The celebratory party for the SUSTAIN expedition team lasted late into the night at the Institute of Earth Sciences. We thank all who contributed to the success of the Surtsey drilling project and core processing operation!
A film crew led by Jon Örn Gudbjartsson from Haskoli Islands (University of Iceland) spent the morning in the core laboratory, photographing the MSCL and DMT scanning operations and the preparation of the core trays and interviewing the science team. This will be part of a documentary film describing the SUSTAIN drilling project on Surtsey.
Thor is now in Reykjavik (shown here with Matthew Lyon). The drilling crew and Agust Thor Gunnlaugsson have started offloading into containers at the Landvirkjun Warehouse at Voeluteigur for cleaning, sorting and eventual shipment of the drill rig and equipment to the USA.
There are now four well heads on Surtsey. These cap the 1979 hole, the two vertical 2017 holes, and the 2017 inclined hole. All materials brought to Surtsey by the SUSTAIN operation (apart from casing in drill holes) have been now been safely taken off the island. On Monday, more than 50 loads were slung to Thor in four hours. On Tuesday morning the helicopter did the last six loads. The Palsbaer Hut was cleaned and made ready for winter. The last people departed with the Coast Guard helicopter to Reykjavik, leaving Surtsey again pristine and at peace.
Demobilization lifting operations began about 1:15 pm. Ten loads of camp equipment were lifted by the ICGV Coast Guard Super Puma helicopter TF-Lif and sling-dropped onto the Coast Ship Thor. It was too windy to lift items from the drill site so additional lifting operations will be undertaken tomorrow. The Thor remains out at sea with the cargo on the deck.
Rigging down is nearly complete. Loads are consolidated and ready for transport, strapped together, lumber/timbers banded together in preparation for the Coast Guard helicopter and ship demobilization tomorrow.
The final check of the ICDP database information system for vertical cores SE-02A and SE-02B in the Heimay Lab is nearly complete. Jocelyn McPhie and James White are creating a comprehensive log of the core.
About two metric tons of core from the inclined drill hole has now been delivered to Heimaey via helicopter from Surtsey. The 350 m of core is now awaiting processing in the lab, using the same ICDP methods and protocols as the two vertical drill cores.
Drillers Steve Cole, Justin Blouin, AJ Vecchiarelli, Beau Marshall and Matt Lyon hold the last core of the SUSTAIN drilling operation. At 10:30 am, September 4th, coring was completed. The drilling stopped at 354 m, corresponding to a vertical depth of 290 m. The feeder dike of the effusive vents of Surtur I was intersected at 343 m after drilling mostly through lapilli tuff. The final meter cored was again lapilli tuff, indicating that drilling traversed the dike. The drilling team deserves the highest praise for their dedication, enthusiasm and drive in bringing the drilling operation to such a grand finish. The efforts of the waterline workers, and the science team on Surtsey and Heimaey has been critical to the extraordinary success of the project.
The HQTT core bit used to drill the inclined hole has gone more than 214m with very little wear. The hole is now at ca. 300. At ca. 240 m depth (196 m vertical depth) the drilling intersected a small intrusion. Underneath that was a layer of clay. Beneath the clay, tuff was intersected again and drilling continues towards the sea floor.
One set of incubator chambers and a temperature monitor for the Surtsey Subsurface Observatory in the SE-02 vertical drill hole are being re-positioned by Samantha Couper and Andreas Tuerke on the hanger string. Five incubator systems will be placed at five perforated sections of the casing and submerged for two years of in situ alteration of artificial basaltic glass.
The core processing team on Heimaey has completed scanning of the vertical core, SE-02A and SE-02B, with the ICDP Multiscanner Core Logger. It takes about 40 minutes for a one meter core packaged in the plastic liner to pass through the Gamma Attentuation, P-wave velocity, Core diameter, Magnetic Susceptibility, and Natural Gamma Ray measurements. The results will be correlated with the ICDP downhole logging measurements, and the precise depths of the core sections determined.
The SE-03 hole has now reached a length of nearly 145 m. The photo shows the orientation of the S6W azimuth of the inclined hole and the tilted mast of the drill rig. The coring uses untreated seawater and attapulgite mud on an as needed basis. Elevated temperatures have not been detected, but there is ca. 10 m section of porous, basalt intrusions at 65-75 m.
On Surtsey, the inclined hole, SE-03 has progressed today to below 65 m, corresponding to a vertical depth of 53 m. Scanning in the Heimaey Lab of the two cores recovered from the two vertical holes, SE-02A and SE-02B, is nearing completion. Meanwhile a puffin captures a mouthful of fish on Heimaey’s southern peninsula. Children on Heimaey have been rescuing dozens of pufflings in town this week, carrying them in cardboard boxes to the aquarium, and releasing them on the shoreline to fly on their own.
Scientist J. Michael Rhodes loads a core section from the SE-02A vertical hole into the ICDP DMT color core scanner. Mike has organized and scanned nearly all of the 150 m of the whole round core sections from the SE-02A hole. The images provide a high resolution visual reference for each core section and core tray for the ICDP Digital Information System.
The CS1000 drill rig has now been spun clockwise on its base, in preparation for drilling our inclined hole, 55 degrees from horizontal and oriented with a S6W azimuth towards Surtsey’s eastern crater. Rotary drilling of the 12 m deep PQ conductor hole and cementing will take place today.
Driller Justin Blouin loads a perforated section of the anodized aluminum casing for the Surtsey Subsurface Observatory into the SE-02B drill hole. There are five perforated sections in the 182 m long casing, at 38 m, 64 m, 106 m, 135 m, 161 m depth. These will be the sites of incubation chambers hung in then casing for in situ hydrothermal alteration experiments.
At midnight, the SE-02B hole reached a final depth of 191.64. Full recovery of consolidated tuff core occurred to ~182 m depth. From 182-185 m there was 0.98 m recovered and from 185-188 there was only 0.38 m recovered. This last run had a small section of loosely consolidated, coarse grained dark gravel, and then a nice chunk of fine grained, smooth rock perhaps the seafloor beneath the volcano. Downhole logging with the ICDP team has begun.
With the drill rig now oriented nearly due east, head driller Steve Cole made a great deal of progress in the SE-02B hole during the day shift today. Core recovery reaches to about 136 m depth through the well-consolidated tuff of the higher temperature zone of the hydrothermal system. The PQ casing is stabilized, and water supply issues are largely resolved.
Geologists Carolyn Gorny and Carla Grimaldi examine SE-02A core sections, which have already been scanned with the MSCL and the DMT imaging systems. Their rock descriptions will be entered into the ICDP Digital Information System and augmented with more comprehensive Visual Core Descriptions.
The current depth of the SE-2B hole is 80 m, with 55 m completed in the last 20 hours. Filtered, UV-sterilized seawater has been used as drilling fluid and attapulgite mud to condition the hole. The PQ casing of the conductor hole has slipped again, due to issues with cementing beginning three days ago. The HQ casing has been tripped out and the PQ casing will now be hung in place.
Filming for the Smithsonian documentary -Life on Earth from Space- with Luke Miles and Brendan McGinty takes place at the Eastern Crater. Activities of the SUSTAIN drilling project on Surtsey and in the core processing laboratory on Heimaey will be featured in the film.
To expedite seawater intake from the northern peninsula the drilling crew placed a trash pump on the boulders on the shoreline and rapidly drew water from a hose into the storage totes at the spit. They then started pumping water to totes on the drill site. This is a critical backup intake system.
A delivery of 300 kg cement from Heimaey arrives on the western shore of the Surtsey peninsula. The conductor hole for the continuation of the SE-02 vertical hole has been rotary drilled with a 6-1/8inch tricone bit to 12 m and the cement will reinforce the PQ casing in preparation for drilling a stable vertical hole for the Surtsey Subsurface Observatory.
After five cutting operations from 122 m to 46 m the HQ rods were still stuck. Rigging down began in order to start a new vertical hole. The photo shows the site set up for hole SE-2B, as the rig was rotated through about 15 degrees northwest (clockwise) on the spinner base platform. Despite this disappointing end to the SE-02A hole, we were able to obtain 150 m of pristine Surtsey basalt, with no influence of mud product or untreated seawater drilling fluid.
Heimaey: Simon Prause, Andreas Tuerke, and Erica Massey preparing a section of the Surtsey core for the DMT scanner. The scanner takes high resolution images of the core while rotating it 360 which we later use for visual core description. Surtsey: Drillers Steve Cole and Matt Lyon tripping pipe for HQ rod cutting operation in the SE-02 hole.
The first 85 meters of Surtsey drill core are being processed in the Heimaey warehouse laboratory. Andreas Tuerke and Erica Massey operate the MSCL scanner. Solveig Onstad, Amel Barich and Simon Prause work with the ICDP Digital Information System.
Core runs in the hottest zone of the hydrothermal system, about 100 m below the surface and 125 degrees C, exude steam and have a weak sulphuric smell. Here is the plastic liner at the bottom of the 3m core run has been deformed. The tuff is dull dark-greenish gray. Little fresh glass remains and there are abundant authigenic mineral fillings in relict pore space.
Surtsey: A new water system is being built on the peninsula in order to provide a stable supply of seawater drilling fluid at both high and low tide. Drillers and scientists hauled 16 heavy totes and their cages - brought by boat from Heimaey - 400 meters in heavy wind and rain across the boulder field to a site on the western shore. Here, Steve Cole and Matt Lyon carry one of the 80 kg cages. The containers will provide water for continuous drilling over the next two weeks. Heimaey: Today we started our core processing operation on Heimaey and were very excited to work on the first 105m of Hole B.
The first cores were flown to Heimaey today, for processing in the municipal warehouse at the harbor. Carolyn Gorny, Erica Massey, and Andreas Tuerke have been preparing the lab with the ICDP MSCL and DMT scanners.
We entered the higher temperature zone of the hydrothermal system (about 85 degrees C) today at about 70 m depth. Our day shift drillers, Steve Cole and Beau Marshall, mitigated a serious problem with deterioration of the plastic core liners through increasing the flow of cool, sterilized seawater drilling fluid into the hole. The reservoir of seawater, pumped from the northern peninsula, and the sterilization system, composed of a double filter and two stage UV sterilization components are shown on the right.
Core Catcher, showing porous palagonitized tuff of the subaerial tuff cone. The tuff is far more consolidated than the equivalent 1979 sampling of the tuff at about 25 m depth.
Students Samantha Couper (University of Utah) and Simon Prause (University of Iceland) log the first Surtsey tuff drill core. Filtered and UV sterilized seawater is used as drilling fluid. HQ core is collected in plastic liners, and microbiologists and fluid geochemists have an onsite lab in the hut for preparing and freezing uncontaminated core samples.
Our early predrilling team of drillers, geologists and microbiologists from 30 July to 10 August. The water line connection at the submersible pump was repaired with a new helicopter operation this afternoon. Seawater from the northern peninsula is now flowing at the drill site, and we have >9000 litre reserve of UV sterilized seawater drilling fluid, in preparation for the beginning of coring tomorrow.
Drillers Justin Blouin, Steve Cole, and AJ Vecchiarelli, create the anchoring system for the drilling platform. The drill is then rotated on a spinner plate to an azimuth of about W2degreesS, the orientation of angled hole, SE-3, across the eastern crater, and attached to the platform. The PQ conductor hole at the top of the new vertical hole, SE-2, is drilled and cemented. The seawater sterilization system, which passes seawater pumped from the northern peninsula, through two consecutive UV sterilization lamps at a flow rate of about 2000 litres/hour, is now complete. There are now four 1000 litre storage tanks of sterilized seawater in reserve. The drilling fluid discharge line, which runs from the drill site to the eastern coast, is complete.
The helicopter brought three new scientists, Sigurdur Sveinn Jonsson, Gisli A Sighvatsson, and Herdis Schopka, as Agust Thor Gunnlaugsson, Viggo Th. Marteinsson, Barbara Kleine, Hjalti Franzson, and Gro B M Pedersen leave Surtsey. Warm, sunny weather continues and there are many whales just offshore.
Barbara Kleine, our postdoc in fluid geochemistry, helps out with a critical component of dinner -- bacon -- as our DES drilling supervisor, Beau Marshall, walks by.
Today plumbing the holding tanks onsite will be finished and the system for UV sterilization of seawater drilling fluid installed and tested. A manifold at the drill site will take drill fluid returns from the hole and tie them into the overflow line from the holding tanks. Both will flow into the discharge line.
The mast of the CS 1000 is raised for the first time. The submersible pump was sling dropped by helicopter onto the seafloor east of the peninsula yesterday, and began delivering seawater to the water line on the peninsula today.
The beginning of the core processing laboratory in a municipal warehouse in Heimaey, Vestmannaeyjar Island. Two Instruments from ICDP GFZ, a digital core scanner and multifunctional scanner for measuring rock material properties, are operational and waiting for new Surtsey drill core.
The components of the CS1000 drill rig were sling dropped onto the island and assembled yesterday. Here, Justin Blouin, head driller, reconstructs the plumbing of the hydraulic system of the drill rig.
The Iceland Coast Guard helicopter, TF-LIT, lands on the helipad at Surtsey, during an afternoon lifting >50 sling loads of equipment onto the island for the drilling operation..
Beau Marshall, the DOSECC Exploration Services Drilling Supervisor, briefs the advance team at the Palsbaer II Hut. The hut is maintained by the Surtsey Research Society. It replaces a hut on the northern peninsula of the island that was used in 1979 drilling, but is now submerged in the sea.
The Iceland Coast Guard ship, Thor, fully loaded with SUSTAIN drilling project equipment, and Coast Guard Super Puma helicopter offshore of Surtsey. Fifty lifts of materials were delivered to the island today, including the disassembled CS-1000 drill rig. The operation benefited from a beautiful blue sky day and calm winds.
The containers have now been trucked from the Landsvirkun warehouse, in Reykjavik, to Thorlakshoefn harbor on the eastern coast of Iceland. Here, parts of the disassembled CS-1000 drill are being unloaded for transport onto the Coast Guard boat, Thor, which will travel to Surtsey in the evening.
Three of the DOSECC Exploration Services drilling crew, Steve Cole, Senior Driller, Justin Blouin, Driller, and Beau Marshall, Drilling Supervisor, at the helipad at Reykjavik airport. The helicopter flew a DES team to Surtsey today to prepare the drill site and water pump and intake systems for the drilling operation.
Conditions were not easy on the peninsula where the equipment and materials dropped by the rescue group the day before. The picture shows Thorsteinn Jonsson and Eirikur Finnur of the advance team with the helicopter loads. Unfortunately, low cloud cover prevented the three man drilling team from DES from getting onto the island today, but we hope conditions will allow the helicopter to come tomorrow.
The rescue boat Thor from the Vestmannaeyjar Rescue Group transporting the 3 tons of equipment for the advance team. Conditions were not ideal but the rescue group volunteers really had a field day, getting all the loads on land at the peninsula on the north coast of Surtsey. A three man advance team went with the boat to Surtsey and arranged the equipment transported into five loads for helicopter, to fly onto the drill site on the SE side of the island
A meeting with the Iceland Coast Guard officials and helicopter pilots focused on safety protocols during the mobilization of the drilling operation on Surtsey. On the far right are the two logistics leaders of the SUSTAIN project: Beau Marshall, drilling supervisor, DOSECC Exploration Services, and Agust Thor Gunnlaugsson, operations facilitator, Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland.
The containers have been unloaded onto the first floor of the Landsvirkun warehouse, and the DOSECC Exploration Services crew is preparing the equipment and organizing the loads for the transport to Surtsey volcano with Coast Guard boat and helicopter next week.
The five containers arrived in Reykjavik on 12 July, after three weeks transit from Portland, Oregon. Loads were bundled for 800 kg helicopter lifts in Salt Lake City. The DOSECC Exploration Services crew is now unloading these to prepare for transport of about 60 metric tons of equipment via Coast Guard helicopter to Surtsey volcano next week.
