A Hydromechanical Drilling System for Obtaining Rock and Sediment Samples from Under Deep Glacier Ice

该奖项支持开发一种新的岩心钻探系统，用于从南极冰盖下获取基岩和冰川沉积物样本，适用于北极冰川和格陵兰冰盖。在南极和北极的地质学、地球化学、冰川学和地球生物学的各种调查中都需要这样的样本。例如，对西南极裂谷系统的沉积岩和火山岩的研究，对快速移动的西南极冰川的研究，以及对冰床底部极端条件下生命的微生物研究。钻探岩心的能力将使其能够对南极大陆98%的区域进行此类调查，这些区域被冰盖覆盖，因此到目前为止还无法进行采样。该系统涉及两项成熟的钻井技术的结合，这两项技术都基于高压水源：1)热水喷射钻井以快速穿过冰层，2)水力机械旋转钻井以钻入下面的沉积物或基岩。

ABSTRACTKamb- 0085245This award supports the development of a new core-drilling system for obtaining samples of bedrock and glacial sediment from beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet, with applicability to arctic glaciers and the Greenland Ice Sheet. Such samples are needed for a wide variety of investigations of antarctic and arctic geology, geochemistry, glaciology and geobiology. Examples are studies of sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the West Antarctic rift system, studies of the fast-moving West Antarctic ice streams, and microbiological studies of life under the extreme conditions at the basal ice-bedrock contact. The core-drilling capability will make it possible to carry out such investigations over the 98% of the Antarctic continent that is covered by the ice sheet and thus has been inaccessible for sampling up to now. The system involves the coupling of two proven drilling technologies that are both based on a source of high-pressure water: 1) hot-water jet drilling to drill rapidly through the ice, and 2) hydromechanical rotary drilling to drill into the underlying sediments or bedrock.