RABID: Basal conditions on Rutford Ice Stream, West Antarctica: Hot-water drilling and downhole instrumentation. British Antarctic Survey Field Report, R/2004/S3 [BAS Archives Ref: AD6/2R/2004/S3]

The main fieldwork for project AFI 1-05 (the RABID project) was carried out on Rutford Ice Stream in the 2004/05 field season. The biggest scientific task was to access the ice stream bed using a hot-water drill. This would enable a number of investigations within the bed and the ice. The project also involved a substantial suite of surface geophysical measurements. Together, these formed an integrated programme studying ice dynamics, basal conditions and climate and glacial history. Although the drilling reached within ~100 m of the bottom of the ice (ice thickness ~2200 m), irretrievable equipment failure meant that we did not reach the ice stream bed. The surface work was much more successful and is giving significant and in some cases, unexpected, results.