EAGER: Collaborative Research: Shallow Cased Drilling Capabilities in Extreme Environments

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Non-Technical AbstractSeismology is the study of vibrations in the earth that result from earthquakes, volcanoes, and many other seismic sources. To better understand these vibrations, seismologists install highly sensitive equipment (seismometers) in carefully controlled environments to record the smallest possible signals providing higher quality data to analyze. Like listening to music on a bad set of speakers can remove the nuances of the particular song, seismometers in noisy installations cannot detect the nuances of say signals from a volcano. As these experiments move closer to the actual source (volcano) the environment gets more difficult to control, resulting in noisier data and less signal. Therefore, seismologists strive to improve the installations of seismometers in these difficult locations to improve the data recorded, and thus, improve the understanding of how, in this case a volcano, works and how better to understand the risks it poses. This project will seek to vastly improve seismometer installations in very extreme environments by developing a small, helicopter-portable drilling rig that can be flown to very high altitudes and be operated in very low temperatures. The target for the testing of this new drilling capability will be at the summit of Mt Erebus, Antarctica the southernmost active volcano on Earth and one that is less than 25 miles from the United States largest research base in Antarctica McMurdo Station. At the conclusion of this project, the researchers will have the capability to install high quality, posthole-style seismometers anywhere in the world in nearly any environment.Technical AbstractThis project consists of the development and proof-of-concept demonstration of new technology to install posthole-style seismic sensors in varied rock conditions at high altitude (above 3,000 m) and extremely cold locations, such as high volcanoes and/or mountain/polar regions. In particular, we propose to develop a helicopter-portable drilling system that can drill up to 15.25 cm cased and grouted, vertical postholes suitable for high-performance broadband seismic sensors or other instrumentation. A full demonstration of this capability is proposed by drilling five sites near the summit of Mt Erebus volcano and three sites around the perimeter of Ross Island, Antarctica to facilitate the installation of a new Erebus seismic and infrasound network. The capabilities developed under this award will be useful to geophysical and more general Earth science investigations in other areas and regions. The portability of the system combined with its ability to operate in extreme environments ensures that it will be more than suitable for operating in diverse conditions world-wide. This capability will enable collection of new types of and higher quality data, for scientific advancement. By engaging a broad and experienced team in the design phase, we expect to benefit from collective expertise and knowledge sharing and ensure that the designs and solutions we develop are effectively implemented in the final product that will broadly benefit the Earth science community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.