http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/fromthefield/2013/03/28/it-takes-a-village/?src=fromthefield-rss NASA scientists are in the field and write home to tell about it. Tue, 23 Apr 2013 07:52:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/fromthefield/2013/03/28/it-takes-a-village/comment-page-1/#comment-29140 Lora Koenig Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:36:29 +0000 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/fromthefield/?p=5067#comment-29140 Anges, we are drilling into the ice to look at the surface melt water that is stored 10′s of meters deep in the firn. The water we are looking at is very different from water like that of Lake Vostok in Antarctica. The water we are looking at is stored as little droplets in between snow grains. To do this work, as well as most ice coring work, we do use small amounts of alcohol only if our drills get stuck. We use, as well as, are required to use clean, environmentally friendly practices when doing research on the Greenland Ice Sheet. The use of alcohol is a trade-off: we would rather leave a small amount of alcohol, undetectable when diluted by the ice, as opposed to an entire drill. Thanks for following the blog.
Lora

]]> http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/fromthefield/2013/03/28/it-takes-a-village/comment-page-1/#comment-29118 Agnes McClelland Tue, 02 Apr 2013 01:01:26 +0000 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/fromthefield/?p=5067#comment-29118 What are you drilling for exactly? Can we all be assured that you ate taking precautions not to contaminate virgin ice and water, unknown species? I was a bit worried to hear that you needed to BORROW alcohol for defrosting.

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