Ice core drilling on the southern slope of the Nepal Himalayas

• Main Authors: Koji Fujita, Fumio Nakazawa, Nozomu Takeuchi, Masayoshi Nakawo, Birbal Rana, Nobuhiko Azuma, Yoshiyuki Fujii
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Institute for Hydrospheric-Atmospheric Sciences, Nagoya University/Institute for Hydrospheric-Atmospheric Sciences, Nagoya University/Basic Biology, Faculty of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Tokyo Institute of Technology/Institute for Hydrospheric-Atmospheric Sciences, Nagoya University/Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, Ministry of Science and Technology, His Majesty's Government of Nepal/Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology/National Institute of Polar Research 2002
• Subjects: ice core; Memoirs of National Institute of Polar Research; Polar Research
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=2430; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00002430/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=2430&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

Two ice cores were extracted from Rikha Samba Glacier located in the central Nepal Himalayas in 1994 and 1998. Ice core quality in 1994 was poor due to cutter problems and samples were melted in situ. In 1998,a better ice core was successfully extracted and brought to Japan in frozen condition. The logistics of drilling, the transportation and preservation of ice, and problems of ice core drilling in Nepal are presented in this paper.