DFDP-2 @ 430 m: Drilling hole again

Rupert Sutherland, GNS Science and Victoria University of Wellington
John Townend, Victoria University of Wellington
Virginia Toy, University of Otago

It certainly took longer to get drilling again than we had hoped, but we are now making steady progress. We started drilling again at 7 pm last night and passed 430 m depth this morning.

The delay was caused by annoying fragments of metal that were still in the borehole after we had recovered the main BHA.

Fishing tool with a strong magnet inside it covered in fine metal shavings 9/11/14.
Photo: R. Sutherland.

The most elusive object was a weight that normally resides at the bottom of the winch rope (just below the flag, see photo of the new one). It was eventually retrieved using a strong magnet in a steel pipe (see photos).

Fishing tool with our last catch. 9/11/14. Photo: R. Sutherland.

The BHA and a nice new tricone drill bit were installed yesterday and we are now making good progress. The science team and drillers are very pleased to have put the dropped BHA drama behind them.

Flying the flag again 10/11/14. Photo: R. Sutherland

Primary funders of the DFDP-2 project are: the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP), the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand, GNS Science, Victoria University of Wellington, and the University of Otago.