Portable Ice Core Sampling Tool

Chipmunk Drill CADChipmunk Drill Product

The AMC has worked with the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences and the Climate Change Institute to design a small, portable and efficient ice core extraction tool. The new drill offers a high level of portability and is designed to extract 50 cm samples that are 2 inches in diameter. The AMC was able to apply the knowledge from the Climate Change Institute to the geometry of the drill to ensure the absolute greatest level of efficiency. In addition, it was designed to have removable cutting blades to reduce costs and increase the life span of the drill. During the summer of 2014, the drill will be used to investigate the microstructure (size, shape and orientation of grains) of glacial ice. This is important because glaciers have a major potential to cause global sea level rise, and we still do not know all the reasons why glaciers will suddenly speed up or how large calving events (when large chunks of the glacier fracture and fall into the ocean) are initiated.