Monday, May 28, 2007

southernmost core 101 53' 9.876" E 6 32' 43.860" S

hark yee fond readers

wrapped up yesterday as a 21+hr day nicely with a partially successful piston
core. the piston core itself was empty, but the trigger core was fulll with over
2 m of sediment. looks like we got the 2001 M7.9 earthquake turbidite at the top
of the section. very loose sandy mud. very loose. then we began our trek north
to find core sites in the slope above our other core sites. the depth is less so
we expect to find foram shells to provide age control (if we can correlate the
cores with the abysall plain stratigraphy) for our earthquakes.

then i got a godd 5 hr nap, to find that at our first piggyback basin (basins on
the slope that reside above fault generated folds in the accretionary prism)
piston core (follwing a successful benthos gravity core) was coming on deck. got
it videotaped. then i got another 2 hr nap following a shower. i feel better
now.

we are now having problems with the pinger (a device that sends pings of sound
every second so we can tell where the seafloor is so the core is stopped close
to the sea floor bottom -- instead fo driving it too far into the mud). a big
deal, but we are handling it well.

i can't believe we are already going back north. it seems like this cruise just
began. i have heard many great stories from the salties on board. i have had
some to share myself, mostly from land. i am loking forward to drinking some
alcohol. dont really miss it, but i think it will be fun. sort fo forgot how it
feels. but i think it is fun. ganja i do remember.

rollin along, luv j-sun

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