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  1. Geological Survey Ireland
  2. Programmes & Projects
  3. How and Where We Work
  4. What We Use
  5. Drilling Rigs

Drilling Rigs

Drilling Rigs

Geological Survey Ireland carries out geological drilling as part of several programmes. Our Geological Mapping team use the data to improve our subsurface understanding and enhance our maps and 3D models of the Irish crust. The data is also used to support geotechnical and geological engineering studies.

Our Groundwater and Geothermal teams also use the data to assess our groundwater resources and to estimate geothermal heat below the surface.

​Geological Survey Ireland operates two drilling rigs; one rig is used for rotary coring and the other is used for auguring Quaternary samples. For more information about how we use these, please see our Frequently Asked Questions


GSI Drill Rigs

The rotary coring rig is a Boart-Longyear LF90D mounted on a 6x6 Volvo FMX truck (pictured below). This rig has a depth capacity of 1,193m and can use BQ to PQ rods.



The Boart-Longyear is used for bedrock investigations. The operations of this rig are crucial to the Land Mapping programme's 1:50k work, and is used by the Groundwater programme on several different projects.







This rig can collect core which is stores in the GSI corestore and can be accessed e.g. for research projects or by companies for site surveys.

 






Our second rig is a Dando Geotech 7.5 mounted on a 6x6 Iveco truck. This rig is used for continuous flight augering as part of the Land Mapping programme's Quaternary mapping projects, although other programmes also use it to support ongoing projects.