Antarctic subglacial drilling rig: Part II. Ice and Bedrock Electromechanical Drill (IBED)

• Published in: Annals of Glaciology
• Main Authors: Pavel Talalay, Xingchen Li, Nan Zhang, Xiaopeng Fan, Youhong Sun, Pinlu Cao, Rusheng Wang, Yang Yang, Yongwen Liu, Yunchen Liu, Wei Wu, Cheng Yang, Jialin Hong, Da Gong, Han Zhang, Xiao Li, Yunwang Chen, An Liu, Yazhou Li
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press 2021
• Subjects: Glacier geology; ice coring; ice engineering; subglacial exploration geophysics; Meteorology. Climatology; QC851-999; Antarctic; East Antarctica; Zhongshan; Zhongshan Station; Annals of Glaciology; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2020.38; https://doaj.org/article/a89598d879e144e9a721bb216cd40edd

A new, modified version of the cable-suspended Ice and Bedrock Electromechanical Drill (IBED) was designed for drilling in firn, ice, debris-rich ice and rock. The upper part of the drill is almost the same for all drill variants and comprises four sections: cable termination, a slip-ring section, an antitorque system and an electronic pressure chamber. The lower part of the IBED comprises an auger core barrel, reamers, a core barrel for ice/debris-ice drilling and a conventional geological single-tube core barrel or custom-made double-tube core barrel. First, the short and full-scale field versions of the IBED were tested at an outdoor testing stand and a testing facility with a 12.5 m-deep ice well. Then, in the 2018–2019 summer season, the IBED was tested in the field at a site ~12 km south of Zhongshan Station, East Antarctica, and a ~6 cm bedrock core was recovered from a 198 m-deep borehole. A total of 18 d was required to penetrate the ice sheet. The retrieved core samples of blue ice, basal ice and bedrock provided valuable information regarding the Earth's paleo-environment.