Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two

Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two (GISP2) is the reason that Summit Station exists. In late 1988 a US team came to Greenland to drill an ice core hole all the way through the Greenland ice sheet to the bedrock (an European team was also drilling a hole (GRIP) that was actually at the top of the ice sheet, Summit is not quite there.

The core was drilled to 3,000 m and GISP2 is legendary among ice drillers. We asked to see it (for a collaborator who wants to put an antenna down there), fully expecting them to say no, but today we opened the GISP2 hole and put a camera down it.

To preserve holes, driller encase the inside diameter of the hole with a fiber glass cylinder. This cylinder holds back the ice. Unfortunately, the cylinder in GISP2 has failed at about 60 feet down (this was already know as a team back in 2007 also put a camera down the hole and saw this failure), but it was fun to look.

The rest of the day was packing, some radio pulsing between our stations, and a lot of Cribbage.

The GISP2 hole (covered) with the Atmospheric Watch Observatory (AWO) in the background

Scientist looking at a hole (still covered)

The failure in the GISP2 borehole