Exp397T ALO Technical Report

by Eric Moortgat and Chieh Peng

Expedition Info

Embarked September 10th in Cape Town South Africa and disembarked October 13, 2022 in Lisbon Portugal.

Brittany Stockmaster sailed as a temporary Marine Laboratory Specialist (Core Lab). During coring she primarily helped out in Physical Properties. Chieh Peng filled in as second ALO and we did not sail with our usual two ETs (Etienne sailed), two Chemists (Oscar sailed), Imaging Specialist, Physical Properties Specialist, Underway/Downhole Tools Specialist and Publications Specialist.

Duties from absent dedicated lab specialists were assigned to various staff as below

Kara - SHIL, SHMSL, SEM, microscope / Brittany Stockmaster - WRMSL, NGR / Etienne - general photography / Chieh - Closeup, F&F weekly, printing photos, logo / Luan - SEM, microscope, t-shirt logo / Eric - PP discrete & PWC measurements/ Sandra (on shore) - 360 image stitching.

COVID Protocol

Sailing staff arrived to the hotel in Cape Town on September 5th & 6th. We quarantined at the hotel until boarding on September 10th. One Technical staff member arrived later and boarded right before the vessel departed on September 12th. Crossovers with the onboard staff were conducted at the hotel via ZOOM. We had one PCR and one antigen test in the hotel. All technical staff were able to board after the hotel quarantine.

Shipping

EXPRESS/DHL

: F397P_pXRF

Bruker pXRF given to Tim before departure, per Gary Acton's request. He gave to the agent to send to Bruker in Germany.
departed Cape Town on Sept 28 and was delivered October 4.

REEFER

: F397T_BCR

One 40 ft reefer with cores going to BCR (390/393 sediment working & all 397T). This reefer will be trucked directly from Lisbon Portugal to Bremen Germany. Load out.

SURF

: F397T_SURF

One 40 ft general purpose container with surface freight going to IODP. Load out.
KBox 45 is a combination of prior KBoxes 4 & 5. We left instrument hosts in a KBox in pallet stores IF NEEDED. There are some other workstations in there that would not fit into the other combined KBox.

RAF

: F397T_RAF

one KBox of misc. items.

: F397T_SCHLUM1

Schlumberger crate with High Resolution Laterolog Array Sonde. Crate is being built in Lisbon and will be sent to the ship upon arrival.

: F397T_SCHLUM2

Schlumberger box with Kinley cutters (explosives shipment). Box will arrive with six bits and once confirmed, four bits will be returned in the same box back to Houston.

FAF

: staged on Bridge Deck inside of elevator.

: FAF_PETR needs the addition of six gel packs before offloading. The gel packs are in Ziplock bags in the large -20 in the reefer. This is not a WC shipment but just a shipment with gel packs to attempt to keep cold until it reaches the UK. The Scientist did not REQUIRE a WC shipment.

AMS/inventory/storerooms

: Several items have been removed from BFLM

GS0020, MAPP gas, 19 bottles. I have inactive the item, as they have not been used for over 10 years. We have small butane bottles for ampule sealing torch.
CH0418, Trimethylamine, 25-27% solution. 2 bottles purchased in 2009, has never been used. ROP/SL changed to 0/0 and REQUEST ONLY was added to description
HW0053, Scotchkote, 14 cans are rusted and material leaked out. We have another 14 cans in store
HW0032, 2 cans of open red hand, cans all rusted, label falling off.

: SO0077, sheet protector. Six boxes of "Page Size: styles were found, they have been subtracted from ship QTY.

: CH0044, hydrofluoric acid, 5 x 1L bottles are also added to waste chemical disposal list. These items will be picked up separately. We have no date currently. MSDS is printer and placed in the FCL by the storage. Please use proper PPE when handling HF. It has been zero out in AMS

Discussion/important information for upcoming expedition

: As seen in the photo below, the inline filters for the nitrogen generator have, even since April, become quite contaminated with the water/oil mist mixture in the line. We had a discussion with the Engineers, and they recommended changing every three months.

: After trying to insert new labels into the Brady label printer, a critical error was encountered - " CODESUM MEMORY ERROR". Information was found on how to remedy, and the information can be found here.

: Event of PC (both instrument host and workstation) crashed and/or rebooted itself occurred during this transit. This happened very randomly and total of no more than five times. All events were eliminated by rebooting the PC. Window updates were applied, and tests (including instrument analyses and data upload) were conducted for all PC after the updates. We have not seen the same event since, but we also have not the chance to operate these instruments non-stop.

: Sigma MSDS program cannot be run. Sigma will be contacted from shore to expediate this issue. John Miller is having issues in contacting them as well. For the updated software.

: Tracer pumps were removed to the Chem Lab for inspection. We found two new pump heads, but both are 40 ml size, not the small ones. No part was replaced. Pumps are placed back to Mud Pump room.

: Replaced the NFPA signed for BFLM and BHAZ doors.

: Muffle furnace heating elements - all four, were replaced. Spares will most likely be kept on shore until needed on the vessel.

: A jig is made for making our own slide mount, and CNC has programs to cut 1, 2, 3 and 4 holes. But have not found best method to cut them into slide size, TBC. We cannot find the old green guillotine paper cutter?? A procedure for using the jig in CNC machine is written and placed under Lab Notebook/Paleontology/Making slide mount. I added a link to Beth's write up. Making Slide Mount - Laboratory Notebook - JRSO Confluence JR (tamu.edu).

: Minor floor repair in FCLD and Core Lab by archive D-tube rack. Floor will be painted on the 10th.

: Modified the shrink wrap hanger by adding another vertical bar and base. So that if user wants to use the shrink somewhere else, they can remove both hanging screw and slide the entire stand out to use on countertop.