2268 feet, photos of drill site activities

Today we processed core to a depth of 2238 ft, and received a shipment of rock at the end of the day that reached 2268 ft.  We saw mostly ʻaʻa flows today, which is surprising since this hole has been dominated by pahoehoe so far.  Over the next few days we'll see if that is just coincidence or the start of a trend.  Close-up pictures of the rock will have to wait until tomorrow, CSAV Educational Specialist Darcy Bevens provided us with some great photos of activity up at the drill site today:

Above, Donnie (left) and Nainoa (right) extract core from the barrel into the trays.  The darker material next to Donnie's hammer is the rock itself, the lighter material is the end of the core barrel.  Donnie slides the rock out and into the tray while Nainoa makes sure that the core pieces fill the tray completely and are arranged in the proper vertical orientation (top side up).

Head Driller Ron Fierbach (left) and Principal Investigator Don Thomas (right) examine and discuss the newly extracted run of core.