Cheryl L. Hammons's blog

This picture shows one of a many-step process in finding out how many and what kind of BUGS may be in a core sample. By bugs we mean nanofossils, microfossils - in other words, ancient, once-living organisms that we cannot see with the naked eye.

July 1, 2009 Profile: Phil Rumford, Superintendent Gulf Coast Repository Interviewed by School of Rocker, Cheryl L. Hammons Phil received his Geology/Chemistry Degree at E. Anglia, UK with the intent of going into research. He then attended Halfield Poly in the Masters degree program and was in charge of the running the geo-chemistry lab.

The purpose for the trip was accomplished today! With amazing tenacity and skill, 2,660 m of pipe was lowered into a "cork" on the seafloor - through which 40 barrels of concrete was sent down to repair a leak! We all watched the action on a tv screen from the camera that had been lowered down. Wow! They're on hole 2 now and it looks like another successful fix.

Here's a rather spacey picture of the "dome" lid on our lifeboats - 70 persons each! They are fully contained, have GPS and backup within the unit. We've had one drill already - where we came with hardhats, safety glasses, and carrying our immersion suits. If anything happened, we'd be fine! Very comforting when the ship is rockin'!

Our teacher for this one has been down in the ALVIN Submersible to collect samples! The core is beautiful - has iron, pyrite, sulfer - all kinds of beautiful veins, and patterns. A lot of chemistry today.  Got to see a couple porpoises this morning swimming and jumping port side of the bow - no photos as the waves are still BIG and coming over the side.

Under wobbly "sea-legs" today we learned how to make smear-slides of the sediments in one of the cores. And they are FULL of microscopic fossils. We get to bring these home to share with our students and start the inquiry process with them. It's a beautiful thing.

All the Rockers are on board and we had an incredible tour of the core lab today - words can't describe the detail and high  tech equipment on this ship! The "mess" has served us great food and hopefully all the steep, tall stairways everywhere will offset that! We sail tomorrow at 7 AM - and we will all be out on the deck to enjoy the sights.

We are down to just a few days before the big adventure begins! I'm really looking forward to meeting all of you other teachers from all over the world! That's going to be an education in itself. See you all in San Diego Monday night - happy trails getting there!