061 – Antarctica2014Slides – DSC02105 – Donenfeld

The inside of the main drill arch. Overhead you can see the blue heavy crane. The yellow safety fences are surrounding the Winch Pit, which housed the main winch, level wind, and related machinery. This winch pit leads into the borehole slot, which is about 40 feet deep, 40 feet long, 5 feet wide. Although the borehole is only a few inches in diameter, the slot must be long and wide to accomodate the swing room for the drill tower – it must pivot from vertical to horizontal in one motion.