Day 2 Many sediment cores and fish are on the way

Ahoy, salty explorers! Teacher Patty and I are reporting from the night shift. We worked with the geochemist (Dave Hollander, Patrick Schwing and David Hastings) to collect ~16 sediment cores. It did not take long before we were snapping coring bottles in place on the Lunar Lander (Multi-core sampler).

 

After sediment samples were retrieved from the ocean floor the cores were transferred from the Lander to new core liners for future processing. This was definitely a wet and muddy job! The sediment at 100 and 200 meters was well mixed and silty with a light brown color. One core from each location is split in two sections, photographed and visually described in more detail.

Here in the field we are collecting samples 24/7 and once we return to shore the lab work will begin to describe the sediment samples. The scientific information that will be collected from shore includes age dating (short-lived isotopes, like Lead 210, Radium 234), benthic ecology (microfossils- forams), microbial ecology of bacteria/viruses, hydrocarbon chemistry and basic sedimentology and redox biochemistry .

Some of the nighttime sightings included several dolphin chasing flying fish. Sometimes the flying fish would land on the deck of the vessel and we would help return them to the water.

 

All in all an excellent first day at sea with the C-IMAGE scientist, students and Weatherbird II crew.