9 hours 17 min from now
Watching with bated breath
Yesterday the pipe got sent down, and the crew tried to get the end of the drill string into the opening in the collar of two CORKS (one at a time). A camera gets sent down, also, so that the crew can see where the end of the drill string is with regards to where it needs to be. The live video also goes out on most of the monitors on the ship—talk about reality TV!
Us School of Rockers were listening to a lecture on planktonic foraminifera, but when the pipe looked like it was about to enter the slot, we would all stop and huddle around the screen to watch.
I have heard over and over that the crew on this ship is amazing, and I got to see how amazing they are as I watched the screen and realized that this pipe was 2660m down at the bottom of the ocean, and the only control they have over it is to move the entire boat around as it’s heaving around on the waves (which is done by a guy running the Dynamic Positioning System from the bridge). And in 24 hours, they had sent down the drill string and successfully added concrete to seal up both of the CORKS, and are now pulled pipe back up (which is called “tripping the pipe”, whether it’s going up or down). To put it into even more perspective, the boat had been scheduled time to attempt this until 12 noon on July 4th, and today is just the 1st. So, after the pipe is fully tripped, I guess we’ll just mosey into Victoria.
The other cool thing we did yesterday is to sort out our dried foraminifera sample (from the sediment we had sieved the day before) looking for N. pachyderma. Using a stereoscope, we attempted to count how many were sinistral (coiled from left) and how many were dextral (coiled from right). This ratio is a proxy for near-surface ocean temperatures, as the different types are each more prolific during either cold temperatures or warmed ones. I am hoping to have my advanced/interested students work on sorting forams during next school year, especially because living in Austin, I have the luxury of being able to take kids to the Gulf Coast Core Repository in College Station for a field trip. I hope they like washing dirt!
Comments
inquiring mind...
What was sealing the CORKS before the boat re-sealed them? Were the holes taking on water, and did it damage any of the instrumentation? How did they know the CORKS were leaking? is it common for them to leak or did the last crew screw up?
corinne
Trying to answer your questions
Corinne,
Here's what I know:
The CORKS were leaking, so really nothing was sealing them except the contact between the CORK and the sediment. Evidently there is supposed to be cement sealing part, and a rubber seal. When they were originally installed, there had not been time to check the rubber seal before sailing, and upon opening the box, it was discovered that they were faulty. The holes were taking on water, and though it didn't damage the instruments, it was a problem because the entire point is to measure heat flow to learn more about the direction the "groundwater" is going between intake areas and black smokers, so having cold seawater sucked in through the hole was making the information gathered basically useless. I think they knew they were leaking from when they were installed and by looking at the temperature data, but at the original time there was nothing they could do except put them in and hope for the best. We are all getting a copy of the video of them being sealed up, so when I get home we can watch it and you can see how nerve wracking it is to watch a 2660 meter-long drill string attempt to get the concrete in just the right place. The chief scientist for the project is Dr. Andy Fisher of UC Santa Cruz; Dr. Cloos at UT Austin actually knows who he is.
Thanks for reading!
HI
What's up Sickie? How much longer are you on the boat?
Your Sister.
Almost off
We're heading into Victoria tomorrow, and get off the boat Sunday. Thanks for reading!
Still on it
We've been sitting in one place in the ocean since they cemented up the CORKS, but we're going to start heading in tomorrow, and should be docked in Victoria by July 5th. I fly out on the 8th.
--Beth