A drilling breakthrough

Apologies for the delay in posting this update, I have been waiting for some good news to share on the drilling front. 

Over the past week or so, the drillers have filled the hole with cement and then drilled through that cement in an attempt to stabilize the loose upper portion of the hole.  In addition, casing was set at a depth of very solid rock, about 90 ft below the surface.  This casing was also cemented in place and will prevent any cave-in material along its length.  More cement was poured into the hole and allowed to harden, and then Master Driller Ron Fierbach went in with an unconventional setup to try and drill alongside the material stuck in the hole.  He drilled without the stiff core barrel, instead using only a drill bit attached to regular drill pipe.  This enabled him to deviate slightly from the old hole, and once the bit started to cut some rock instead of only cement, it was drawn into the rock and away from the cement.  Below is a picture that from left to right shows progressively deeper core samples drilled by this method. 

The far left core shows a combination of rock and cement, but the amount of cement decreases in the downward direction.  The second core piece shows significantly less cement at its bottom.  The third piece shows even less cement and the curved, cut face of the sidewall of the old hole.  The last piece shows some of this curvature as well, but advances down to a complete cylinder composed entirely of newly drilled rock.  The significance of this image is that it indicates we are now out of the old hole and drilling alongside it.  Although we aren't in the clear yet, this is a big step in the right direction.  The next question is whether we can drill past 130 ft, where the collapse occurred before.  This time most of the hole is cased, so hopefully encountering a lava tube void space won't cause so many troubles.  We don't know how much more loose material we may have to drill through, but hopefully we'll be through it soon.