It is difficult, to find a date to speak with Simone Mantovanelli. Since she is the only Palaeomagnetist on board of the JOIDES Resolution, she is facing almost the work for two. She has already requested a great number of samples, the mud in little plastic-boxes and the rocks cut into tiny cubes.

Simone is the first scientist on board working with the new 2G Enterprises superconducting liquid-helium-free magnetometer (SRM) which has been installed at the start of Expedition 366. It is  a  big instrument, from which one can see the exterior chrome steel only, but it looks impressive.

Gently Simone puts another working-half of a split-up core with serpetinite-mud and pieces of rock into the impressive machine.

What comes out is an unchanged sample and a bundle of complicated data concerning the palaeomagnetic directions from discrete samples and section halves, which are generally consistent with one another. Measured coercivity indicates for example the presence of highly coercive magnetite. Hematite is a less coercive mineral.

For further measurements like rock-magnetisation, Simone is going to take samples back to Sao Paulo. She is very engaged in Paleomagnetism and she hopefully states: “I will always find some coercive forces”.