The required parts for our fishing job arrived on Saturday afternoon, and recovery of the core bit and reamer shell was completed on Sunday morning. During the recovery process, a bearing on the rig draw works showed signs of incipient failure. After short-term servicing, we were able to complete the recovery process. Further evaluation of the bearing problem indicated that significant delays could be encountered in completing a repair. Hence, we decided to take our scheduled crew break a bit earlier than anticipated. When the parts and repair equipment are assembled, the drilling crew will return and we will resume coring operations at that time. There will be occasional updates over the next few weeks when project collaborators visit the site, but daily updates will not start up again until drilling resumes.
Last night we ran into some trouble when drilling, and our coring bit twisted off. Tomorrow a tool will arrive that we will use to try and fish out the lost bit. We tripped out of the hole, did maintenance on the drill rig, and caught up on slabbing and scanning and logging today. The next web site update will occur when we are about to start coring operations again. The bottom of the hole is currently 10,958'.
We recovered many runs of core over the last 24 hours, but all of them have been short. The rock we are drilling is highly fractured to rubbly, and blocks the core barrel soon after entering it. We are discussing the possibility of changing to a tricone rotary bit and drilling through this difficult interval until we reach more consolidated rock below.
We fished out the drill string and core barrel last night, and tripped in with a new bit. The previous bit had an inner diameter that was worn out after drilling only 14.5 feet of rubble! Loose rock damages the bit very quickly. We are currently pumping mud into the hole and will begin coring operations again this evening.
Last night the drill string broke at ~9,900' depth. This is just below the bottom of the casing, where there is a sharp increase in the inclination of the hole. A joint in the drill string broke due to the stress of being rotated for a long time at this depth. We tripped out this morning and are currently tripping back in and attempting to fish out the lower portion of the drill string and the core barrel.
We have been having trouble with high water pressures in the hole, to the extent that some rubble was brought to the surface last night and clogged a piece of drilling equipment. We are coring again, but today we only retrieved a couple of very short runs. The science crew is catching up on processing the core, but we hope to see new rock tomorrow! At the time of this report, we are coring at a depth of 10,937'.
After recovering three very short runs last evening, the decision was made to change the bit. We tripped out the drill string early this morning and tripped it in today. We are just about ready to begin coring operations again, so hopefully there will be some core waiting for us in the morning.
Today we recovered a bit of very interesting rock, and then had trouble recovering any rock at all. We processed what looked like a zoned intrusion this morning. The intrusion contained elongate, flow-lineated olivine at its top and bottom, and clots of large, equant olivine grains in its interior. Unfortunately, the rock below this unit was highly fractured to rubbly in nature, and we were only able to recover one more full run for the rest of the day. At the time of this report, we are coring at a depth of 10,926'.
We had a rough time coring last night and most of today, the runs produced were short, highly fractured and often impossible to piece back together. However, the latest run recovered today was well consolidated and bodes well for tonight's drilling. Aloha and mahalo to the group of IODP scientists that visited the site today from the local conference. At the time of this report, we are coring at a depth of 10,897 ft.
When we arrived this morning, there were three long runs of core waiting for us. All three runs were composed of pillow breccia, making the interval of this rock type over 30 feet in thickness. This is the largest pillow breccia unit we have seen during the project. The next run recovered showed a change back to massive pillow lava, and this is the material we are currently coring. At the time of this report, we are drilling at a depth of 10,874'.
Today we finally saw a change in the character of the rock we have been drilling. We found a glassy pillow margin at the bottom of the massive unit that was about 125 feet thick. We also recovered a pillow breccia interval today that was at least a few feet thick. We have not seen a breccia interval this thick since the first few days of coring. At the time of this report, we are drilling at a depth of 10,836'.
We are coring again, but the rock recovered today was more highly fractured than yesterday. This may be an indication that we are about to drill through the bottom of the very thick, massive unit that we were in for the last few days. Chief Core Logger Mike Garcia is at the site and will stay through tomorrow to finalize our descriptions of the core that has been logged so far.
Last night the decision was made to change the bit, so there was only one run of core waiting for us to process this morning. While the drillers were tripping in the new bit, the on-site science team was slabbing, scanning, photographing, and logging the core. We are seeing many interesting features in each box of core; from glassy pillow margins, to pillow breccia intervals, to primary and secondary mineral occurrences. At the time of this report, we are washing down to the bottom of the hole, 10767'. We hope to continue coring operations later this evening.
We are currently drilling a very thick unit that is much more competent than all of the rock recovered before it during this project. As a result, we are drilling, recovering, and processing much more core than ever before. At the time of this report, we are coring at a depth of 10,767'.
After some drilling difficulties last night, we have recovered three consecutive runs today that have all been the full or nearly full 10 feet. These runs all seem to be part of a single, thick pillow lava. During this project, we have already drilled through pillows that range in thickness from a matter of inches to many tens of feet. You never know what sort of rock the next run will bring, so check back tomorrow! At the time of this report, we are coring at a depth of 10,706'.
We recovered some more interesting core today, unfortunately most of it was even more highly fractured than usual. As a result, the core barrel often blocked before we could drill a full run, and most of the runs were short today (less than 5'). We used this opportunity to catch up on some of the many other core processing tasks (slabbing, scanning, photography, and logging). At the time of this report, we are drilling at a depth of 10,674'.
Today we recovered a few runs of core, pumped a variety of mud mixtures into the hole to stabilize it, and then continued drilling. The rock recovered was highly fractured, and often cracked in multiple locations but not broken apart. At the time of this report, we are drilling at a depth of 10,650'.
We made steady progress while drilling today, although most of the rock recovered was highly fractured in nature. The rain came down heavily this afternoon, and we needed it after such a dry January. We are working on many core processing tasks at once now that two University of Hawaii at Hilo students have joined our science team. At the time of this report, we are coring at a depth of 10,627'.
We saw a lot of interesting rock today, mainly pillow lavas with thick and complex glassy margins. These margins were often the sites of strong alteration, as evinced by the high abundances of secondary minerals found coating them. As we have seen over the last few days, the brecciated zones observed today between pillows were restricted in thickness to less than 10 cm. At the time of this report, we are drilling at a depth of 10,607'.
We spent most of the day washing back into the hole and clearing it of rubble that fell in during the bit change. A nine foot run was just recovered, so it appears that coring operations are off and running again. At the time of this report, we are drilling at a depth of 10,586'.
After recovering two very short and rubbly runs last night and this morning, the decision was made to change our bit. All of today was spent tripping the drill string out and then back in the hole, and we will resume coring later this evening.
There were many interesting features in the core we recovered today. We observed extensive clays and other secondary mineralizations, as well as complex glassy margins and associated breccia veins. We passed the two mile mark today, and are currently at a depth of 10,575'.
Drilling operations proceeded smoothly today, and a set of collars arrived in case we need to switch to tricone rotary drilling in the future. The rock recovered today was almost entirely pillow lavas. There were many glassy margins on the pillows, but no changes in lithology across those margins. This observation indicates that all the pillows may have been emplaced during a single long-lived eruption. At the time of this update, we are currently drilling at a depth of 10,543'.
Today we saw a mixture of pillows and breccia again, the pillows dominated and were separated by thin breccia intervals. The core seems to be holding together a little better than before, most of the runs recovered today were nearly full and moderately fractured, in contrast to the shorter, highly fractured runs that have been the norm. At the time of this report, we are at a depth of 10,515'.
Today we recovered mainly massive pillow basalts, with only thin pillow breccia intervals between them. Drilling is proceeding slowly but surely, most of the runs are between seven and the full ten feet in length. Aloha and mahalo to the University of Hawaii at Hilo Geology Field Methods class that visited the site today, we are always happy to see students interested in learning about the HSDP! At the time of this report, we are currently at a depth of 10,490'
The core processing team was busy today, as a lot of highly fractured core was recovered that we had to piece back together as best we could. We saw pillow basalts for the most part today, with pillow breccia intervals from 1-10 cm in between them. The drillers are still encountering regions of high water pressure as we drill, and dealing with it by mixing heavier batches of drilling mud. At the time of this report, we are currently drilling at a depth of 10,458'.
Today was a good day for coring, as we retrieved many core barrels that were full or nearly full to their 10' capacity. The rock was massive and moderately fractured, but we were able to piece it together into continuous sections. A visiting University of Hawaii at Hilo geology class was among the first to see these rocks from deep inside the interior of a hawaiian volcano. We are currently drilling at 10,427'.
We recovered a few short runs of core today, but had difficulties latching onto the core barrel and controlling the high water pressures in the hole. We currently have our survey tool inside the core barrel at the bottom of the hole, hopefully it will bring back some information that will help us figure out how to improve our penetration rate. At the time of this report, we are at a depth of 10,396'.
After changing the core bit, we struggled with a variety of problems today. The drill string had a swelled joint that had to be removed, groundwater flow at the bottom of the hole was driving away the drilling mud, and the rock in the hole kept collapsing in every time we pulled up to extract a run of core. Most of the rock recovered today was rubble or highly fractured, and this is the material that ruined our previous core bit. We will keep trying, and hopefully we will reach more stable rock soon.
We began tripping out of the hole early this morning to change the bit, so there was no core recovered today. This hiatus gave us a chance to review the core we have processed and logged so far with Principal Investigator Ed Stolper, who is visiting from Caltech. He examined the rock and data we have collected, and gave advice on how we can improve our logging efforts. At the time of this report the drill string is back in the hole, and we are clearing out a small amount of rubble that has fallen into it. We hope to be cutting new rock at the bottom of the hole sometime tonight.
We recovered many runs today, but unfortunately most of them were very short and composed mainly of rubble. These results are a combination of the unconsolidated nature of the rock and a bit that may be wearing down. When we recover the next run later tonight, the decision will be made whether or not to change the bit. Aloha to the UH Hilo Introductory Geology class that visited the site today, next week remind me to take a picture of the group for our site! At the time of this update, we are currently at a depth of 10,380'.
It was an interesting day of coring today, as we recovered massive pillow basalts and then brecciated pillows with similar mineralogy. We have seen both textures earlier during this phase of the project, but the long interval of massive material made the breccia a surprise when it suddenly appeared. At the time of this report, we are currently drilling at a depth of 10,364'.
We worked on processing highly fractured runs of core today, so far we still haven't seen a change in lithology. The last few runs recovered today were almost entirely rubble, hopefully we will drill more consolidated core tonight into tomorrow.
Today we recovered our first core run of the new year! There was only about two feet of core in this run, so it isn't surprising that the rocks look like those we recovered before the holiday break. Now that we are through clearing the hole of rubble, we expect coring operations to progress more smoothly.
We have been slowly clearing rubble from the bottom regions of the hole over the past few days. We believe it is clear now, but it is time to change to a different bit. Our previous bit was effective for clearing rubble, but not for drilling the hard rock at the bottom of the hole. We tripped pipe most of the day today, changed the bit, and will start drilling again late tonight.
Today we had to clear the drill pipe of rubble that was blocking it. Once the pipe was clear, we were able to progress to where we left off before the holiday break, 10,310'. We have progressed a few feet deeper so far, and should retrieve our first core run of the new year later this evening.
Last night as we attempted to wash back down to the bottom of the hole, the bit encountered some rubble at 9,912'. This rock may have fallen into the hole during our holiday break, probably as a result of water flow in the deeper, uncased region. This rubble was not unexpected, but we didn't have any mud circulation at the bit during drilling. Without lubrication, the teeth of the bit melted and didn't progress very far. We replaced the destroyed bit this morning and tripped back into the hole. If we monitor our mud circulation carefully, we should be able to get to the bottom of the hole soon.
The last of the drillers arrived in Hilo last night, and we began operations this morning. After fixing the power tongs, we were able to trip the remaining pipe the rest of the way out of the hole. We replaced the old bit (see additional pictures) with a new one and headed back down to the bottom. Coring should begin overnight, and we hope to have rock core to process tomorrow morning.
The science crew has returned now that the holidays are over, and we are just about finished with our core scanning, photography, and logging. Feel free to browse the website and view the information that has been gathered so far. The drill crew is scheduled to return on the 11th and 12th, and once drilling starts up again there will be daily information updates here.
Today we recovered 27.5 feet of core drilled over the last 24 hours. All the rock was dense, highly fractured, and lithologically similar. In fact, not a single contact between units was observed. It appears we may be drilling through a very large pillow lava interior. At the time of this report, 7:30 HST, we are drilling at a depth of 10,310 feet. This is the final drilling update of the year, as we are shutting down drilling operations tommorow through the holidays. Aloha and Mele Kalikimaka!
Today's drilling produced some different rocks than yesterday. Instead of just pillow lavas, we recovered pillow lavas and pillow breccias. Both of these unit types are massive, monolithologic, and highly fractured. The rock appears to be quite brittle, as many of the fractures show no evidence of alteration. They were probably induced during drilling at depth or removal of rock from the core barrel at the surface. Hopefully the core bit will reach more coherent rock soon. At the time of this report, 6:30 PM HST, we are drilling at a depth of 10,284 feet.
Today was our first day of serious core processing. In total we washed, dried, marked, and boxed 37 feet of core. The core became more highly fractured with depth, which increased our processing time significantly as we attempted to piece it back together. As the core processing crew becomes more comfortable with our tasks, we will be able to do more each day. We hope to update the site soon with box photographs, core scans, and lithologic reports. The current driling depth at the time of this update is 10,250.
At the end of the day today, we recovered our first run of core! We drilled it in the morning, but had to try twice to latch onto the core barrel at the bottom of the hole. Our current depth at the time of this report is 10,205.4 feet. Now that coring has begun, we have switched to nonstop drilling operations to maximize that amount of core we can recover before we take a break for the holidays. Stay tuned for a report of tomorrow's activities...
We retrieved the tricone rotary bit today, and tripped in a brand new core bit. Tomorrow we will begin coring where the last phase of the project left off, at a depth of 10,201 feet below the surface. We hope tomorrow will be the beginning of a long interval of coherent core recovery.
We have traveled very quickly to the bottom of the old hole over the past couple days, cleaning out the rubble to a depth of 10,201 feet with a tricone rotary bit. Once we survey this deepest region of the hole and change from the tricone bit to a coring bit, we will be ready to begin coring where the 1999 phase of drilling left off.
We surveyed the deviation of the borehole this morning, over the depth interval 9,854-9,933 feet. There is a sharp increase in inclination at the bottom of the casing, from 7.5-9.3 over a five foot interval. Below that, the hole maintains a relatively constant inclination of ~10. We spent the rest of the day tripping out of the hole to replace the coring bit with a tricone rotary bit, which we will use to clean out the old hole tomorrow. The plan is to drill all the way to the bottom of the old hole, a depth of 10,201 feet.
We recovered another short rubble run this morning, and then went into the old drill hole. During the next drilling run (which lasted the rest of the day), we were able to progress downward 58 feet to 9,937' without filling our 5-foot capacity core barrel. Tomorrow we will use our downhole surveying tool to determine the angle of the hole. We will use this information to decide whether to continue drilling along our current trajectory or to try and redirect the drill bit along a straighter path closer to vertical.
Today we recovered the first coring runs of the project! The runs were composed entirely of rubble and were no more than two feet thick each, but we are making progress. We think that the zone we are currently drilling is fractured at least partly from tricone rotary drilling done last year during the opening of the hole. Hopefully we will be able to drill though this interval over the next few days, and into more coherent rock.
We are happy to report that our assumption was incorrect yesterday, the core barrel did not break off in the bottom of the hole. Once we tripped the last of the pipe out this morning, we saw that the core barrel was still attached. Inside was a handful of cement and broken rock. This is a promising sign, and may indicate that the recent cement injections are forcing the bit out the side of the casing that has been thinned by last week's milling. The coring conditions at the end of the day indicate that we may be slowly drilling through the last of the casing sidewall and through the side of the casing shoe. If so, we will try and continue on this new path and avoid the old hole, which deviates significantly away from vertical.
Over the past two days, the drillers injected two slugs of cement (47 gallons each) into the hole in an effort to stabilize the fragmented rock beneath the casing. Today we tried to core this cement and rock in the region beneath the casing, but once again the core barrel became stuck in the hole. This occurred despite last week's milling efforts to straighten the drill string pathway, and despite using our shortest core barrel (only five feet long). By the end of the day we began tripping out of the hole and preparing a fishing tool, hopefully we will retrieve the core barrel tomorrow.
