2002-03 Photos--SPRESSO project continued

This is one of the deep borehole seismic instruments ready for installation (DA).	Don Anderson preparing to lower one of the deep seismometers.
The original sensors were Geotech Instruments KS-54000 and Guralp CMG-3Tb instruments. The space around the instrument at the bottom was filled with sand so as to minimize temperature changes from air currents in the hole. These holes are dry, unlike IceCube, and they close very slowly due to the movement of the ice sheet. So far it has been possible to remove the instruments and replace them with newer units. There actually are four instrumented holes--three at full size and depth, and a fourth 6" diameter hole at 500' where one of the drill heads was lost. That hole is currently (2008) being used to test a prototype "cold" sensor that is smaller in diameter because it does not require insulation and heat trace. That sensor is to be replaced with a newer prototype in 2008-09...and the project hopes to install these newer units elsewhere in Antarctica and in Greenland.
And here is Jared Vineyard with sensor. One operational instrument initially was set at 935 feet and the other one went to 900 feet (DA).	The shallow "beer can" vault contains additional sensors that are a backup to the deep instruments...they are more subject to noise and require occasional manual releveling, but they are obviously easier to access and maintain.
Jared wires up the electronics inside the building.	And when all was said and done, everything got buried...well, except for all those flags and the wind bird.
Here's another view before the hatches got buried (DA).	Oh, and here's what it looks like now that it is buried (NS).
Looking down one of the ladders (NS).	One of the newer shallow sensors, these need leveling from time to time (NS).
Generally these photos were found on the common drive and were provided courtesy of Kent Anderson, who took them unless otherwise indicated: Don Anderson (DA) and Terry Gacke (TG). Other project members included Jared Vineyard and Rhett Butler. Other construction photos are from Jack Corbin (JC), and a few more recent photos are by Neal Scheibe (NS). Some of these also appear on the USGS web site and/or the IRIS image gallery. The project is funded by NSF, the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), and the USGS...also see the USGS/IRIS data sheet about the project and this 29 December 2002 Antarctic Sun article. Oh, and special thanks to Kent Anderson! While all this was happening...the Dark Sector Laboratory (DSL) was getting completed (mostly) in the dark sector...