Setting up the dive site and making the dive holes
Exploration ICEBLOCK
A collaborative exploration of the Chilly Continent
Arriving at New Harbour to being ready for the divers to go down under the sea ice, took three days. The first thing that needed doing for the dive site was to find the right place to melt the dive hole. The team first drilled down the sea ice with a jiffy drill to send a dropcam (underwater camera on a rope) down so they could see what was on the bottom. It was tough going with the small drill because there are layers of sediment in the ice (dust and sand that has been blown onto the ice from the dry valleys) that did slow down and blunt the jiffy drill. They found a site that had 15m to 20m deep sea water underneath the ice and the animals that they needed for their research, so it was now time to put the small narrow ice melter down the small hole to begin the melting process. Have a look at the photos to see how the ice hole developed and all the gear needed to set everything up:
Trisha ready for a day's work.
Diagram of making an ice hole.
The small hole drilled ready for the narrow ice melter coil. The generator next to it is for heating and pumping the water and glycol mix through the ice melter coils which melts the ice. The glycol is antifreeze to stop the water from freezing up. They use 50:50 water to glycol!
Pulling out the small ice melter. See the cables that carry the hot water+glycol mix. Look how big the hole is already.
We had to keep the hot pipes (with the water+glycol mix) off the ice so that it wouldn't melt holes around the dive standing area!
Chazz and Trish early morning check on the ice melter. Success... the dive hole is nearly ready! The whole team took turns through the night to check every 2 hours on the ice melter that was kept on to melt the hole.
Using the large ice melter to widen the ice hole lower down. The divers don't want to get stuck if it is too narrow!!
Checking the lip at bottom of ice hole with weights and measuring how deep it is. The ice is only 4.1m thick at the dive hole which is thinner than the scientists expected but still plenty thick enough for their experiments.
Pumping out the fresh water layer from the top of the dive hole. This is important because the fresh water would get on the diving apparatus and freeze up when the divers go down into the -2oC sea ice, causing problems for them.
Putting the frame of the dive tent together. It took 9 of us helping out about 3 hours to put the whole thing up.
Putting up the doors on the dive tent.
Finishing touches to the dive tent. Ready to place it over the dive hole. Then inside goes a gas heater and all the dive gear.
Clearing a site for the toilet tent by the dive site.
Trisha drilling ice 'pegs' for the toilet tent. (We don't want that one blowing away!)
The finished dive hole inside the dive tent, ready for action.
