2014-15 Photos - The Rodwell
 Pulling the nonfunctional rodwell pump 31 October...the rodwell pump was extracted. From left: Rich Young, Steven Loicano, and Bartley Davis. The effort first involved using a hot water drill to clear the obstruction above the pump so it could be removed. Then the hot point was used to widen the hole down to the rodwell cavity and melt the ice lens that had formed over the water. By 4 November it was being brought on line, although there was no spare pump or parts on station. A bit of background on the rodwell: | |
 Here's a 2006-07 photo of the then-new Rodwell 3 building where all of this stuff was happening...it was erected 6 years before the well went online. This photo is by 2007 w/o power plant operator Tim Hayosh...here's more photos/info...with links to earlier stuff about the previous rodwells and the ice tunnels. |
 More recently, here's a January 2014 graphic of the new rodwell (red outline) superimposed on an image of Rodwell 2 which is now being used for sewage. This is from a January 2014 blog post by 2014 IceCube w/o Ian Rees. |
|
Below...a few more photos of the pump extraction. One could imagine that the pump installation would be a reverse scroll of these pictures. All of these (including the one at the top of this page) are courtesy of Bartley Davis. | |
 Here is the top of the rodwell shaft...there are 2 hoses---supply and return, along with a bunch of power cables and the cable supporting the pump. |
 Removing the Velcro ties around the hoses--there are supply and return hoses and a separately wrapped bundle which includes the electrical cables and the support cable for the pump. |
 Looking down the well hole. The lighted area is where the ice tunnel intersects with the well shaft. |
 Here at last is the pump itself. |
 A bit more unwrapping and disassembly required... |
 Part of the pump assembly. |
|
Suffice it to say that the rodwell got put back into service to provide plenty of water for all of those 2-minute showers. Next up...the South Pole Ice Core project showed up, built a drilling system, and started taking ice cores. | |