Greetings ocean explorers! We arrived at the port of call where we will board the JOIDES Resolution, a 470 foot research vessel. This is a very, very large ship compared to most research ships. There is only one larger than the JOIDES Resolution. Can anyone name the largest research vessel?

Rocky the Bull and Mr. Penguin both arrived safely, too. Your mascots enjoyed the beautiful weather by visiting the beach and lounging at the pool for a bit in the morning before riding to where the JR was docked. Later, at the port we met up with Michael Martinez, a USF graduate student in the College of Marine Science, who will be studying microfossils (foraminifera or forams) that are retrieved from the core samples. Forams are a very important because the shells of these tiny protists are commonly preserved in marine sediments. Foram shells are buried as part of the ocean floor and as fossils can tell us something about the environment when they were living organisms (e.g. water depth). To dig deeper visit Michael’s advisor, Dr. Pamela Hallock-Muller’s lab.