Now that all the casing is out of the hole, most of the crew has left the site and work involving the drill rig is almost over. The core processing crew will finish the initial logging reports in a few days. After the reports have been reviewed, they will be distributed to project collaborators.
Now that the casing has been cut and removed, we are out of the drill hole and beginning to pack up the coring package. The top drive and its hydraulics were removed from the rig today; soon the entire coring package will be stowed in shipping containers and ready to be taken off site.
Over the past week, the drill crew has been busy finishing up their post-drilling activities and the core processing team has made significant progress in the photography, scanning, and logging of the core. Today the 5" casing in the hole was cut at 5,800', and we are ready to start pulling it out of the hole. Once this casing has been removed, we will be entirely out of the hole and can start packing up the coring package.
Our casing perforation was successful last night. We are currently in the process of injecting cement through the perforations and setting another packer higher up in the hole.
The drillers successfully inserted and set the packer tool last night, and today was spent preparing to perforate the casing. As soon as our local explosives expert arrives, we will perforate the casing and then inject cement out the newly created openings.
Although almost all the drill pipe is stacked on the rig right now, soon most of it will be tripped in the hole to insert a packer tool. This tool must be in place before we perforate the casing and inject cement around the outer diameter of the casing.
We pulled out of the hole this morning, but alas, had no fish. The Principal Investigators decided that coring is complete and we should focus on perforating and cementing the casing, rather than continuing to fish for the lost bit. Our official final hole depth is 11,546.9', and we drilled 588.4' over this phase of the project. Although our recovery rate was variable depending on the character of the rock being drilled (with a max of 50' in one day), we averaged 23.5'/day over 25 full days of drilling. These web updates will continue, as we still have much to do before the rig is lowered and removed from the site.
We are currently at the bottom of the hole, trying to make sure that our fishing tool is securely grasping the drill bit. However, there is no way of knowing definitively if the bit will make the trip to the surface without falling off. The drillers are taking every possible precaution to ensure that we get the bit out, check back tomorrow for an update on the status of our fishing trip.
Although we got our fish last night, we couldn't reel it all the way to the surface. The drill bit we were trying to retrieve scraped against the sides of the hole and came off as we were tripping out. We are currently getting ready to try and fish again, and it will take at least another full day to fish the bit out.
When all of the drill string was brought to the surface, it was missing the core bit. The bit appears to have twisted off when it failed, so we sent a fishing tool to the bottom of the hole after it. Later this evening, we will try and grab the bit and trip back out of the hole with it. If all goes well and we get the bit on our first try, we could be coring again tomorrow.
Our new set of elevators arrived this afternoon, and they are functioning well so far as we trip the rest of the way out of the hole. Barring any unforseen problems, we can expect to be back on the bottom and drilling with a new bit tomorrow morning.
Last night, the coring bit gave out. While it would normally take twelve hours trip out of the hole to change the bit, it is going to take us longer. The elevators that help guide the drill pipe out of the hole are broken. Drilling guru Ron Fierbach is currently devising a plan to get the rest of the drill string to the surface. We will not see any new rock until we can change the bit.
Although we had a rough time drilling through some extremely fractured pillow lavas and pillow breccias last night and this morning, we are now back into more competent rock. Hopefully this more consolidated unit and many more like it will be the norm for the rest of the project. Our current depth is 11,542.4'.
This afternoon, our string of consecutive runs seeing only hyaloclastite ended at 10.5. The lower half of the most recent run contains olivine-rich pillow lava and pillow breccia. The next run will be recovered tonight, and we will see if this change in lithology persists. We are currently at a depth of 11,507.9'.
It was another full day of drilling hyaloclastite today, and we recovered a lot of competent rock that came out of the core barrel in unbroken lengths up to 2'. We just passed the 500' mark for this latest phase of drilling, and are now at a depth of 11,467.4'.
Most of the rock that was drilled over the last 24 hours is hyaloclastite. We have only seen a few feet of pillow lava and intrusions. The hyaloclastite drills quite smoothly, so we are continuing to make great progress. Our current depth is 11,427.3'.
We continue to retrieve full runs of core, and to process extremely olivine-rich rock. We are currently marking and boxing core that is rich in volcanic glass and contains up to 25-30% olivine. Our current depth is 11,387.3'.
Over the past couple days, we have retrieved mostly pillow basalts that are extremely olivine-rich. At the margins of these pillows, there is often nearly aphyric intrusive rock that has invaded the weaker zone between pillow lobes. Drilling continues to proceed smoothly, we are currently at a depth of 11,347.6'.
Three full runs of hyaloclastite were waiting for us when the core processing crew arrived this morning, and another run was drilled during the day. We appear to have just penetrated a new unit, so we look forward to seeing the rock that the next run holds. Our current depth is 11,308.2'.
We continue to make steady drilling progress. The last few runs have all been a full 10' in length, and contained a hyaloclastite and an intrusive unit. Recovering hyaloclastite at this depth surprised us, and the presence of this unit has prompted a number of discussions here at the site about its significance.
Drilling continues to proceed smoothly, and we continue to recover some interesting core. Today we saw a well-cemented hyaloclastite unit that was cut by an olivine-rich intrusion. Our current depth is 11,228.3'.
Drilling is proceeding smoothly again, and we recovered four more runs today. The rock types we saw were pillow lava, pillow breccia, intrusion, and hyaloclastite. Overall the rock is drilling well and not breaking apart much, so we are getting full or nearly full runs of core. Our current depth is 11,202.0'.
The drill crew finished spooling the new wireline this afternoon, and we are drilling again. As long as the new wireline functions correctly, we should start seeing core again tonight.
Last night when we were pulling up a run of core, we saw that our wireline had become frayed. After reeling it all in, the damaged wireline had to be replaced. The drill crew will hopefully finish spooling our spare 20,000' of new line by tomorrow morning, and then we will be able to continue drilling.
It was our busiest day yet here at the drill site in Hilo. A few visitors came to the site, we took a core sample that will be examined for biological content, and we processed four more runs of core that averaged 8.6' in length. We have now drilled over 180' in the last nine days, and are currently at a depth of 11160.8'.
Things are running pretty smoothly at the drill site, we recovered five runs of core today. Most of the rock is fractured pillow basalt, with hard black clay in the breccia between pillows. Our current depth is 11,126.3'.
The polymer we are mixing in with our mud has helped reduce the torque on the pipe when drilling. Unfortunately, the rock we are currently drilling is highly fractured pillow basalt that typically blocks the core barrel and makes us pull up incomplete runs. However, the character of the rock has been changing on a daily basis, stay tuned for further updates.
Drilling progress is slow but steady. Although we are getting rock core that holds together well, the high torque in the hole reduces our penetration rate. Hopefully we will be able to resolve this issue in the next few days. Our depth at the time of this report is 11,071.6'.
We are currently working our way back down to the bottom of the hole with the new bit. There is a lot of friction (torque) on the drill string in the open section of the hole below 9870'. We are trying to add the right type of lubricant to the mud to alleviate this problem and get the drill string to turn more smoothly.
We tripped out of the hole today to change the coring bit. Our elevators are working imperfectly, so it was a slow process. We are currently just about ready to start tripping back into the hole. If all goes well we will be on bottom tomorrow morning.
It was another productive day of coring here in Hilo. We drilled and recovered five runs of rock core, and saw an interesting variety of rock types from intrusions to pillow lavas and more. The bottom half of the last run of the day (pictured) held together better than any rock we have seen in a long time. Hopefully this trend of stronger induration will persist. At the time of this report, we are at a depth of 11,050.3'.
With the good weather came good drilling conditions here at the drill site. Over the past 24 hours, we drilled four runs which totaled nearly 30 feet of core! The rocks recovered were an olivine-rich intrusion and a thick pillow breccia. We also passed the 11,000' mark, and at the time of this report are at a depth of 11,022.4'.
Progress has been slow due to the highly fractured nature of the rock we are trying to drill through and some equipment problems. We recovered another run of core today, after fixing the diesel engine's alternator. Our current issue is that core fragments have fallen out of the bottom of the core barrel as it was brought to the surface. We have to use a spear tool to clear out the drill string before the next core barrel will be able to rest behind the bit at the bottom of the hole. Coring should resume again this evening.
We recovered two runs of highly fractured core today. The rock recovered is so unconsolidated, it is no surprise that some of the loose fragments cave in around the sides of the drill pipe. The drillers have trouble rotating the drill string when this happens, and refer to the hole as "tight." They are currently reaming up and down in the lowermost reaches of the hole to fix this issue, and will resume coring shortly.
Over the past few days, our attempts to get a tricone rotary bit to the bottom of the hole were unsuccessful. It appears that the rotary drilling equipment may be in less than optimal condition, so we have decided to switch back to core drilling. At the time of this report, we are tripping into the hole with a coring bit.
The drill crew is back and bigger than ever in 2007! With a larger crew, drilling operations will run 24/7 this year. Hopefully with this schedule and the expert on-site advice of Ron Fierbach, we will make better downhole progress than we did last year. We have also decided to try tricone rotary drilling for a while, in an attempt to cut through the highly fractured pillow lavas on the bottom and find more consolidated rock at greater depth. Stay tuned for more updates on the status of this venture.
This morning, part of the diesel engine that powers much of the drill rig failed. The crew was able to pull some pipe out of the hole so it wouldn't get stuck while we perform maintenance. A local diesel engine specialist is on his way to the site to diagnose the problem.
We recovered two more short runs of highly fractured core today. Due to its fractured nature, some of the second run fell out the bottom of the core barrel while it was being brought to the surface. We have to pump a tool down the pipe to make sure the entire drill string is clear before we can proceed tomorrow morning. We are currently at a depth of 10,980'.
We recovered two new runs of core today. The second run was only two feet long due to a sensor failure during drilling, but we will be penetrating ever deeper into the volcano tomorrow.
Although we only retrieved two runs today, they were both longer than those retrieved yesterday. This evening's run was the longest yet, almost six feet. The rock is highly fractured and therefore tends to block the 10' capacity core barrel before it is completely full, but we are making progress. At the end of the day, we are at a depth of 10,969'.
Today was exciting for us, we got our first core of this phase of the project! Although it was only a couple feet of new rock, drilling appears to be going relatively smoothly and we expect more tomorrow. The rock recovered today is highly fractured pillow lava with a glassy, brecciated margin between pillows.
After days spent fixing equipment, waiting for equipment to be shipped to us, and installing parts, we are finally ready to begin coring. Today we advanced to within a few feet of the bottom of the hole where we left off two years ago, which is 10,958.5' below the surface.
The rig was raised to its full height today (100'). There is still a lot of work that has to be done on it before we can begin drilling, but getting the rig upright brought us a big step closer to that goal.
