranter M;Rose M;Ross N;Mowlem M;Parnell J;Siegert MJ
南极冰盖下的冰下环境的探测和采样对现有的钻探技术提出了几个挑战。据信，超过一半的冰盖位于湿床上，在这种环境下钻探必须符合国际环境管理和保护协议，使清洁热水钻探成为最可行的选择。这种钻机及其水回收系统必须能够进入比以前的热水钻机大得多的冰层深度，并在与基础水文系统连接后保持充分运作。冰下湖埃尔斯沃思（SLE）项目制定了一个全面的计划，深（大于3000米）冰下湖的研究，包括设计和开发一个干净的深冰热水钻。然而，在2012年12月的实地工作中，由于一系列设备问题导致未能与地下洞穴连接并放弃了进入孔，钻井被停止。从这一经验中吸取的教训在此介绍。结合从这些经验教训中获得的知识，从其他热水钻井计划的经验，和最近的现场测试，我们描述了最可行的技术方案和操作程序，未来清洁进入SLE和其他深冰下访问目标。
Accessing and sampling subglacial environments deep beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet presents several challenges to existing drilling technologies. With over half of the ice sheet believed to be resting on a wet bed, drilling down to this environment must conform to international agreements on environmental stewardship and protection, making clean hot-water drilling the most viable option. Such a drill, and its water recovery system, must be capable of accessing significantly greater ice depths than previous hot-water drills, and remain fully operational after connecting with the basal hydrological system. The Subglacial Lake Ellsworth (SLE) project developed a comprehensive plan for deep (greater than 3000 m) subglacial lake research, involving the design and development of a clean deep-ice hot-water drill. However, during fieldwork in December 2012 drilling was halted after a succession of equipment issues culminated in a failure to link with a subsurface cavity and abandonment of the access holes. The lessons learned from this experience are presented here. Combining knowledge gained from these lessons with experience from other hot-water drilling programmes, and recent field testing, we describe the most viable technical options and operational procedures for future clean entry into SLE and other deep subglacial access targets.