Drill Rig arrives in Antarctica

The ANDRILL drill rig arrived in Antarctica and is being set up at the McMurdo Ice Shelf (MIS) drill site.

Below is an article discussing the drill rig that appeared in the Timaru Herald.

Antarctic Drilling Rig Tested at Cave

by Staff, Timaru Herald, September 21, 2005

They’ve drilled in Iran, Ethiopia and Antarctica- and now they’re drilling in South Canterbury.

Wellington company Webster Drilling is testing its giant rig near Cave before the rig heads to Antarctica to gather samples from under the ocean floor.

The drill will be used in the four -nation ANDRILL project, in which scientists from New Zealand, the United States, Germany and Italy are gathering evidence about climate change.

When it does go to Antarctica, the rig will drill through the McMurdo ice shelf, then pass through 800 metres of water before drilling into the sea floor.

ANDRILL project manager Jim Cowie said they were testing the drill and gathering new data about the layers of sedimentary rock near Cave.

"Nobody has drilled to this depth in this area before. We have a few things to understand," he said.

Otago University scientists have found a correlation between the sediment layers in South Canterbury and Antarctica.

The drill rig is worth more than $4.3 million and could drill to depths of more than 2000 metres into the Earth’s crust, Mr Cowie said.

Webster Drilling, based in Porirua, is recognised as a world leader in specialist drilling technology with NASA even checking out their hardware when they were designing the Mars Rover robot.