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<title>Jeff Ryan – JOIDES Resolution</title>
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<title>Jeff Ryan – JOIDES Resolution</title>
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<title>Busy, Busy! Bouncy weather, new Sites, lotsa core, and the vagaries of deep-sea drilling…</title>
<link>https://joidesresolution.org/busy-busy-bouncy-weather-new-sites-lotsa-core-and-the-vagaries-of-deep-sea-drilling/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=busy-busy-bouncy-weather-new-sites-lotsa-core-and-the-vagaries-of-deep-sea-drilling</link>
<comments>https://joidesresolution.org/busy-busy-bouncy-weather-new-sites-lotsa-core-and-the-vagaries-of-deep-sea-drilling/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Ryan]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 11 Jul 2022 00:11:27 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Exp393]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://joidesresolution.org/?p=38731</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Sorry to have been quiet for a bit – but it’s been kinda hectic here! Activities at our first site,... <div class="read-more"><a class="excerpt-read-more" href="https://joidesresolution.org/busy-busy-bouncy-weather-new-sites-lotsa-core-and-the-vagaries-of-deep-sea-drilling/" title="Continue reading Busy, Busy! Bouncy weather, new Sites, lotsa core, and the vagaries of deep-sea drilling…">Read more<i class="fa fa-angle-right"></i></a></div>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Sorry to have been quiet for a bit – but it’s been kinda hectic here!</p>
<p>Activities at our first site, U1559, were cut short by very resistant volcanic rock and the premature (?) destruction of our RCB (Rotary Core Barrel) drillbit. We then moved to Site U1558, where despite some bouncy weather to start, things went a lot better – a successful sediment hole (which meant some serious heavy lifting in Geochemistry, as we have to maneuver heavy titanium squeezers in and out of Carver presses, where they were squeezed at up to 25000 psi to extract interstitial water), followed by over 200 meters of coring through ocean crust basalts with (for basalts) very high recovery (in the 60% range!). <img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="wp-image-38762 alignleft" src="https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Squeezers-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="195" height="260" srcset="https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Squeezers-225x300.jpg 225w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Squeezers-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Squeezers-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Squeezers-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Squeezers-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px" /></p>
<p>We’re done with all the shipboard analytical work on these two Sites except for the rock chemical analyses, which are agonizingly slow to complete (from the core to a complete ICP-AES measurement can take 7-9 days – why this is so will be a Geek Blog entry). Right now, we’re at our brand-new site, U1583 (we’re the first to visit here to drill!). We’ve drilled a sediment hole (and collected more waters) and we’re currently dropping pipe to start a deep hole that will penetrate through to the basalts. These basalts will be younger (30 Ma), compared to the U1558 ones (49.1 Ma), but older than the U1559 ones (6.6 Ma), so it will be interesting to see how these look by comparison.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-38774 alignleft" src="https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Rocks-1-300x150.jpg" alt="" width="306" height="153" srcset="https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Rocks-1-300x150.jpg 300w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Rocks-1-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Rocks-1-768x384.jpg 768w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Rocks-1-1536x767.jpg 1536w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Rocks-1-2048x1023.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 306px) 100vw, 306px" /></p>
<p>On our way to the basalts at Site 1583 we’ve had a few misadventures – specifically a shear-away pin stuck in the core barrel 4200+ meters below us, which hung up retracting the corer and required them to slowly pull up pipe for a full day before they could loosen it and get back to business. It was a reminder to me of how extreme and delicate what we’re doing really is, a sensibility that gets lost maybe too easily seeing how well the crew and the drillers go about doing what they do.</p>
<p>Hopefully by tomorrow we’ll have new calls of Core on Deck and some truly, absolutely new rocks to look at, that no one has ever seen before!</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
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<title>Getting ready, in rough seas (new instruments, teaser cores, and more…)</title>
<link>https://joidesresolution.org/getting-ready-in-rough-seas-new-instruments-teaser-cores-and-more/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=getting-ready-in-rough-seas-new-instruments-teaser-cores-and-more</link>
<comments>https://joidesresolution.org/getting-ready-in-rough-seas-new-instruments-teaser-cores-and-more/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Ryan]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 22 Jun 2022 12:35:10 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Geochemistry]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[petrology]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Exp393]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://joidesresolution.org/?p=38584</guid>
<description><![CDATA[We are now on site at U1559B, bringing up cores, (!) which makes the previous eight days of transit all... <div class="read-more"><a class="excerpt-read-more" href="https://joidesresolution.org/getting-ready-in-rough-seas-new-instruments-teaser-cores-and-more/" title="Continue reading Getting ready, in rough seas (new instruments, teaser cores, and more…)">Read more<i class="fa fa-angle-right"></i></a></div>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><img decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-38585" src="https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Transit-Progress-300x235.jpg" alt="" width="449" height="352" srcset="https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Transit-Progress-300x235.jpg 300w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Transit-Progress-768x602.jpg 768w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Transit-Progress.jpg 1006w" sizes="(max-width: 449px) 100vw, 449px" /></p>
<p>We are now on site at U1559B, bringing up cores, (!) which makes the previous eight days of transit all worth it.</p>
<p>It was kind of a rough ride getting here – the seas were “unsettled” (the Captain’s term, in his weather forecast). This translated in practice as: heave (bow to stern rocking) and roll (port to starboard rocking), interacting, pretty much from the moment we hit deep water off the coast of South Africa. For me at least, it involved a lot of hanging on to things (there are, fortunately handholds and rails along every corridor and stairway on the <em>JR</em>), and getting used to reading and working on my computer while moving (me + the table/counter my computer sat on, each wobbling with its own slightly different amplitude, if not frequency). Ths ship’s doctor was ready with a generous supply of seasickness medication for those in need, and that (mostly) helped the science team, who are obviously the least accustomed to this kind of motion at sea.</p>
<p>The long transit afforded the opportunity to get ready for the drilling and coring to come, and to try and align our planned activities and measurements with what had been done during our partner Expedition 390. My work in this regard has orbited around two different Geochemistry instruments: an ICP-AES (Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometer), and a pXRF (portable X Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer). Both measure elemental abundances – the ICP in both solids and waters, and the pXRF in solids. And both were installed on the JR since my last Expedition, so I have some getting up to speed to do on them. There is also preparing for doing squeezing and geochemical sampling of porefluids in recovered sediments, which is complicated because many of the shipboard team want aliquots of what could be very limited available fluids. My counterparts on the 0000-1200 shift are leading our efforts here, for which I am most grateful!</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-38587" src="https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ICP-300x225.jpeg" alt="" width="339" height="255" srcset="https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ICP-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ICP-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ICP-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ICP-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ICP-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 339px) 100vw, 339px" /> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-38586" src="https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/pXRF-225x300.jpeg" alt="" width="191" height="255" srcset="https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/pXRF-225x300.jpeg 225w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/pXRF-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/pXRF-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/pXRF-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/pXRF-scaled.jpeg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 191px) 100vw, 191px" /> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-38595" src="https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/teaser-core-small-244x300.jpg" alt="" width="208" height="256" /></p>
<p>We also had a couple “teaser cores” that the Petrology and Physical Properties teams could get their feet wet on. These were recovered during the technical Expeditions last year, but were not cut or described. So, while we transited these were cut open, imaged, described, and sampled for shipboard geochemical and geophysical analysis.</p>
<p>Looking forward to collecting great igneous rock cores here at U1559 (promising so far!), and getting to help figure out what kinds of basalts they are and what their history of alteration and change may have been. The geochemistry is a central piece of this (and why that is I’ll try and get into in a blog post here in the near future!).</p>
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<title>Long awaited, much delayed – finally on our way… (Jeff Ryan’s JR Blog, rebooted…)</title>
<link>https://joidesresolution.org/long-awaited-much-delayed-finally-on-our-way-jeff-ryans-jr-blog-rebooted/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=long-awaited-much-delayed-finally-on-our-way-jeff-ryans-jr-blog-rebooted</link>
<comments>https://joidesresolution.org/long-awaited-much-delayed-finally-on-our-way-jeff-ryans-jr-blog-rebooted/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Ryan]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Jun 2022 13:45:10 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Climate Change]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Drilling]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Expeditions]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Geochemistry]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Life at Sea]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[petrology]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Plate Tectonics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Scientist Profiles]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Exp393]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://joidesresolution.org/?p=38503</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Hi! It’s been a while…. Longer than I, or any of us probably, could have anticipated – delayed more than... <div class="read-more"><a class="excerpt-read-more" href="https://joidesresolution.org/long-awaited-much-delayed-finally-on-our-way-jeff-ryans-jr-blog-rebooted/" title="Continue reading Long awaited, much delayed – finally on our way… (Jeff Ryan’s JR Blog, rebooted…)">Read more<i class="fa fa-angle-right"></i></a></div>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-38510" src="https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Exp-393-reprising-DSDP-3-300x235.jpg" alt="" width="417" height="327" srcset="https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Exp-393-reprising-DSDP-3-300x235.jpg 300w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Exp-393-reprising-DSDP-3-768x602.jpg 768w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Exp-393-reprising-DSDP-3.jpg 1006w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 417px) 100vw, 417px" /> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-38511" src="https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Capetown-to-U1559-300x235.jpg" alt="" width="419" height="328" srcset="https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Capetown-to-U1559-300x235.jpg 300w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Capetown-to-U1559-768x602.jpg 768w, https://joidesresolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Capetown-to-U1559.jpg 1006w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 419px) 100vw, 419px" /></p>
<p>Hi! It’s been a while….</p>
<p>Longer than I, or any of us probably, could have anticipated – delayed more than a year by COVID disruptions, that meant the ship couldn’t leave port for lack of another that would have them, and even when it could sail, the scientists couldn’t get there, thanks to travel restrictions (by countries and many universities), and also to entirely valid concerns about staying healthy in the face of a little known and potentially deadly pathogen.</p>
<p>But, all of this is (largely) in the past, and I’m finally (!) back on the <strong><em>JR</em></strong> for a third adventure, with a bunch of new shipmates, sailing across a wind-whipped South Atlantic toward the first Site for IODP Expedition 393.</p>
<p>Expedition 393 and its partner cruises are in some ways a reprise of one of the earliest ocean drilling efforts, Leg 3 of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, which recovered cores from a series of holes across the southern Atlantic to prove the hypothesis derived from the (then still very new) theory of Plate Tectonics that the ocean floor gets older the further you are away from the ocean ridges, and therefore that ocean ridges are spreading centers where new oceanic crust is made.</p>
<p>This joint Expedition (with Expedition 390, and two “technical” expeditions, 390C and 395E, which were run last year when science parties couldn’t sail) are seeking to better understand the changes that happen in ocean crust as it reacts with seawater and its overlying sediments over time; the micro-biological communities that develop in this crust and sediments, and also how the planet responds to rapid climate change, as may be recorded in Cenozoic-age marine sediments that we’ll drill, which were laid down in times of higher atmospheric CO2.</p>
<p>My interests in this Expedition arise from my ongoing work on subduction-zone processes, where to understand how arc lavas form and how the composition of the Earth’s mantle changes as ocean crust subducts at trenches, we have to know the chemical makeup of that ocean crust when it reaches the trench. Our Expedition gives us the opportunity to assay ocean crust compositions at five different time-steps in its evolution, and all of these steps are much younger than the ocean crust datasets we’ve historically used. These results will be really helpful in looking at places where we’re subducting young crust, like beneath the Cascades, at the Trans-Mexican arc, or beneath Luzon in the Philippines, among a lot of others.</p>
<p>I’ll report in some on ship life as an “older” hand, and I’ll tell some tales about my shipboard job as a Geochemist, as well as on the science and its implications (those will be my “Geek Blogs”). For now I’m doing what everyone else is doing out here, which is getting adjusted to the rocking of the JR as we transit, and trying to get stuff ready in the labs for the new cores to come.</p>
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<title>We’re Underway! 2 m Heave, Flying Fish, and a Conference of Anguish</title>
<link>https://joidesresolution.org/were-underway-2-m-heave-flying-fish-and-a-conference-of-anguish/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=were-underway-2-m-heave-flying-fish-and-a-conference-of-anguish</link>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Ryan]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 12 Dec 2016 15:48:26 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[2 m heave engineering flying fish]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[EXP366]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://joidesresolution.org//were-underway-2-m-heave-flying-fish-and-a-conference-of-anguish</guid>
<description><![CDATA[At 5 AM local time the JR un-moored from our harbor in Guam, the tug pulled it away from the... <div class="read-more"><a class="excerpt-read-more" href="https://joidesresolution.org/were-underway-2-m-heave-flying-fish-and-a-conference-of-anguish/" title="Continue reading We’re Underway! 2 m Heave, Flying Fish, and a Conference of Anguish">Read more<i class="fa fa-angle-right"></i></a></div>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">At 5 AM local time the <em>JR </em>un-moored from our harbor in Guam, the tug pulled it away from the dock, and we set out for our first site, ODP Leg 195 Site 1200, to un-CORK that instrumented hole and prepare it for newer/better instrumentation. </p>
<p>I was up at 3 AM – a side effect of advancing age has been an increasing lack of ability to easily adjust to time zone changes – and grabbed a quick workout and coffee before heading to the “Steel Beach” (the roof of the Bridge) to witness the event. From there the night before I watched my last sunset for a while (see below), and this morning it was dark and moonless with only the the harbor lights and a scatter of lights from the island. Once under our own power we followed the pilot out – and once we passed the headland, we felt the swell.</p>
<p>It wasn’t bad – about 2 m or so from my crude visual estimate – but my inner ears definitely noticed! Per my advice to myself from my blog entry two years ago I had stopped in to see the ship’s doctor for his recommended seasickness remedy, so I wasn’t queasy, but the motion took some getting used to. I waited out my adaptation period on top of the bridge, watching the<em> JR</em> ride up and down the swells. As it did, it scared up schools of flying fish, which leaped from the water and glided ahead of the bow – and this in turn attracted seagulls (the circle of life, as it were, on the wavecrests…).</p>
<p>At 8 AM we had a scheduled meeting with our JR Operations Supervisor, who outlined our planned operations, the particular challenges of the engineering we would be doing at Site 1200 (fingers crossed for it working!) and the different kinds of coring bits and equipment they have onboard to optimize sample recovery. It was a thorough, useful, and informative presentation – which I struggled to pay attention to as the conference room gently tipped and rolled. And, judging from the looks on the faces of my science team colleagues, I was not alone in my anguish.</p>
<p>After an orientation by the IODP curator on sample labeling and oversight, I headed to a (rather empty…) mess room for what would be my last meal of the day, as I will be heading to bed as early as I can to get on schedule for the night shift. Before I could do that, however, there was one more safety event – our first Abandon Ship drill, wherein you don the life vest, hard hat and safety glasses in your stateroom and head to your assigned lifeboat, where the crew both counts you up, and provides some further, brief, safety orientation information. When I get up tomorrow, we’ll be at Site 1200, and hopefully we’ll have a CORK on board too.<br />
</span></p>
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<title>What “core on deck!” means in the Geochemistry Lab….</title>
<link>https://joidesresolution.org/what-core-on-deck-means-in-the-geochemistry-lab/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-core-on-deck-means-in-the-geochemistry-lab</link>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Ryan]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 06 Aug 2014 13:46:13 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[EXP352]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://joidesresolution.org//what-core-on-deck-means-in-the-geochemistry-lab</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I went to bed anticipating active work on cores, and got up for my next shift to discover: my colleagues... <div class="read-more"><a class="excerpt-read-more" href="https://joidesresolution.org/what-core-on-deck-means-in-the-geochemistry-lab/" title="Continue reading What “core on deck!” means in the Geochemistry Lab….">Read more<i class="fa fa-angle-right"></i></a></div>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I went to bed anticipating active work on cores, and got up for my next shift to discover: my colleagues were STILL anticipating active work on cores. Some challenges on the drilling floor delayed their appearance, but around 4 AM the first sediment cores from IODP Hole 1439A (site BON-2A in the prospectus) were carried onto the catwalk for cutting and basic examination.</p>
<p>Those basic examinations involve the Geochemistry lab pretty significantly: first, sampling for a “head gas” test, to determine the amount of volatile hydrocarbons in the core (i.e., methane and such) – an essential safety test that is required for drilling to proceed; and a large (“full round”) sample for porewater collection and analysis. For the first 100 meters of drilling, both of these tests has to be done on each core brought to the surface.</p>
<p>The “head gas” test is simple – you take a vial-size plug of the material, heat it gently in a drying oven, and then syringe out the evolved gases for injection into a gas chomatographer to examine the abundances of methane, propane, and a few other volatile hydrocarbon species. Fortunately, so far none of the cores we’ve examined have had any significant hydrocarbons. The porewater examination is more involved, starting with the “squeezing” of the sediment to extract its water. This requires the use of demountable pressure vessels and a hydraulic press, which squashes the sample and squirts out its porewaters via an aperture at its base. Once sampled, the waters are measured for pH, alkalinity (a measure of dissolved/dissociated CO2-CO3 primarily), chorinity (an anion measurement, comprised largely of chlorine) and total salinity (done coarsely via the optical refraction of the liquid). Both the fluids generated and the sediments splits and “squeeze-cakes” produced are labeled and archived, available for the use of other researchers the world over. On other cruises a whole bunch of other measurements might be done – Carbon-Hydrogen-Nitrogen-Sulfur (C-H-N-S) analysis, trace elements in solution, etc. – but as Leg 352 is primarily an igneous rock-focused expedition, there isn’t interest in more detail among the shipboard team, and as such our work on this is minimized to the basic archival requirements for these materials by IODP guidelines.</p>
<p>Aside from geochemical tests, a sample of each sediment core is examined for nanno- and microfossils (part of dating the sediments – these results are compared to results for paleomagnetism to converge on an age), and it is comprehensively imaged. Once this is done, it is left to “equilibrate” on racks in the core lab for several hours to allow it to warm to lab temperature and stabilize in the core tube. Then the core is split Quiet Shifts, Crazy Crossovers…in half, and the scientists responsible for core description will conduct a thorough visual analysis, followed by the subset of our number who are interested in sampling it for research purposes.</p>
<p>Like so much of research geochemistry, our efforts on the head gas and porewater results are a lot of hurry-up and wait (an hour at a time, for the next core to come in). But it’s great to be doing something practical – helps with the last lingering effects of jetlag and seasickness (both, blissfully! on their last legs). I’m looking forward to the promised, more involved geochemical work of this cruise – the chemical characterization of both the sediments and the volcanic rocks we hope to drill into at this site. We’ll see what tomorrow brings!</p>
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<title>What "core on deck!" means in the Geochemistry Lab….</title>
<link>https://joidesresolution.org/what-core-on-deck-means-in-the-geochemistry-lab-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-core-on-deck-means-in-the-geochemistry-lab-2</link>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Ryan]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 06 Aug 2014 13:07:39 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[EXP352]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://joidesresolution.org//?p=20969</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I went to bed anticipating active work on cores, and got up for my next shift to discover: my colleagues... <div class="read-more"><a class="excerpt-read-more" href="https://joidesresolution.org/what-core-on-deck-means-in-the-geochemistry-lab-2/" title="Continue reading What "core on deck!" means in the Geochemistry Lab….">Read more<i class="fa fa-angle-right"></i></a></div>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I went to bed anticipating active work on cores, and got up for my next shift to discover: my colleagues were STILL anticipating active work on cores. Some challenges on the drilling floor delayed their appearance, but around 4 AM the first sediment cores from IODP Hole 1439A (site BON-2A in the prospectus) were carried onto the catwalk for cutting and basic examination.</p>
<p>Those basic examinations involve the Geochemistry lab pretty significantly: first, sampling for a “head gas” test, to determine the amount of volatile hydrocarbons in the core (i.e., methane and such) – an essential safety test that is required for drilling to proceed; and a large (“full round”) sample for porewater collection and analysis. For the first 100 meters of drilling, both of these tests has to be done on each core brought to the surface.</p>
<p>The “head gas” test is simple – you take a vial-size plug of the material, heat it gently in a drying oven, and then syringe out the evolved gases for injection into a gas chomatographer to examine the abundances of methane, propane, and a few other volatile hydrocarbon species. Fortunately, so far none of the cores we’ve examined have had any significant hydrocarbons. The porewater examination is more involved, starting with the “squeezing” of the sediment to extract its water. This requires the use of demountable pressure vessels and a hydraulic press, which squashes the sample and squirts out its porewaters via an aperture at its base. Once sampled, the waters are measured for pH, alkalinity (a measure of dissolved/dissociated CO2-CO3 primarily), chorinity (an anion measurement, comprised largely of chlorine) and total salinity (done coarsely via the optical refraction of the liquid). Both the fluids generated and the sediments splits and “squeeze-cakes” produced are labeled and archived, available for the use of other researchers the world over. On other cruises a whole bunch of other measurements might be done – Carbon-Hydrogen-Nitrogen-Sulfur (C-H-N-S) analysis, trace elements in solution, etc. – but as Leg 352 is primarily an igneous rock-focused expedition, there isn’t interest in more detail among the shipboard team, and as such our work on this is minimized to the basic archival requirements for these materials by IODP guidelines.</p>
<p>Aside from geochemical tests, a sample of each sediment core is examined for nanno- and microfossils (part of dating the sediments – these results are compared to results for paleomagnetism to converge on an age), and it is comprehensively imaged. Once this is done, it is left to “equilibrate” on racks in the core lab for several hours to allow it to warm to lab temperature and stabilize in the core tube. Then the core is split in half, and the scientists responsible for core description will conduct a thorough visual analysis, followed by the subset of our number who are interested in sampling it for research purposes.</p>
<p>Like so much of research geochemistry, our efforts on the head gas and porewater results are a lot of hurry-up and wait (an hour at a time, for the next core to come in). But it’s great to be doing something practical – helps with the last lingering effects of jetlag and seasickness (both, blissfully! on their last legs). I’m looking forward to the promised, more involved geochemical work of this cruise – the chemical characterization of both the sediments and the volcanic rocks we hope to drill into at this site. We’ll see what tomorrow brings!</p>
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