Vibrocorer for undisturbed sampling of firn aquifer layers in Greenland:general concept

The firn aquifer beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet may play a significant role in rising sea level.Both traditional mechanical drilling and electric thermal drilling are poorly adapted for effective,low-disturbance sampling in firn aquifers.We propose using a vibrocoring technique for the undisturbed sampling of dry firn and firn aquifer layers.A remote-controlled vibrocorer is designed to obtain 1-m-long cores with a diameter of 100 mm.The depth capacity of the system is approximately 50 m.The total weight of the vibrocoring system with the surface auxiliary equipment is approximately 110 kg,and corer assembly itself weighs～60 kg.