The Chipmunk Drill is a hand-held, motor driven drill that collects ice cores either 41 mm (1.6-inch) or 57 mm (2.2-inch) diameter in solid ice. Barrel sets are available in 15 cm, 25 cm, and 50 cm lengths. The drill was first used for a funded project (for which it was designed) at Pakitsoq, West Greenland, in 2003 and 2004. It has been used for exploratory work at the South Pole, to collect shallow cores in the Sierra Nevada range and Wyoming in the western U.S., and by an investigator at UW-Madison for testing highly strained ice created in a campus lab. The drill was recently used in west Antarctica during the 2024-2025 season to drill over 400 shallow core samples near Mt. Waesche and it is slated for use on ice patches in Alaska and Canada during the summer of 2026 and 2027.
Equipment Details
| Name | Chipmunk Drill |
|---|---|
| Type |
Type
Ice coring
|
| Number in Inventory |
Number in Inventory
1
|
| Max. Practical Depth |
Max. Practical Depth
0.90 m
|
| Hole Diameter |
Hole Diameter
64 mm (2.5-inch)
|
| Ice Core Diameter |
Ice Core Diameter
41 mm (1.6-inch)
|
| Ice Core Length |
Ice Core Length
0.15 m
|
| IDP Driller Required? |
IDP Driller Required?
No
|
| Drill Fluid Required? |
Drill Fluid Required?
No
|
| Power Requirements/ Source |
Power Requirements/ Source
120 V, 1 kW generator |
| Helicopter Transportable? |
Helicopter Transportable?
Yes
|
| Light Aircraft Transportable? |
Light Aircraft Transportable?
Yes
|
| Shipping Weight |
Shipping Weight
35 lbs |
| Shipping Volume (Cube) |
Shipping Cube
2.3 |
Photos
PI Bill Mcintosh holds a short core drilled with the Chipmunk Drill. During the 2024/25 field season, the G-065-M project used the Chipmunk Drill at Mount Waesche, West Antarctica, to collect over 400 samples of short, vertically oriented ice cores along a 4 km transect across a vertically oriented ash-bearing blue ice sequence. Credit: Nelia Dunbar.
The Chipmunk Drill is a hand-held, motor driven coring drill that collects 41 mm (1.6-inch) diameter cores in solid ice. It has two barrels, one 15 cm long and one 50 cm long. Credit: Chris Gibson
A scientist uses the Chipmunk Drill at Pakitsoq, West Greenland, in 2004 to recover samples of ice. Credit: Ed Brook