Drillers Steve Cole, Justin Blouin, AJ Vecchiarelli, Beau Marshall, and Matt Lyon hold the last core of the SUSTAIN drilling operation.
At 10:30 am this morning, drilling on Surtsey was completed! The final, diagonal hole reached a length of 354 m (vertical depth of 290 m). At 343 m, the team reached the feeder dike of Surtur (eastern crater). The final meter of core was a lapilli tuff, indicating the team transversed the dike. The drilling team deserves the highest praise for their dedication, enthusiasm and drive in bringing the drilling operation to such a grand finish. As well, the efforts of the waterline workers, and the science team on Surtsey and Heimaey has been critical to the extraordinary success of the project.