An important part of the Antarctic Intermediate Depth Drill (AIDD) system is the sea riser, which helps to support the drill string when drilling from floating ice. The sea riser is made of glass reinforced epoxy (GRE), a type of fiberglass that is lighter weight than traditional steel casing. It is designed to provide drill string support for ice platform movement, including both lateral movement (from currents) and vertical movement (from tides).
Each GRE sea riser pipe is approximately 3 m in length. Our drilling team has carefully measured each segment and then connected two segments together into 6 m lengths in preparation for deployment after the hot water hole has been drilled.
Adam Rutten and Ollie Chappell carefully measure the length of each riser pipe prior to deployment so that the total length needed to reach the seafloor from the surface is known.
