late)
i have been assigned two 12 hour shifts a day, so we'll see how long that lasts
(actually, i just fit in sleep when i can, about 4-6 hrs a day). i am spending
much of my time doing site and cruise planning. we look for large channels that
have large catchments that can provide large volumes of sediment for turbidite
production.
in 4ish days, we have cored one channel system using four different coring
devices with varying levels of success. we have found at least 15 mud
turbidites. we have also broken most of the large sheaves (blocks/ pulleys) that
are used for coring. so, we are now coring from an a frame form the stern.
things are going poorly.
next day: after mapping much of yesterday to fill in where previous bathymetry
was lacking, we have been searching for our second channel system. after finding
this system, we sent down a core and i finished my 21 hr shift with a 5 hr nap
to find that that core recovered less than 1 cc of very clean sand. the core did
not penetrate due to the sand (this means we found the channel, but it was full
o fsand). so, i set up a new mapping track to find a more distal location for
the channel (hopefully more muddy and less sandy). while many of the science
crew (not the coring techs nor the ships resident technicians) have little to do
(no cores), a few of us have been quite overworked. i do not see an end to this
work schedule. several hrs ago, chris and i found a location in this second
channel system that bends south due to interference with a large normal fault.
we are patiently awaiting the arrival of the core form the depths below. the
pulllout force was apprently representative of a core having penetrated into
sediment. we will know in about 1/2 hr.
saw two birds yersterday and a large water spout today. we have had several
squals, usually during coring operations. i have operated the a frame. we hope
to get new equipment sent to us in padang. later, jay
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