Day 5 (Fri 10 Sept)

Today we saw many processes including how the sea floor sediments (called the core) are processed once they are brought up.  Step 1 is to make sure the core is oriented in the correct direction before cutting into 1.5 m chunks and sliced in half (one for archive and one for experimentation).  Then the core slice goes through gamma ray, x ray, and magnetometer as well as other wicked cool instruments.  We also watched through a camera where the drill was reaching the sea floor 1300m below the sea surface – bioluminescent sea creatures were zipping around making us all go ‘ooh’ ‘ahh’.  I also met the first mate (no2 to the captain) who shared lots of great stories about being a young man at sea.  Time is flying by with so much to do and learn.  Sleep and Food are necessary of course but wait maybe I can check out the helipad before snoozing…..