Eight more cores on deck today, with the drilling being more and more difficult due to the quickly changing lithologies and presence of fractures. The cores are rich of surprises and the day ended well, with a bottom depth of 674 m!
After a three-days stop for manteinance, drilling started again on Friday and brough on deck rocks that change toward ultramafic lithologies. More fractured rocks at depth seems to make drilling more demanding. Meanwhile today we had a nice visit from the happy and enthusiatic neighbours from the Megolo area.
After 60 m of hard work and arriving at 619 m depth, the drill bit decided that the moment to getting completely consumed arrived. So rods were pulled, drill bit was changed and now the rods are being put back into the borehole. Meanwhile in these days we had a nice visit from the staff of the University of Lausanne.
Happy science team and happy drilling crew in the last two days... fifteen cores, nice variations in lithologies and structures, the 600 m depth has been crossed, and the bottom depth is now 619 m!
Borehole 5071_1A just surpassed the first hole 5071_1B! After seven nice cores on deck, today we arrived to a bottom depth of 585 meters and placed a new record in DIVE. Cores never stop to surprise, with so many types of layering and a lot of cross-cutting veins, fractures and cataclastic zones.
After changing to a new drill bit, drilling continued in the afternoon and three cores arrived on deck, which include metagabbronites showing nice mineralogical layering. Bottom depth is now 565 meters. Meanwhile we had a nice visit by representatives of UNESCO, regional geological survey and Val Grande national park.
Busy days for divers and the drilling company, with important and productive discussions about the next steps in the drilling operations. Meanwhile busy days also on deck: bottom depth is now 550 meters and new mafic lithologies are being crossed!
The last two days brough 7 more cores on deck, the last one from a bottom depth of 476 meters. Nice lithological changes were observed in the last cores, right when visitors from Lausanne University were on site. And today we filled the core box number 100!
Less than half a day of drilling today, but three more cores were brough on deck. The bottom of the borehole now is at 456 meters. Drillers and science team will certainly enjoy a short break over the weekend, given the "chilly weather" on the site today (-8°C) !
The last two days were quite productive for the divers. A travel to a bottom depth of 447 meters brough on deck fifteen more cores. Geologists on-site are observing a large variety of new structures, including quartz-rich layers, fault gouges, large pseudotachylyte levels, and a possible transition to metapelitic lithologies.
Yesterday a problem with the inner barrel forced the drillers to pull the rods, but the problem was solved and three more cores were brough on deck today, crossing the 400 meters depth
After reaching 362 meters depth, the drillbit diameter has been decreased and today drilling with HQ started. Six cores have been recovered, arriving to a bottom depth of 377 meters.
A good start after the Christmas holidays! After a successful logging of the first 315 meters, in the last few days 45 meters of mostly intact cores have been brought on deck. Bottom depth today is 360 meters. Meanwhile outreach activities continue, with visitors from the national Swiss television shooting a short documentary about DIVE drilling operations.
