Geotechnical and Exploration Drilling in the Polar Regions

Dr. Pavel G. Talalay is a Professor at the College of Construction Engineering and Director of the Institute of Polar Science and Engineering at Jilin University, Changchun, China. He holds Drilling Engineer (1984), Ph.D. (1995) and Doc. Eng. (2007) degrees in Exploration Engineering from St. Petersburg Mining University, Russia, where he has worked as Professor and Chair of the Dept. He also worked as a Guest Researcher for the Niels Bohr Institute (Copenhagen University, Denmark) (1998-1999). His research interests are associated with different aspects of drilling and sampling technologies in ice, permafrost and marine sediments; ice properties and dynamics of ice sheets; environmental problems in the polar regions. He has taken part in eight field expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctica, and was involved in drilling the deepest hole in ice (3769 m), at Vostok Station, Antarctica. He is the author of more than 250 publications. Currently he leads several drilling projects in the Arctic and Antarctica.

Chapter 1. Drilling targets in the Polar Regions.- Chapter 2. Drilling challenges in the Polar Regions.- Chapter 3. Direct-push and percussion drilling.- Chapter 4. Non-coring erosion drilling in permafrost.- Chapter 5. Auger and rotary dry drilling.- Chapter 6. Rotary drilling with drilling fluid circulation.- Chapter 7. Air and foam drilling.- Chapter 8. Special drilling methods in the Polar Regions.- Chapter 9. Offshore drilling and sampling in the Polar Regions. Concluding Remarks, References.