This book provides a review of mechanical ice drilling technology, including the design, parameters, and performance of various tools and drills for making holes in snow, firn and ice. The material presents the historical development of ice drilling tools and devices from the first experience taken place more than 170 years ago to the present day and focuses on the modern vision of ice drilling technology. It is illustrated with numerous pictures, many of them published for the first time. This book is intended for specialists in ice core sciences, drilling engineers, glaciologists, and can be useful for highschool students and other readers who are very interested in engineering and cold regions technology.

Dr. Pavel G. Talalay is Professor of the College of Construction Engineering and Director of Polar Research Center at Jilin University, Changchun, China. He earned Drilling Engineer (1984), PhD (1995) and Doc. Eng. (2007) degrees in exploration engineering from St. Petersburg State Mining Institute, Russia, where he previously worked as Professor and Chair of the Dept. He has also worked for Niels Bohr Institute (Copenhagen University, Denmark) as Guest Researcher (1998-1999). His research interests are associated with different aspects of drilling technology in Polar Regions, especially on glaciers and ice sheets. He attended six field expeditions in Arctic and Antarctica and took part in the drilling operations of the deepest hole in ice (3769 m) at Vostok Station, Antarctica. He is the author of about 200 publications and got 2006 International Geneva Salon of Inventions Gold Medal and 2009 International Contest on 3D-Modelling Winner Award. Since 2009 Prof. Pavel Talalay has been a member of IDDO Technical Advisory Board, University of Wisconsin - Madison.