TECHNICAL REPORTS

LO – ALO Handover notes

William Mills, Lisa Crowder & Tim Bronk

Objectives:

Expedition 344S, (aka the Baffin Bay Science Coring Program BBSCP) was our first Work-For-Other expedition. The funding for the expedition was provided by a consortium of companies who contracted SEIM Offshore to:

• Obtain stratigraphic information regarding the lithologies, ages, and paleoenvironmental settings;
• Estimate potential source rock characteristics;
• Determine the physical properties of the rock units for evaluating potential reservoir properties and improving seismic velocity models (depth vs. time curves).
• Study the Quaternary section to learn more about the glacial history of Greenland.

Under the SEIM contract, IODP provided laboratory facilities and technical services.

Operational Dates:

START

• Port: St Johns, New Foundland, Canada (Pier 17)
• Arrived: 30 July 2012 @ 0700
• Departed: 5 August 2012 @ 0800

END

• Port: St Johns, New Foundland, Canada (Pier 17)
• Estimated Arrived: 16 October 2012

General Port CALL information

• IODP logistics was routine and without incident.
• Mobilization and BBSCP specific safety training was conducted. In addition, IODP safety presentation and Hazardous communication tours were conducted as normal.

AMS/STORE ROOMS

• Physical counts of major store rooms performed.
• Physical counts performed in FTSL,
• New part numbers were made for the Falcon, polystyrene centrifuge tubes as they are getting confused with the Corning, polypro tubes. The material is not interchangeable both for centrifuge speeds and chemical resistance. Excess stock was sent to shore.

AREA-BY-AREA SUMMARY (issues not covered IN THE INDIVIDUAL TECH REPORTS)

Bridge Deck

Bridge: BIG EYE binoculars were setup to support ice observations.
Acid Storage: Most of the HF sent to this expedition was left in their original shipping containers and secured here. Arrangements are being made offload all of this HF plus the excess in the Chemistry lab storage.
LO Office: We received are new radios and headsets which are located behind the LO's desk. The new noise cancelling headsets were used during VSP and Protected Species Observations on the fantail and helideck. They work exceptionally well in these noisy environments. New TV installed just for the ALOs.

Core Deck

Catwalk:

• Wind wall was erected for cold weather protection. The wall will be disassembled and returned to CS for storage.
• Per BBSCP safety officer, the catwalk was marked to delineate which areas required full PPE along with signage on the door. In addition, technical staff were required to wear leather gloves when hammering on core catches.

WCMST: Water drip system was added to the P-wave for this expedition (and will be removed at the end).
Core Entry
The two core racks by the splitting room, were straighten and remounted to a new floor foundation.
Splitting Room:

• Core saw was extensively cleaned. The electric motor was re-lubricated. The alignment of the blade was adjusted by removing the existing shim and replacing it with a thinner one to get it closer to the center line.
• We had several problems with the core saw, more than likely stemming to the application of aqua-shield on the bolt that holds the blade fixtures in place. The bolt kept coming loose and allowing the saw blade to rattle around violently. The two fixtures were taken to the mechanic and about 0.020 removed from the shaft on the outer housing so the two flanges fit more tightly together. The threaded shaft (in the electric motor) was cleaned with detergent, IPA, acetone and electronic cleaners to remove the remaining aqua-shield. We are also using Lock-tite 262 on the blot threads. The blade was also switched from the CR5003 continuous rim-style to the CR5004 Notched rim. The notched-style blade seemed to cut better with less sticking & grabbing of the core.
• There two different set of hub plates for supporting/mounting the saw to the motor. One has an inner shoulder and the other does not. You must always use these in pairs; mixing will cause the blade to "dish" leading to rapid wear and failure. Both sets of hubs were taken to the machinist to dress, removing damage that prevented the two pieces from clamping properly.
• While the saw was being repaired, it was thoroughly cleaned and lubricated.
• The new spare saw motor was unpacked and the wrong motor will be returned to CS.
• Several technicians were shown how to program the PLC that operates the saw. A copy of the program will be placed the Core lab report.
• An inventory of the Supersaw parts has been made (see Core Lab report) and additional spares ordered. All of the electrical parts were removed and stored on the shelf in the Downhole to prevent water damage.
• The spare linear actuators (under the NGR) are now stored above the gas bottles in the science pallet area.

Core Lab: A new floor scrub arrived in the oncoming shipment. The accessories are stored in one of the cabinets in UTSHOP. The unit was used for final cleaning and so far the blue scrub pads work well on the painted floors while the big brush does not. The blue scrub pads are more aggressive than the brush, though, so use caution so as not to remove the floor paint
CryoMag:
Paleo Lab: All of the HF was removed and the storage area cleaned. All HF is now stored in the Chemistry lab.

Fo'c'sle Deck

Chemistry Lab: No significant issues to report. Per BBSCP requirements, a designated HF working was made in the 3^rd bay. All equipment not involved in HF work was removed.

UPPER TWEEN and Hold Decks

• Pallet Storage and Staging: Wheels (qty 4) replaced from the bottom of the Zero Lift by Siem's mechanic. He suggests that in the future we ask the mechanic to make new wheels as they are quite simple to machine and can be made out of better material.

• Core reefer: White floor freezer in reefer was defrosted

LOWER TWEEN DECK

Lounge and Movie Room:

• A panel was mounted on the side of the electronics rack for external audio/video inputs. Attempts to control the system via an IPad and an SD Square IR blaster ran up against technical difficulties. The IR blaster has been returned to shore for further work with the vendor.

Poop Deck

Underway Geophysics:

• Two new storage cabinets were installed and the interior rearranged (see Underway Geophysics report)
• Bathy 2010 is now running on a WinFrog PC and using the newest software version.
• Bathymetric and magnetic data were collected on all transits.

CORE LAB

Mathew Knight, GABRIEL Matthew & Suzan ALFORD

UBER Saw

Because very little soft sediment was recovered during this expedition the Super Saw was used almost exclusively for splitting cores. However, jamming of the blade was a common occurrence and led to a number of alterations and lots of maintenance. At first we simply tried to tighten the blade before each run and to cut each core as slowly as possible. When the jamming continued to occur, we removed the collar that holds the blade and found that it had an imperfect fit on the blade. The collar was sent to the machine shop to be fixed and meanwhile the continuous blade was replaced. The problems still persisted, especially when cutting hard shales, leading us to finally replace the continuous blade with a slotted blade that is designed for cutting hard materials. This final fix almost completely eliminated the jamming problem, however it should be noted that when the saw begins to jam, the saw should be backed up and allowed to reach full speed again before cutting is resumed.
Testing of the spare GV6 controller on the transit in, found it none responsive. A new spare has been ordered. ..Mills

Laser engraving manual

The laser engraver was used frequently for engraving custom logos onto core liners and wood. A manual was developed to show others how to engrave custom logos using the Marking Builder 2 program and is now hanging up next to the laser computer.

Standard Holders for Velocity Gantry

The creation of three standard holders, along with a shelf upon which two holders now sit, allows standards for the Velocity Gantry to be organized and tidy. The two holders sitting on the shelf forward of the Gantry are labeled for specific standards, whereas the holder in the drawer under the desktop on the starboard side of the Gantry is unlabeled.

WRMSL issues

Several issues arose with the WRMSL throughout X344S. Firstly, there was an issue with the pusher arm. Occasionally, the WRMSL would start its measurement routine before the core section had reached the laser sensor. To solve this issue, we would abort the run and delete the effected data files from the up-loader, then re-measure these sections.
Secondly, the GRA standard was rebuilt in a new core liner. The metal calibration piece seemed to rotate at some point within the liner, causing the calibrations to be off when using the line on the end cap to position the standard. Instead, we found the best way to position the standard for calibration is to line up the top of the barcode with the laser light at the beginning of the track.
Thirdly, there was worry regarding the offsets of core sections in the Limsreports. The GRA and MS recorded the same top offset, but differed from the PWL recorded offset. The reason for this is simple: the effected sections were simultaneously run through the GRA and MS, then at a later time run solely through the PWL. For an unknown reason, this caused the difference in offsets.

NGR anomalous peaks

Detector 3 in the NGR displayed an anomalously high peak ranging from 200 to 6000 counts on every 3^rd or 4^th section that was run. This peak was generally orders of magnitude higher than the counts on other detectors. The problem was reported to the developers and was noted on the logging sheets each time it happened. Yet, the issue seemed to have little effect on the data.

Sample racks

The wheels on the core sample racks were replaced with T-slot bars with feet that run along the front and back of both racks. The shelves were also adjusted so that the vertical distance between each shelf was approximately equal for all shelves.

Replaced outdoor speakers

The speakers on the catwalk were decidedly too nice to be used outdoors, where they would be damaged. Less costly speakers – found in the hideaway in the Upper Tween just above the stairs that lead directly to the Lower Tween – replaced the nicer Bose speakers. If outdoor speakers are purchased, then they should replace the current catwalk speakers. The variable resistors of the previous Bose speakers required cleaning to work properly again. The Bose speakers have now been installed in the gym.

Parallel saw leak

There is a leak on the right hand side of the parallel saw, causing water to drain over the counter top and not into the drain.

Addendum, PROGRAMMING THE UBER SAW PLC

Below is the program code stored in non-volatile memory on the Parker Compumotor Genni GVK controller.
The program is installed using the Motion Planner software from Parker Hannifin, which can be downloaded from their web site. The name of the program file is "Ubersaw 344S.prg" and is backed up in SVN under https://build.iodp.tamu.edu/svn/hq/UBER SAW plc code.
You must connect using an RS232 cable, the system will not respond to the Ethernet cable. Note this is an auto-execute program on power start-up. If you are trying to communicate with a controller that has the program already installed, you will need to reset the controller after applying power. While under the control of this program, the RS232 port will not respond to communication because it is in a program execution loop. Have the ET short the reset I/O (see documents for the pin assignments).
Once you are communicating with the system, you can open the program "Ubersaw 344S.prg" and then follow the instructions to download into the PLC. You can also copy and paste the program into the motion Planner software.
Start copy after…
DEL RP250
DEF RP250
DCLEAR0
DPCUR1,1
DWRITE "SELECT CUTTING MODE"
DPCUR2,2
DWRITE "WIRE"
DPCUR2,9
DWRITE "SAW-S"
DPCUR2,15
DWRITE "SAW-H"
DPCUR2,18
DWRITE "SLOW"
VAR1=0.0
WHILE(VAR1=0.0)
IF(VAR1=1.0)
ELSE
IF(VAR1=2.0)
ELSE
IF(VAR1=3.0)
ELSE
NIF
NIF
NIF
NWHILE
END

DEL CRASH
DEF CRASH
VARB11=ER
ERROR00000000000000000000000000000000
IF(VARB11=B1)
ELSE
NIF
IF(VARB11=BX1)
ELSE
NIF
IF(VARB11=BXX1)
ELSE
NIF
IF(VARB11=BXXX1)
ELSE
NIF
IF(VARB11=B00000000000000000000000000000000)
ELSE
NIF
IF(VARB11=BXXXXX1)
ELSE
NIF
IF(VARB11=BXXXXXXX1)
ELSE
NIF
ERROR111111X1XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
END

DEL SETUP
DEF SETUP
FOLMAS0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
FOLEN00000000
LH3
LHAD100.000
LHADA100.000
LS0
LSAD100.000
LSADA100.000
LSNEG0.000
LSPOS0.000
HOMA10.000
HOMAA10.000
HOMV1.000
HOMAD10.000
HOMADA10.000
HOMBAC0
HOMZ0
HOMDF0
HOMVF0.100
HOMEDG0
LIMLVL000XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
1ANIRNG.1=1
1ANIEN.1=E
1ANIRNG.2=4
1ANIEN.2=0.000
1ANIRNG.3=4
1ANIEN.3=0.000
1ANIRNG.4=4
1ANIEN.4=0.000
1ANIRNG.5=4
1ANIEN.5=0.000
1ANIRNG.6=4
1ANIEN.6=0.000
1ANIRNG.7=4
1ANIEN.7=0.000
1ANIRNG.8=4
1ANIEN.8=0.000
DRIVE1
JOGA100.000
JOGAA50.000
JOGAD100.000
JOGADA50.000
JOGVH10.000
JOGVL2.000
JOY0
JOYA100.000
JOYAD100.000
JOYAA50.000
JOYADA50.000
JOYAXH1-1
1JOYCDB.1=0.2000
1JOYEDB.1=0.2000
1JOYCTR.1=2.5000
JOYVH10.000
JOYVL1.000
INFNC1-1O
ECHO1
END

DEL LSSET
DEF LSSET
COMEXC1
COMEXR1
COMEXL1
COMEXS0
MA0
A100.000
AA50.000
AD100.000
ADA50.000
V3.000
D16000.000
MC1
PORT2
DRPCHK3
DCLEAR0
DPCUR1,1
DWRITE "CLEAR CORE SPLITTER FIRST AND"
DPCUR2,1
DWRITE "THEN PRESS ANY F-KEY TO ZERO"
VAR1=0.0
REPEAT
VAR1=DREADF
UNTIL(VAR1<>0.0)
DCLEAR0
DPCUR1,1
DWRITE "SEARCHING FOR HARD LIMIT"
GO
REPEAT
DLED10000001XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
T0.100
DLED01000010XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
T0.100
DLED00100100XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
T0.100
DLED00011000XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
T0.100
DLED00100100XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
T0.100
DLED01000010XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
T0.100
DLED10000001XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
T0.100
UNTIL(1AS=BXXXXXXXXXXXXXX1)
DCLEAR0
PSET0.000
DPCUR1,1
DWRITE "SETTING SOFT LIMITS"
DLED00000000XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
LSPOS-1.000
LSNEG-95.000
LSAD150.000
LSADA75.000
LS3
T1.000
END

DEL MAIN
DEF MAIN
GOSUB SETUP
GOSUB LSSET
COMEXC1
COMEXR1
COMEXS0
MA0
A100.000
AA0.000
AD100.000
ADA0.000
V10.000
D4000.000
MC1
DCLEAR0
DPCUR1,1
DWRITE "READY FOR OPERATIONS"
DPCUR2,1
DWRITE "JOY STICK ENABLED"
T2.000
DRPCHK2
JOY1
DRPCHK2
END
End copy before…
… Mills

CORE DESCRIPTION

Margret Hastedt & ThOMAS GORGAS

DESCLogiK

DESClogik was lightly used for this expedition, and almost entirely for regular core description. The paleontologists primarily used spreadsheets for their data entry at the request of the EPM (due to the proprietary nature of the information).
The application itself was generally quite well-behaved. We had some issues with downloading information against a hole due to Null being occasionally written as a top depth. See the developer's report for details. This primarily affected Lims2Excel downloads for the Pubs Specialist.

Issues

• We had some issues during the first long transit related to doing cleanup of the value lists for paleontology and how that affected importing template modifications into DESC. Eventually these were addressed. A fair number of new species were entered into several value lists along with their classifications and references. The diatoms and dinoflagellate value lists saw the most improvement. Another page of Munsell colors was added as well once we cored the very red sediments at two sites.

• One surprise issue that no-one anticipated was Google pulling support for older Excel spreadsheet formats in its GoogleDocs sites. This interfered with our ability to refresh value lists with the ship and shore Value List Managers (VLM) until it was resolved. We used an interim revised VLM on Shasta for about half the cruise. It will be deployed to the ship's production environment probably at the next portcall. Again, see the developer's report for details.
• Dr.D.Kulhanek experienced a malfunction of her (Nanno) template, showing an inconsistent display of "User Privileges" compared to other templates; in this case, the NANNO-template did not allow the user to "hide columns" whereas other templates did. This "Hide Columns" feature worked for all other templates, but not for hers (i.e., a right-mouse click revealed the "Hide Column" function for the "334S_diatoms" template, but not for the "344S_nannos" template, although the corresponding permission was set for both sites.) We still cannot explain this difference in behavior between one and the other templates.
• Another scientist (Dr.L.Krissek) experienced the results of a DESClogik misbehavior when an attempt was made to updating his template by importing an EXCEL ("configuration") spreadsheet via the IMPORT function into the application.
  • Expected behavior: DESClogik creates a new template upon the IMPORT, which you would like to save under the same name as used so far (i.e., similar to a "Save as" command in WORD or with other commercial applications). A re-import and saving under the same name always produces the same result (a DESClogik template as an updated version of the previously generated one). Here observed: An import did not produce an updated version of the same template, but required saving the imported EXCEL ("configuration") sheet under a different name in a different GROUP within the DESClogik domain.
  • Workaround: Save under a different template name and GROUP, delete the original template in its corresponding (original) GROUP, and then save the updated version located under a different GROUP. In this particular case, the working template "344S_coredescription" was re-imported as "344S_CDtest_20120824" under the GROUP "General", then re-saved as "344S_coredescription" in the GROUP "344S" after the original "344S_coredescription" template was deleted from the GROUP "344S". Only then it worked and showed the warranted updates. A simple "overwrite" saving procedure did not produce the warranted results, such as an updated version of this particular DESClogik template.

RECOMMENDATIONS

One thing that will need discussion after the cruise is the insertion of 'custom' values that cannot be quantified as well as we would like for our value lists. We had particular issues with age ranges this cruise and as a result wound up with a fair number of specialty ranges with the X344S label in the age reference column (to make them easy to spot and remove after this expedition). The fact that none of the descriptive data for this expedition will remain in our database made it an easy call, but it would be helpful to know when it's permissible on a normal IODP cruise vs. when we should stand firm.

CONTAMINATION

Our nannofossil scientist (Dr.D. Kulhanek) discovered contamination in the toothpicks she was using for her smear slide sampling. They were from a box used on the previous expedition where the nannofossils were much younger than ours. She recommends that all future nannofossil paleontologists open a new box of toothpicks at the beginning of each expedition, either discarding the old boxes or giving them to the sedimentologists who would be unaffected by such contamination.

PALEO Lab

Susan Alford

Contamination (Nanno)

Early in the cruise the Nanno Scientists discovered contamination on their slides from toothpicks that were being used from a previously opened box. Use of toothpicks from a new box solved the issue. Suggestion from scientists was to ensure a proper cleaning of all non-reactive surfaces of the lab at the end of the each leg with 5-10 HCl to prevent carry-over to the next leg.

Leak Below Sink

A leak was found in the plumbing of the sink located below the window. Source of the leak was corrosion of metal pipework and fittings. Corroded pipe, corroded metal fitting, and gasket that sits on top of the metal pipe were replaced. New teflon tape was put of the threads at the connection of the pipe and fitting.
Follow-up: No leaks noted for the remainder of the cruise

Drying Rack for Small Tubes

Insufficient space was available for daily drying palenology tubes. ET shop assisted in building of a small 18-place wooden drying rack that can accommodate tubes up to the length of 50mL Falcons.

Inventory

Inventories for chemicals and sieves in the paleo lab have been updated.

Chemical Segregation

Liquid reagents have been separated into separate cabinets in secondary containers below the fume hoods according to hazard storage classes of "flammable", "acid" and "base".

HF Storage

All HF was removed from the lab and relocated into storage under chem lab hood designated for HF work.

Magnetics Lab

Margret Hastedt
Scientist: Carl Richter, with assist from Helen Evans
The paleomagnetics lab got a good workout this cruise, with literally every piece of equipment in the lab getting used. Including a Flexit tool, although we did no orientation this cruise. The SRM, Kappabridge and spinner magnetometer were used the most.

Problems reported

• We had several batches of SRM discrete samples being mis-recorded, forcing a hand-reduction of the data from the .BKU files in order to salvage them. This was traced to incorrect parsing of WDGE sample barcodes in the program – it parsed the standards-designator 'F' into the boat length field which made a hash of the data files at the end of the runs. This is the first cruise I've ever seen wedges being measured in the SRM, but you learn something new every day…
• The oldest of the two spinner magnetometers suddenly developed problems with its opto-couplers again (brass actuator had issues moving between rest and working positions). The ETs ended up replacing all the tiny ribbon cables to the opto-couplers as they must have fatigued until they failed. Problem solved!
• The SRM had a brief period of low IVC voltages which could have indicated problems with our cold-head. It is about 3.5 years into its estimated 5-year lifetime. However, the voltages rose again and remained at their typical levels for the last half of the cruise.

Misc.

• Reapplied green skid strip on loading end of SRM. Completely scraped off old adhesive and rebonded using Lord epoxy from Curation supplies.
• Checked sprocket on SRM motor; found excessive play from sprocket/gear head before motor shaft actually turns. Applied LokTite and tightened the screw.
• Older spinner power supply was repaired and checks out fine to date.
• As an experiment, one Flexit tool was initialized and placed in the SRM boat for a very slow standalone survey (similar to running the fluxgate probe for a field profile). It works, sort of, but the data is inconclusive without some information about the position of the fluxgates inside the tool. This run was more for fun than anything else.
• We gathered a goodly number of bulk susceptibility measurements from the Kappabridge to compare against the small Bartington MS loop for discrete samples. The Bartington loop is faster and more convenient to use when you are not interested in doing a complete set of AMS measurements (plus, you can more easily measure samples that are too delicate or oddly shaped for the Kappabridge). Most of our discrete sample's susceptibilities were low so we would like more data collected over a larger range of susceptibilities before proposing a number.
• Dwight wrote a quickie utility to recalculate eigenvalues from Jeff Gee's AMSspin program for the Kappabridge. The values are not currently written to the data file but are displayed on-screen. This utility extracts the six independent elements of the array and runs them through the same VI used to display them on-screen, then appends the eigenvalues to the end of each sample's data string. This will tide us over until the source code can be modified and recompiled to do the same thing.

Development efforts

Work began in earnest on a new software tool to make doing SRM field profiles etc. easier and more accurate to perform. Dwight Hornbacher is the programmer, assisted by D. Fackler and myself.
Traditionally, an SRM field profile consists of the fluxgate magnetometer taped onto wooden meter sticks and inserted down the magnetometer bore. Readings are written down on a piece of paper about every 5 cm. Due to the ship's motion, the user must 'eyeball-average' the readings on the fluxgate's display especially where the fields tend to be high such as at the openings and shield joins. The whole process is inconvenient and not as precise as we would like.
The new tool is called DAFI (Degauss And Field Intelligence, fig. 1). The sensing instruments involved are the APS520 fluxgate magnetometer and the model 6010 Hall gaussmeter. The former instrument is for doing field profiles and the latter measures the output of the SRM coils while it degausses. Holders were crafted from pieces of core liner plus hard-rock dividers to securely hold each sensor. These holders are taped to the bottom of the SRM section-half boat in a spot appropriate for each instrument's available cable length keeping in mind the distance they will travel inside the magnetometer. Only one instrument can be run at a time at present.

Fig. 1: DAFI user interface
Analog output from either instrument is fed into an NI USB-6008 multifunction I/O device where the signal is digitized and recorded against distances provided by an AR1000 laser. The laser is mounted at the forward end of the SRM on a small platform aimed down the bore. The laser strikes a target on the sensor holder. By convention, distance measurements are zeroed when the holder target is flush with the aft outside edge of the SRM shielding. Precise instrument readings vs. distance depend on the difference between the laser target and any offset between it and an actual sensor (e.g. the fluxgate sensors are not fully coaxial, see manual for details). For most purposes the distance vs. reading will be accurate enough without this additional small correction. Track velocity is user-selectable and we have found that 1 cm/sec is a good speed to maximize laser distance readings which are the slowest-recording part of the setup.
One important feature of the software is that it requires the user to input the ship's heading, latitude and longitude before measurements can commence. All three directly affect the amount of shield leakage that the SRM suffers near its degauss region, and may partly explain ARM acquisition from the SRM coils on some expeditions. Data acquisition will start in earnest in the remaining days of this cruise's transit.
Future developments will include incorporating Bill Mill's HDG application for reading heading, latitude and longitude automatically. Other items will reveal themselves as testing and measurements continue such as properly handling auto or manual range changes for the two sensors etc etc.

PHYSICAL PROPERTY LAB

Thomas Gorgas and Margrete Hastedt
X344S was a very unique and unusual expedition because it was not designed to serve our regular "customers", but set the goal to provide detailed geological insights into an unchartered territory on Earth for a consortium of oil-producing clients. The laboratory was less crowded with scientists and the pace rather slow due to a low recovery rate (about 50% of 2km penetrated sub-surface).
The client's feedback indicated the overall success of this expedition by receiving invaluable information about the exploration prospects. Our Physical-Property scientists (Drs.Tania Insua and Gavin Dunbar) greatly contributed to this success due to a very diligent and proper use of the instruments and applications. With a successful logging operation in two holes, in conjunction with the combined data from our and other labs, the client could revise and adjust set goals in a meaningful way.
Under these favorable circumstances there was ample of opportunity to test, improve and even develop new technical applications in the Physical Property Lab. Similar to other typical IODP expeditions, we utilized the full suite of instrumentation, namely the MST (WRMSL only) and NGR tracks for whole-round measurements on un-split cores, followed by scanning (Section-Half) split core sections on the SHIL and SHMSL tracks.
Discrete sample measurements were performed at the MADMAX Station, which comprises the Mettler Balance (for wet and dry mass) and pycnometer (for bulk and grain density; porosity evaluations). Prior to those tests, sound speed was measured at the GANTRY Station on vacuum-saturated rock samples.
The pump sucked too much moisture after running it for too long at one time; we replaced the oil and cleaned the pump after this incident. Thermal-Conductivity and Automated Shear Vane (ASV) measurements were entirely omitted during X344S.
In the following the individual measurement stations are briefly reviewed in the order of the core flow during X344S.

MST (WRMSL):

No problems were reported, except that the laser sometimes exhibited a malfunction by triggering an erroneous (premature) measurement cycle on some of the core sections. We observed this phenomenon during previous expeditions (e.g., X340), and recommend a simple work-around by measuring shorter sections prior to longer sections (the order of section numbers is now irrelevant, thanks to improvements of the application). A more involved resolution around this "bug" is underway (per developers D.Hornbacher and D.Fackler). The GRAPE calibration exhibited its typical drift behavior (e.g., X340 Tech Report), which sometimes required a repeated calibration and re-measurement of H2O-Standard cores for verification purposes.

NGR:

The Natural Gamma Ray attenuation measurements worked out fairly well, except that unusually high "count spikes" in the first 10-50 channels were observed, in particular on Detector #3. It was not too much of a concern because those [keV] channels are omitted from the final data analysis anyway. However, this phenomenon requires more attention and continuous monitoring as it could (if "untreated") theoretically expand and possibly spread to other energy channels and/or other detectors. At first we suspected dirt inside the tube contaminating the experimental conditions, and thus cleaned a fair amount of residual dust and dirt from previous expeditions out of the instrument tube. Since no improvements were observed after this valuable effort, we now speculate that the shielding of this particular detector is permanently compromised and perhaps failed at certain times in a random fashion under the high bombardment of particles in the high latitudes of the Arctic. If so, those counts should greatly diminish when performing measurements off the coast of Costa Rica during CRISP (X344). A test run during port call in Saint John's, Canada, might help to illuminate whether this "hypothesis" is just speculation, or perhaps holds some truth.

SHIL:

The newly revised system with the LABVIEW-driven image analysis worked well and according to the expectations. Only minimal adjustments (i.e., setting up the proper image screen print-out with the correct text header, etc.) were required. No complaints were filed.

SHMSL:

The reflectance scanner still requires some solid development work to ensure a proper and reproducible data acquisition. The main concern right now is that with each new calibration (say, every 6 hours, or with every new core), the subsequent scan can result in a data offset of various degrees between two subsequent runs. We noticed this phenomenon when acquiring data with some sharp spikes in the L* values, which were related to a faulty or insufficient "dark-light" calibration. To fix this problem, we simply turned the lights off during this part of the calibration. In many cases, this took care of producing faulty spikes in the data. However, with each new calibration, sometimes a noticeable data- offset was introduced between measurements prior/vs/post-calibration. At first this phenomenon was not observed or discovered, simply because the records were quite short and/or spotty, and thus no new calibration was performed on cores from the same hole. Whence we recovered more cores at one site (e.g., U0070A), this data disturbance became much more obvious, and escalated to the point where eventually the data collection was terminated – simply because the user/scientist lost confidence in the data and reliability of the system. One particular scientist initially was determined to proof the existence of "cyclicity" in the data set, which had to be dismissed throughout repetitive measurements on the same material over the course of 2-3 days, which was to the great disappointment of the scientist. So, in sum: The biggest challenge right now is to verify and adjust the exactness and reproducibility of the calibration (which looks perfectly fine when performed), with the goal to reproduce the same data for a particular core section. Given the fact that this material was very challenging to start with, both per color and also structure (often fractured and brittle, very black shale), it might not be the most representative "case" to draw conclusions from. This finding is also somewhat in a bleak contrast to the findings and experiences from X340 ("Lesser Antilles") where the system performed quite well on brecciated, volcanic rock deposits (e.g., per Dr.M.McCanta). We suggest to continuing the development of the instrument to the point where calibration/verification measurements on the new "labsphere" Teflon discs are performed and recorded on a regular base. The preparations for these type of "verification" measurements are now in place: a) a new tray for the Teflon discs is produced and placed at the backside/underneath the SHMSL scanner; b) the discs themselves are put into corresponding holes of the tray and protected by a sleeve of shrink wrap; c) a "Teflon labsphere" calibration run has been entered into the SHMSL software application. To activate this calibration run, some "hard-wired" software changes need to be implemented. One light-bulb (the "frontal" bulb when sitting at the station) needed to be replaced toward the end of X344S; the inventory data sheets indicate a replacement of one bulb per expedition. The question was raised whether it might be more useful to run an experiment with only one bulb because it is probably easier to detect when this one bulb burns out instead of two at different times (and people will forget to double-check prior to each measurement run whether the bulbs are intact, or not; so, you could go with only one light for quite some time before you realize that the other bub is not intact anymore).

MADMAX Station:

The newly improved MADMAX station performed overall very, very well after fixing the electronic issues with the six Pycnometer cells (per Mike Meiring during X342P/T). All six cells were operated simultaneously and produced high-quality data throughout X344S. Once in a Blue-Moon, we experienced a "crash" of the entire system, which is possibly related to the operation of both Mettler Balance and all Pycnometer cells at the same time. If that is really the case (which was never methodically verified or re-tested due to the overload of sample materials), it is a "bug" in the software as the spec's of the system command for simultaneously operating both balance and all Pycnometer cells at all times. The "work-around" and thus recommendation to the user is obvious: Do one measurement type at a time (i.e., Mettler or Pycnometer), not both simultaneously. However, it is also possible that the user literally clicked too fast on the Pyc-cell dialog windows when attempting to run all 6 cylinders at the same time (which is indeed a "bug" that has been observed and still requires a "fix"); another possibility is "memory overload (and even the infamous and sometimes laughed-at phenomena around "installing updates"), an observation that goes all the way back to X320T (per Roy Wilkens, suggesting a shut-down of the PC every 2-3 days to clear off the memory and take care of "updates"); or it can be caused by some other "abuse", which has not really been track-or-reproducible (observing the scientist who experienced this "crash" a few times in a row while performing a measurement cycle from A-Z, did not reveal any "abnormal" use of the system). In sum: The system has been very stable and reliable, a fact that is also measureable by comparing MADMAX with corresponding MST and logging data, and thereby indicating a great level of consistency among all three data sets.

GANTRY:

The low recovery of cores did not inhibit the scientists to take many samples from the recovered material, which translated into a total of 467 sound speed measurements on the GANTRY (plus an extra boatload of calibration/verification tests on acrylic standard material). Sound speed measurements with this instrument have been compromised ever since X320 (see: Tech Reports from that expedition and also from X327), mostly due to the intolerable drift-levels of the system. The luxury of having some extra-time was seized to introduce a new version of the "Velocity Gantry" application ("2.0.3.4"). The main improvements can be listed as follows: a) the option to keep the transducers on the sample material as long as warranted (which was a necessary requirement for our "squeeze tests" on various materials, with and without the neoprene transducer protection sleeves; also to conduct repetitive measurements on specimen in case of a compromised signal quality); b) a much more user-friendly interface; c) a more reliable and robust transducer assignment through the EXLAR software, which drives and controls the transducer components (sometimes in the past, the only w3ay to dislodge the caliper transducer was to literally pull its cable); d) an advanced way to monitor and extract very important data on the "Torque" behavior, which is exerted by the mechanical components onto the specimen; e) a more sophisticated calibration protocol than the old version allowed for. Aforementioned improvements initiated a whole suite of experiments on "DelRin" (plastic), acrylic and also aluminum cylinders of various sizes. These extensive tests must be continued so we can delineate the various ill-effects of the neopren transducer covers ("Compressibility Test"), the awkward torque exertion of the transducers onto the specimen ("Auto"vs"Manual Squeeze" tests), and also of the mechanical components ("Shaft Test") on the measurement results; the latter variable perhaps contributes to the high drift rate of sound speed values due to the lack of a third holding rod of the transducer plate assembly (per Dr.T.Takeshi, X327). The envisioned tests with the new software application have potential to turn into a complete project during a tie-up period and/or transit. Some additional mechanical improvements to the GANTRY are derived from shortening the rods, which hold the GIESA ASV instrument; this allows a comfortable placement of the corresponding Water Standard Core underneath the Bayonet transducers for calibration purposes.

Additional Assets:

Two Quick-Guides were produced throughout X344S, one for the Laser Scanner (by two of our very valuable temp techs, Matt Knight and Gabriel Mattson) and one also for the new "2.0.3.4" sound speed measurement application at the GANTRY Station. These short manuals are saved respectively in: T:\Uservol\Physical Properties\LaserEngraver and T:\Uservol\Physical Properties\PhysProps.
Several wooden cases and sample holders, as well as new GantryStation- Bayonet-H2OStandard and GRAPE-H2OStandard Cores were produced by our very valuable temp techs (Gabriel Mattson, Matt Knight and Susan Alford); these gadgets contribute to our numerous experiments at the MST Tracks, Velocity GANTRY and also MADMAX stations.
Thanks to ET-Shop and Temp-Tech collaborative efforts, some of the sample holders are now placed on a beautiful new shelf board on the opposite (right-hand) side of the current PC monitor setup (when standing in front of the Gantry Station). Well done and all much appreciated!

ENGINEERING and Downhole Measurement Tools Laboratory (DHML) Report

Dean Ferrell

Summary

• Created and implemented new system for Coreline/VIT depth display and logging, due to on-going problems with the "Deadbob" software based system.
• Implemented a Rigwatch job log in spreadsheet form to more easily correlate job files with drilling activity.
• Installed desktop sharing software on the Network locker Rigwatch PC for easier maintenance
• Installed new SET tool conversion software and trained ETs on new procedure for faster data download
• Due to hard formations, no temperature tool runs were performed during this expedition

Core-line Depth Overlay System

Problem

The core-line depth television overlay system has been troublesome for some time. Many times the system has operated without issue, but other times, the software controlling the system would need to be reset several times within one shift.
In the early part of expedition 344S, the overlay software, including DeadBob, Serial Port Splitter and Virtual Serial Port Console had to be restarted on a regular basis due to lock-ups. DeadBob itself became non-responsive several times and at one point caused the Rigwatch master pc (Krakatoa) to freeze, requiring a hard reboot. Following the necessary reboot, we decided to install and run DeadBob from a different PC, which could be rebooted without causing the loss of Rigwatch. DeadBob failures continued intermittently, but no longer completely froze the program, nor required a PC reboot. However, to restore video overlay functionality, the virtual serial port drivers had to be removed, and then re-installed on a recurring basis.

Intermediate Solution

Part of the problem seemed to be with the serial port splitter software. It is important that the polling/overlay software access the virtual port splitter first. Even if the overlay software and RigWatch are started in the correct order, a momentary drop of connectivity by either, can result in the splitter becoming inoperable. As a stop gap measure, I installed a second Startech IP to serial port converter in parallel with the one used by the veeder polling/overlay software. This in essence became a hardware port splitter, allowing Rigwatch to listen to veeder responses via its simple veeder listener device. While this configuration proved to be more stable, still only one veeder counter at a time could be read into the rig instrumentation system, selectable by a manual electric switch.

Permanent Solution

The depth overlay system needed to be able to display both VIT and Coreline depth simultaneously on the television system, as well as supply this same data to the rig instrumentation system. The Rigwatch veeder simple listener device is unable to distinguish between depth data from the two devices, thus the need to manually switch between the appropriate counter. My solution to this difficulty was to use a WITS device input to accept depth data into Rigwatch that would be formatted and addressed by an intermediate software program. I wrote software in Labview to achieve this function. Labview is the preferred programing language for these tasks because of the expertise regularly available onboard the JR within both the engineering department and amongst the seagoing developers.

Current configuration using DOWComm.exe

DOWComm (Depth Overlay and WITS Communicator) was written and compiled into an executable program to function as an intermediary between the veeder counters, the XBOB television overlay devices and the Rigwatch rig instrumentation system.
All of the devices in the system require the use of serial com ports and because of their remote locations, these devices have been interfaced with Startech IP to serial port converters. DOWComm communicates directly with the start tech devices to eliminate virtual serial port drivers.
Both of the Veeder counters' serial; ports are now wired in parallel to a single Startech IP to serial port converter. Each counter has been programed with a unique serial address, allowing the DOWComm software to poll them individually for data. DOWComm communicates directly with the Startech converter device by directly writing to and reading from the IP address of the converter which forwards this data to and from the counter serial ports. This eliminates the need to use the virtual serial port drivers which have proved to be somewhat unstable. DOWComm first sends a poll command to the Coreline counter then listens for a response before repeating the process with the VIT counter. It then converts the depth data into two different formats; one for use by XBOB and a second WITS format for use by Rigwatch.
DOWComm sends the depth and display formatting commands via Startech converters to two separate XBob interfaces located in the core lab network locker. DOWComm can independently control the display position, text size and cursor appearance for the VIT depth and Coreline depth on their corresponding television channels. The program can also disable either depth display, in the case that the text is distracting to a particular coretech or driller.
Should detectable error occur in the data acquisition stage of DOWComm both XBob devices will be sent a command to display a blinking "E" in place of the cursor preceding depth data. Should DOWComm fail to send depth data to the XBob for longer than 10 seconds, the text display will automatically clear itself.
Rigwatch is setup with two WITS devices the first interfaces with the logging equipment and a second WITS device input that is dedicated to receive data from DOWComm. Since the master Rigwatch runs on the server Krakatoa, no hardware serial ports are available. Rigwatch can directly access data on any remote computer running Rigwatch. Therefore, I have connected a Startech IP to serial converter to Com 1 of Remote 8 which can be addressed directly by DOWComm. The WITS device2 within the Rigwatch master is set to accept data from this remote com port. No special configuration is required on the remote pc other than to have Rigwatch running. Remote 8 is the engineer PC connected to the large screen display in the ops office and always runs Rigwatch during operations. DOWComm formats the depth data into a WITS string and address Coreline depth as WITS ID 0144 and VIT depth as WITS ID 0145. The Rigwatch variables for VIT and Coreline depth are set to receive data from the WITS device two with the corresponding IDs.
Manuals and other documentation for the DOWComm System will be saved in the engineering folder in the Operations drive on the ships network as well as a folder on the Master PC desktop.

Rig Instrumentation

There were no major problems and no equipment failures within the rig instrumentation system. The biggest concern with Rigwatch was the large number of Jobs opened during the expedition. Also many times Jobs were opened expecting to spud into a particular site, but conditions would require us to move to another site. Because of this, it was difficult to determine by filename/Job ID alone which files related to which drilling activity. To solve this problem the Operations superintendent asked me to create a Rigwatch log file. This or a similar log file should become part of our standard procedure. The log file I created is in Excel format and is located in the engineering folder of the operations network drive.
To allow Rigwatch to interface with the new DOWComm depth overlay software a few settings had to be changed. Instead of capturing data via the Veeder Simple Listener device, we now receive core line and VIT depth via WITS. I set up a second WITS device dedicated to this purpose. WITS2 points to Remote 8 – COM1 and uses serial port settings of 9600, 8,N,1. A Startech IP to serial device is connected to COM1 on Remote 8, which is the Engineering PC (PC51562) that displays Rigwatch on the large screen flat panel. This PC must be running Rigwatch in order for Depth data to be collected into the rig instrumentation system. VIT Depth was setup as variable 91 with a WITS tag of 0145 and Coreline Depth was setup as variable 87 with a WITS tag of 0144. These tags are hard coded into the DOWCom software in the current version.
I setup and saved user screens in the Coretech shop Rigwatch system for the Coretechs under the names "Bubba" and "Phil". I also setup a user screen named "Storms" in the engineering Rigwatch computer PC51562.
The Rigwatch laptop that feeds the Rigwatch television channel and is located in the Corelab network locker has been setup to match the "Storms" screen. To make it easier to perform regular maintenance on this laptop, we installed Teamviewer screen sharing software. This software was necessary because when using remote desktop, the local user is locked out, requiring someone to physically go to that network locker to log back in, before the screen will display on the television system. Please be aware that when connecting via Teamviewer and activity on the laptop will still be viewable on the television channel.

Downhole Tools

There were not any downhole temperature runs during expedition 344S due the formation conditions.
We did take the opportunity to install and test the new SET data conversion software. Initially the software would not run on the downhole measurements lab computer because a dll was missing. We found this dll installed on my laptop (RF51635) and copied to the DHML PC. This dll however was for a 64 bit PC, while the DHML PC was running 32 bit windows 7. The MCS, Mike Hodge was able to find an older email from shore that included two zipped files containing the 32 bit version of the dll. He installed the 32 bit version of the dlls, (msvcp100d.dll and msvcr100d.dll) into windows system 32 folder and installed the digital C++2005 redistributable file, DCREDIST_X86.exe.The convert program now operates properly on the DHML computer.
The new procedure begins by downloading the temporary dat files (adtemp.dat and axtemp.dat) to the pc into the same folder as the convert program (i.e. convert3.exe). Run the convert file and enter the temporary file names when asked. Please note that the files must be named with the *.dat extension. Step by step instructions can be found on the DHML PC desktop, as well as the engineering folder on the network. ETs have been trained on the new procedure for tool data download and conversion.

IMAGING & MICROSCOPES

William Crawford

MICROSCOPES

The microscopes were configured as needed for the scientist. The workstations were set up using higher magnifications. Two stations were augmented with the table controlled xy stages. One station was set up using the electronic counter. The new XY stages were found not to have the specimen holder and Emile with Serco Services was contacted to secure a supply for them. Photographs were taken of the stages in order to fit them with the correct specimen holder.
The image capture software was problematic at the beginning due to other server issues and was soon corrected by David Fackler. The microscope image capture software was populated at each station with a generic set of objectives ranging from 100x to 2.5x. This data will suffice for the majority of the uses for the scopes ranging from Nano fossil to Petrographic without having to edit the config files each time an objective is changed on the microscope itself.
Two of the spot camera units failed. These showed a typical split screen flaw, which is problematic in the older styles. The combination of the spot scopes and or the computer boxes display very sluggish operations. No other issues with the microscope workstations other than occasional cleaning and adjustment was needed.
The smear section microscope had been sitting on a thin plastic mat type base. Apparently this had cracked or disintegrated had been discarded. One of the functions of this mat was to protect the tabletop from the heat of the lamp. This was missing in the Expedition prior so a new unit was fabricated and placed under this workstation and it functioned as needed.
An adaptor for Canon cameras was installed for testing on the Chem lab Axioimager. Test images were sent to shore for analysis.

THIN SECTION IMAGING

Emily, the Thin Section Tech, imaged each thin section as she complete them in both cross pol and single pol configuration. Except for occasional lens changing and camera configuration help, Emily completed her task without assistance. The system functioned normally and was found to be superior to the Spot Cams coupled with the microscopes when similar magnifications were used. The improvement was mostly noted in better dynamic range and contrast.

CLOSE –UP IMAGING STATION

The Close-up station's Image Capture Program had been upgraded and the new program had not been programed to meet the needs of this workstations configuration. The older version was installed and once the file paths were established, the system worked with out fail. I found no problem with the workstation in its current location other than a bit crowded at times with passing foot traffic.

STILL AND VIDEO CAPTURE

This was the first testing out of the box of the new Canon digital video camera. The camera proved to be very capable. The lens ranges from 18x telephoto to a very usable wide angle. Although a wide-angle lens adaptor was purchased, Canon has provided the standard lens with such a usable range the wide-angle adaptor was not needed but for occasional use. These camera uses 2, 32 gb compact flash cards as memory and I found it easy to create files and archive them for use. This was also the first testing of Apple's Final Cut Pro X. The program is totally different from previous versions. Workflow has changed with the ability to append imported clips with Meta data tags. While far from being expert or even comfortable at this point with the new version, the programs utilization of the full computing capability of the workstation was wonderful. Continual behind the scenes processing allowed editing to occur with no delay.
This was also the first use of two new lenses for the Canon Still Camera System. A wide-angle rectilinear tilt shift lens was purchased and used. This lens allows extreme wide-angle use with the absence of spherical aberrations. It is a manual focus lens and designed for serious photography where exacting corrections are needed rather than candid use. Excellent crisp images with good shadow detail we harvested. Care must be taken to replace the lens cap after every exposure to avoid damaging the very domed protruding shape of the lens. First to be put into service was a 400 mm prime lens. Again this lens is a specialty lens not made for candid work. It proved to be the most used lens for wildlife and Iceberg images as well as tight shots of the crew working from a distance.
A GigaPan system had been purchased but not used on this mission. This system allows precise almost automated panoramas and 360 degree images to be taken. Special image stitching software had not been uploaded nor the weather and work conditions allowed for its use this time out.
Manual panoramas were taken using Panorama Mark 5. The current program will only output a .mov file, which is readable by Quick Time Version 7. Upgrading to Panorama maker Mark 6 will allow viewing with the more modern viewers both pc and mac.
No problems were found using the video or still imaging equipment.

To date

• Still Images 87Gb
• Video 500+Gb of Raw and processed footage
• Close-up 90
• Thin-section 105
• Micrographs 3,058

Chemistry Lab Technicians Report

Lisa Brandt, Rachel Gray
(as of Oct 1 2130, 2012)

GENERAL HF SAFETY

At the beginning of the expedition, the GC3 and NGA were moved to the port side of the bench to make room for the scientists using HF to work. The centrifuge was moved to the place where the NGA usually sits. We also rigged up a coat hook bar using T-slot for the scientists to hang their aprons and other PPE. Orange danger tape was used to mark off the area, and spill kits and HF medical supplies were placed in the area. HF ended up not being used extensively. At the end of the expedition, the centrifuge, benchtop, and fume hood were decontaminated and cleaned by washing all surfaces with a Calcium carbonate solution, then benzylkonium chloride solution, and finally Simple Green. Any gloves were thrown away. The heavy aprons and coats were power washed on the catwalk.

System STATUS

Ampulator

The ampulator was not used.

Balances

No problems were encountered with either the Cahn or Mettler balances.

Carver Presses

The Carver Presses were not used.

Cary Spectrophotometer

The Cary was not used.

CHNS

We analyzed 454 samples on the CHNS. No major problems. We had a high TCD value after replacing a combustion column, replaced the bottom O-ring to get a better seal and the value dropped to normal.

Coulometer

452 samples were analyzed on the Coulometer. We did have some erratic behavior with it, about ¾ of the way through the expedition. Standards started coming in very low, about 95%, and taking a long time to achieve complete titration. We tried many solutions, such as bypassing the silver nitrate trap, bypassing the KOH trap, installing a new cell, new electrodes, and finally getting down the other coulometer instrument. We increased the concentration of the HCL used to dissolve the CaCo3/samples, to 2.5 N from 2 N. This decreased the time of analysis. Finally, we increased the volume of HCL used to dissolve the solid material. The climate in the lab was very dry this expedition, and I think the increased static was letting material cling to the sides of the coulometer vials, even with trying to tap all the material down to the bottom. We increased the HCl volume to 8 mL and the standards began coming in within spec, 99-101%.

Freeze-drier

Pump oil was changed.

Gas Lines/manifold

Nothing was done to the gas lines/manifold.

GC3/NGA

265 samples were analyzed on the GC3, and 65 samples were analyzed on the NGA. No issues were observed with the instruments themselves. The scientists took all of the samples and were responsible for analysis on the instruments.
Gas concentrations were very high at most sites.

Hydrogen generators

No issues to report.

IC

Installed the carbonate removal device for the anion module. Discovered that the anion guard columns that were received in St. Johns were the wrong size (4mm versus 2mm). New guard columns should be arriving in St. Johns.
Replaced the cation eluent cartridge.
No samples were analyzed on the IC, but we did perform some test runs so that we could correspond with Dionex/Thermo/Fisher about reproducibility issues. They suggested we clean the anion check valves and change the temperature of the detector compartment. The anion check valves were removed and sonicated in methanol, then rinsed with DI water and re-installed. The suppressor started back-flowing after this was done, so I replaced the anion suppressor. Experimented with different temperatures of the detector compartment and column heater, and finally ended with 35 and 40 degrees C.

ICP

The ICP was not used, but was turned on and a test run performed for training purposes.

salinity

The refractometer was not used.

SRA

New CO2 and moisture traps were delivered to St Johns. We broke the CO2 trap upon installation (there's an internal glass piece that seems to be prone to breaking when you tighten the gas fittings) so we just used the CO2 trap fabricated last expedition and connected it to the new moisture trap. We replaced the soda lime with the new CO2 removal powder after exhausting the soda lime. Make sure to wear a mask when replacing the absorbent powder as it contains sodium hydroxide.
We analyzed 293 samples on the SRA. We had no problems with FID ignition. We replaced the o-rings and the seals in the pedestal about midway through the cruise. Also, the thermocouple to the pedestal snagged and broke off. We tried soldering it back together, but finally ended up replacing it. We also replaced the jet in the FID detector.
We sometimes had problems with the sample tray alignment, and crucibles were being dropped or jammed. You can go through the alignment procedure in the software and everything will look fine, but then you can try another sample and it will still not be correct. The following parameters appear to work well:
L/R 1415, F/B 141, U/D 230

TITRATIONS: alkalinity

The alkalinity autotitrator was only used for training purposes.

TITRATIONS: Chloride

The chloride autotitrator was only used for training purposes.

Water system

Replaced the pump with the new one, since the installed pump would only work if you poked at it, was not pumping via electronic signal alone.
Replaced the carbon filter and prefilter on the RO unit.

XRD & SAMPLE PREP LABS

Kristin Hillis

Summary

This cruise saw a high number of XRD samples (306) for a low to moderate core recovery cruise. Almost all samples were analyzed for both bulk minerals and clays. The majority of samples required powdering in the mixer mill or shatterbox, as they were very hard shale. There was a problem with the D4 diffractometer when turned on at the beginning of the expedition – further explanation below.
XRD samples: 306

Equipment and Software

Equipment worked well, with the few problems noted below. The main problem was the XRD sample handler cup falling out of position and causing errors. See further details in Problems/Issues section.
I did turn on the bead maker and make a flux bead to ensure it still functions, as it has not been used in about a year. I believe a new one is on order but unsure if it will be arrived at the beginning of CRISP or Hess Deep.

Methods

Bulk samples were freeze dried and powdered in the mixer mill or shatterbox.
Almost all samples were analyzed for clays. The clay separation technique is listed below and described in the USGS Open file Report 01-041.

1. In 50ml centrifuge tube mix ~1cc of bulk sample (fresh, not freeze dried) with 30ml of ~1% Borax solution. To mix thoroughly, sample and Borax solution placed in sonic dismembrator for 2 minutes.
2. Sample/Borax solution centrifuged at 1500 rpm for 5 minutes. (Removes the >2 μm particle size fraction).
3. Decant the Borax solution (containing the suspend clays) into a new centrifuge tube and spin at 1500 rpm for 15 minutes to remove the remaining ~2 μm particle size fraction.
4. Decant the Borax solution in sink and wash remaining clay residue with distilled water. Add ~15ml DI water to remaining clay sample in bottom of centrifuge tube and shake by hand.
5. Centrifuge DI water and clay residue at 1500 rpm for 15 minutes. The added DI water helps remove any Borax from the clay residue.
6. Again, decant the Borax solution into the sink, taking care not to dump the clay residue at the bottom of the tube out.
7. Add 10-15ml to the clay residue and shake well.
8. Make a clay mount on zero background single crystal quartz discs by placing several drops of solution onto the quartz discs and letting dry in oven at low temperature (40°C).

Some clay samples of interested were further treated with an Ethylene Glycol treatment. (At least 4 hours in glycolator in oven at 60-70° C).

Problems/Issues

Mixer Mill

The mixer mill was used a lot for powdering carbonate samples. The 'older' mill was used initially, but they had an issue with it jumping out of the back left spring. Some replacement parts have been looked up and a list given to the ETs. We should determine if we want to order these parts or just use the newer mixer mill.

D4 diffractometer

When turning on the XRD for the first time and initializing the drives in XRD Commander, there was a 'thunk' sound of something colliding, followed by sample changer and sample lift faulty errors.
Solution: A WebEx session with Bruker that revealed one of the sample transport cups had fallen below the sample swing, causing a collision. Ronald Jones was able to make most of the adjustments remotely, with the exception of the sample swing. The sample swing was too difficult to set the 'home' position remotely, so I was instructed on how to loosen the screw on the motor unit below the swing via the front panel, move the swing to home by hand, and retighten the screw. We did another Webex the following day, where he checked all the home positions and saved new config files.
Details: This message was received when initializing the drives in XRD Commander for the first time. There was a 'thunk' sound of something colliding, followed by the below alarms on the sample changer and lift.
The sample changer seemed to find it's xyz home position fine. But the sample swing had swung away from it's home location and not being too familiar with maintenance yet, I sent an email describing the problem and error messages to Bruker. Dan suggested doing a WebEx session, where they would login and control the D4. (This required an MCS to open up internet on the XRD computer and update ActiveX. The link for Bruker WebEx HTTPS://bruker.webex.com/sc is stored as a favorite in Internet Explorer). I worked with Ronald Jones and we found a sample cup had somehow fallen below the sample swing and caused the collision. I was able to retrieve the sample cup, which was below the swing between the 0 and 180 positions.
He was then able to 'home' all the settings remotely with D4 tools, with the exception of the sample swing. We could not get it in just the right spot without causing other collisions. He gave instructions and sent photos of how to manually loosen one of the screws of the motor unit below the swing and set the 'home' position by hand.
Inside our XRD- (Not accessible at all from the side. The other side panel needed to be opened in order to remove the front panel for access.)
Using the star shaped T10 hex key, one of the two screws was loosened to where I could move the swing by hand. The swing should feel even on both sides of the opening with your thumbs. Re-tightened the screw, did some vacuuming while the panels were off, and closed everything back up.
Bruker D4 in Madison The next day Ronald logged in again, checked all the home settings, and no error messages were received. New config files saved.
Interesting to note photos sent from Bruker
The detectors on the maintenance D4 in Madison are lower on the rack. After confusion about the part I was looking for to adjust and sending photos, we found our detectors are installed in uppermost part of the rack. This position made for working on the part I needed to more difficult. Ronald thought it was strange they were installed this way as heat rises. Moving the detectors down in the rack would be easy, but then the side panel would not have the same access point.

Misc.

Matthew Knight was trained on XRD procedures and sample prep in order to assist in the lab on the CRISP expedition.

THIN SECTION LAB

EMILY FISHER

Summary:

• There have been 96 thin section made to the date for sedimentology use.
• Materials included sandstones, mudstones, clay stones, and limestone.
• All samples impregnated.

Special projects:

• None

Problems encountered:

• Hot plate tempter switch contacts cleaned.
• Problems with the EPO-Tek 301 Resin, though out expired ones.
• Sticky LP 50 forward left roller

Miscellaneous:

• V-Brick is frozen.
• New dispenser pumps for resin came in.

Underway Geophysics & Fantail Report

William Mills

SURVEYS

VSP

• One VSP survey was performed during the expedition. Initially, the guns would not seal, so we submerged them, slowly increased the pressure to 1000 psi and then triggered the guns. The guns cycled and sealed; and operated without any other problems. Icing in the cold water was not an issue.
• BBSCP mammal observers provided the Protected Species observations. No Protected Species were sighted.

MagnetometeR DATA

• The magnetometer was towed on the long transits to and from Baffin Bay. No issues.

BATHYMETRIC DATA

• Bathymetric data was collected on the long transits to and from Baffin Bay and for drill string depth on each site. During the transits we collected data at the standard 1500 m/s speed but on site we used the true velocity provided by FUGRO via a SeaBird survey (temperature, salinity, velocity and density) conducted at each site.
• Depths from the FUGRO and ROV were usually off by 10 meters but were always within a meter of the drill string depths.

Fantail EQUIPMENT

Starboard Winch

• No problems to report.

Port Winch

• The level wind continues to be a problem. We need to look into a replacement for the system.

Deck Crane

• No problems to report.

Underway Lab

Bathy 2010

Operating the Bathy with a standard desktop computer:
The original system configuration was used until we departed our last drill site. At that time, the system was shut down and the cabling connection the DSP and SEG-Y boards to SBC (single board computer) where re-routed to the outside of the case (Figure 1 shows the original wiring).
1> Original Configuration2> Connection Test To make sure that the connections were functional, we re-connected the SBC to the DSP and SEG-Y boards using a "straight" wired RS232 cable as shown in figure 2. This test confirmed that the re-cabling was OK; also,









this is how you would re-cable the system use the original Bathy Computer as a backup.
Figure 3 shows the new cable configuration with the system wired to the spare WinFrog computer. The DSP board "J6" goes to COM 1 and the SEG-Y "J7" to COM 2.

NOTE! The RS232 cabling has a special wiring configuration. You cannot use a straight or a null modem cable configurations and the cables can only be connected in one way.


Firmware and Software Upgrades: In addition to using a desktop PC to run the BATHY2010, we upgraded the firmware and moved to the newest version of the Bathy 2010 software. The software has new features that are poorly documented and it is not recording the SEG-Y output as before. Questions have been submitted to the vendor.
Other than the SEG-Y issue, the upgrades have been a big improvement in overall system performance. The software is responsive and there have been no crashes when we attempt to record. Also, we are now connected to the network for data transfers.
I recommend that we keep the old SBC computer operational until the PC upgrades are completed on the next expedition. After that we should decommission the SBC and spares.

SeaLink

• No problems

GPS Receivers

• No problems
• Fugro surveyed in our GPS antenna relative to the moon pool/rig floor. The default configuration files have been updated with the offsets and a revides ship's outline.
  • Forward GPS: x= -6.2361m, y=51.8907, z=6.800
  • Aft GPS:x=-0.0877, y=-73.1801, z=0.350

Z= height above rig floor not sea level

WinFrog

• No problems
• Still working on new user guide!!!

SITE FIX

• Fixed the issue for plotting data at high latitudes and the distortion for the 10m reference ring on the graph.
• A data editor is now available that allows for deleting data by either time or by graphical selection. Please note, that for large datasets (20,000+ fixes) the editor is sluggish because the Command Center PC is under powered. Once the PC upgrades are completed, I will move the application to the new WinFrog computers and we can remote in. Hopefully, the performance will improve.
• Some interface changes were made which are documented in the User Manual …finally! The manual can be found in the UW folder on IODP share and there is a copy on the command center PC.
• The software is backed-up on SVN and has an installer.
• FUGRO was hired to provide the BBSCP with site fixes. On a few sites that I compared our data, we were within a meter of their positions (based on DGPS and ROV offsets). Not bad!

LAB LAYout

We had originally planned on a full re-organization of the lab, but the new floor tiles did not make the shipment. So we made a partial rearrangement just to get the cabinets that did make it, off the fantail. Three more cabinets and counter top material has been ordered and will be installed on Hess Deep completing this project

MISC

Boxes of Underway documents and supplies stored under the VSAT dome, were moved back into the lab. SEIM's crew needed the space for supplies.

ET Report

Garrick Van Rensburg & Randy Gjesvold
L.O.'s Office: Ran cables for an addition to the TV system. Manufactured a headphone rack.
ET Shop: Assisted with various projects. Changed out batteries in H₂S Sensors.
DHML: V-Brick system failed and was removed. Installed one of the 13" TV's from spares. Cleaned and prepped two APCT-3 Tools. Found one of the tools to have a lot of mud and dirt in the O-ring's and inside of the tool. Need to pay more attention to cleaning the tools when finished with the runs. Tool # 1858022C and Tool # 21 were prepped. Tool 1858022 C has a battery charge of 3.035 VDC and Tool # 21 has a battery charge of 3.023 VDC. Installed and prepped two SET Tools. Tool # 3 had battery S/N AS001 installed and Tool #5 had battery S/N HR 002 installed Aug 05 2012. Cleaned and prepped the Space Out Assembly for the SET Tool. Updated the run procedure for the APCT-3 and the SET tool.
Rig Instrumentation: Bit depth gauge wouldn't function. Checked out mechanically and electrically on the Siem side and IODP side. Dave Fackler found an issue with the operating program and corrected it. Veeder to core line depth switch in Sub-C removed.
Core Lab: Manufactured a base for the Stereo Microscope. Manufactured a storage jig for the Pycnometer Standards. Removed center monitor stand from the core receiving area desktop. The WRMST had a problem with cores sticking in the sensor loop. Re-aligned the sensor and the runners. Tapped out 6 4X4 blocks for the feet on the core receiving racks. Cleaned out the bits for the small hand held drills. Two were rusted solid and required rust penetrant to allow them to function again. Two Hand Laser Scanner holders failed. Found the center stud had pulled out. JB welded center studs back in place. JR-6A Spinner Magnetometer failed. During troubleshooting found a cold soldier joint, a faulty capacitor and several dirty contacts. These were repaired and the unit put back in operation. JR-6A Spinner Magnetometer bronze rod stuck in the extended position. During troubleshooting found faulty ribbon cables on two of the sensors. These were replaced. Core Entry Stereo System began to function erratically. Cleaned out the switches and added crimp on lugs to the speaker wires. Physical properties desk draw roller sheared off. Manufactured a replacement. Manufactured a tabletop for the physical properties area. Manufactured a standards holder for the physical properties standards. Manufactured a holder for a laser on the forward end of the Cryo Magnetometer. Wired up two sets of 4 wide LED strips for an experiment in the core lab. One set is warm white and the other is white. The JR-6A Spinner Magnetometer ceased to function. The rod was stuck in position. Found the wires on two of the optical sensors to be open. Replaced the wires. Cryomag aft bearing began to squeak during movement. Added a few drops of oil to both sides of the bearing. Ocean Optics light source (Part Number-HL-2000-HP-B) on the SMSL burned out. This was replaced.
Core Splitting Room: Ubersaw began having problems with the cutting blade wobbling and tracking off center. Found the arbor was not gripping the blade correctly. This was removed and machined to grip correctly. The shims were removed and the blade was re aligned. Disassembled and cleaned the Ubersaw. Sorted through the Ubersaw parts. Catalogued parts aboard and made a list of needed spares. Attempted to program the spare Compumotor GV6K. It will not accept commands. Investigating.


Chem Lab: Liquid N₂ Gen recharged Aug 02,13,17,29 and Sept 09, 20, 30. Checked the main breaker inside the LN₂ Generator. Ensured the connections were tight and that there was no sign of overheating. Manufactured a wire loom for the copper tubing for the GC's to get them up off of the counter top. Manufactured a PPE rack for the Hydrofluoric Acid work area. Installed a Centrifuge in the Hydrofluoric Acid work area. The -82 Freezer battery light came on. Found the battery had leaked and damaged the battery holder. Manufactured a new one and extended the wire. Replaced the water pump in the Barnstad water filter.
Thin Section Lab: Hot plate began to function erratically. Cleaned the contacts and put it back in service. Mixer/Mill ceased to function. Replaced with the newer unit. Blown fuse was found and replaced on the new mill. Replaced old mill because frame kept jumping off of the spring due to worn parts. Older unit is now stored under the bench. Requested from the X-Ray tech for new consumables to be ordered.
X-Ray: Assisted X-Ray tech with troubleshooting the XRD.
Conference Room: Re-wired computer inputs to the port side projector in the overhead. Installed a stereo system.
Upper Tween Deck: Helped move all of the pipe and unistrut on top of the storage area out of the way so the piping could be welded in the overhead. Tightened guide rails on the Band Saw. Cleaned the steel tables on the Band Saw and large Belt Sander. Applied a light coat of machine oil to keep them from rusting.
Gym: Added silicone lubricant to the slide bars on the universal gym. They were sticking. Added silicone lubricant to the rowing machine wheels and track bar. The starboard side running machine began squeaking when in use. Cleaned the running belt and the problem cleared. Rowing machine began making unusual noises. Cleaned out a dust bunny the size of a basketball. Problem cleared. Eliptical machine started making unusual noises. Opened, inspected and cleaned the unit. Manufactured two new shelves and installed. Amp from movie room installed on new shelf. Old amp moved to This Section Lab.
Science Lounge: Set up the entertainment system so a computer could be used for training. Updated the Popcorn media player. Added an internet link to the Receiver. Programmed an IPAD and one of the ship's laptop computers to run the entertainment system. Cleaned up all of the wiring and marked the cable ends. Opened up the Sub-woffer and cleaned out the volume switch. It was getting scratchy. Manufactured two covers to go over the piping on the port side. Replaced the bulb in the overhead projector Sept 21^st. Blueray DVD continually switches over to 1080 P so it won't display on the screen. Installed HDMI cable into the output section of the projector controller and problem cleared. Comissioned an "easy access" on the bookshelf next to the science lounge to facilitate access to piping.
Fantail: Cleaned Slide Bars and Screw Drive. Added Dry Slide lubricant. Greased fittings on port side Reel Wind. Cleaned and greased starboard side Reel Wind. Cleaned and greased Boom Crane. Deployed the Magnetometer. Assisted prepping the GI gun for use. Cleaned all of the electrical contacts and test fired the solenoids on the test battery. Hooked into the main system and tested with the Schlumberger logging system.
Underway Lab: Manufactured a coat rack on the forward bulkhead for the heavy weather gear to be stored. Removed starboard side table and cabinets. Moved the table up against the forward bulkhead and re-mounted it. Removed all of the computer monitors and keyboards from the chart table and installed on the starboard table. Re-ran all of the wiring for the chart table. Checked the SeaSPY Magnetometer for bite damage. Only the rubber coating has been damaged. We will continue as is. A spare towfish housing is stored in the Underway Lab. The fathometer system was re-configured to run from the winfrog computer. Manufactured two DB-9 cables for this task.
Misc: Assisted with loading and unloading during the port call. Attended Hydrofluoric Acid Training. Assembled and programed new Motorola handheld radios. Tested Noise Canceling Headsets. Used Spectrum Analyzer to verify frequencies. Cleaned out all of the Vacuum cleaner filters. Found several of them plugged and unable to draw a suction. Assisted assembling the wind wall on the cat walk. Manufactured two windows for the wind wall. Repaired the cable to one of the scientists IPOD. Tested fiber optic connectors for the ROV. Tested new stepper motor drive system for core lab tracks.

Curatorial Report

Chad Broyles

SUMMARY

Expedition 344S is the first time in IODP Phase II that the Joides Resolution has been contracted by an outside company to perform coring operations. The contractor is a consortium of oil and gas companies including Shell, and Conoco Phillips.

Samples

A total of 4,145 samples were taken for Expedition 344S. 3,253 shipboard samples and 892 personal samples were taken. Personal samples were limited to shallow depth Quaternary cores. This mainly consisted of diamict, diamictite, and mud. All samples taken below the Quaternary cores were limited to shipboard samples. These samples and all data associated with them are the property of the consortium that contracted the ship.

Shipments

Core- 921 meters of core was recovered consisting of 237 cores. There are a total of 158 boxes. 156 boxes of working/archive halves, and 2 boxes of port call "show and tell" cores.
A complete core box inventory is included with the shipment, and in the email containing this report.

Residues

All shipboard residues will be shipped with the cores to a repository in Denmark. The following is a list of the different types of residues.



Thin Sections (TS) – A total of 96 thin sections were prepared by Emily on Expedition 344S. The thin section inventory is included in the email that contains this report.
Smear Slides (SS) – Sedimentologists prepared and described 91smear slides. A complete list of smear slides is included with the email that contains this report.

ACTION ITEM

Several archive half sections were removed from their core boxes for a port call "show and tell". We removed these sections from their original boxes, and placed an empty d-tube in their place. These missing sections are noted on the core box inventory. All show and tell cores will be placed in separate boxes during port call, and added to the shipment.

EXPEDITION 339 CURATION & SAMPLING

Exp 344S Catwalk Sampling

Catwalk sampling was very simple for this expedition. Paleontology (PAL) samples were taken from the core catcher. Head Space (HS) gas samples were taken from every core brought up on deck. After the HS sample was analyzed, operations made drilling decisions based on the result. In some cases, two HS samples were taken from a core if the gas readings were high.

Exp 344S Section Half Sampling

Standard shipboard samples (All sites)-These samples were mainly taken from working half sections. They included Moisture and Density (MADC) samples (8cc cubes, ~3 per core), Paleomagnetism (8cc cubes, ~3 per core), CARB (10cc quarter rounds, ~3 per core).Thin Section Billets and XRD samples were taken as needed for sedimentology. Toothpick samples were taken from archive halves for sedimentology smear slides. Additional paleontology samples were taken when scientists needed to confine age dates between core catcher samples.
Personal sampling for expedition scientific party-Personal sampling was limited to quaternary cores that were recovered. This mainly consisted of mud, diamict, diamictite core material. Scientists were allowed to take samples from these cores for their personal research.

Core Wrapping

For softer material, archive and working halves were wrapped in Glad Wrap. For harder material, we used thick shrink film that is used for cruises where basement rock samples are recovered. We ran out of shrink film towards the end of the expedition, and wrapped the remaining core material in Glad Wrap.

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED

Super Saw

On this expedition, we encountered several problems with the super saw. First, we noticed the blade was producing sparks when cutting hard material (e.g. silica cemented sandstone). We decided to change the blade. Upon inspection of the old blade, we found that all of the diamond encrustation had been worn off. More surprising was the fact the blade had decreased in diameter by half a centimeter! We changed the blade. The outer flange was also switched out with an extra in the saw parts drawer. We started to experience problems with the middle bolt that holds the blade in place. The torque on the saw was causing the bolt to come loose, and the saw to make a loud, hideous noise. We had to constantly check that the bolt was not loose. Locktite was put into the shaft, and a spring washer was placed between the head of the bolt, and the blade. This did not seem to do the trick. The blade continued to come loose, and at one point mangled the core material of one section. The problem occurred when you flipped the on/off switch of the super saw which triggers the brake to stop the saw from spinning in an instant. After changing the blade, this torque was causing the bolt to come loose. The saw contains two flanges, with the blade in between, that hold it in place. Two sets of flanges were made for the saw. These two sets differ in design. Our problems occurred from mixing these flanges. That is the new outer flange that was put on when the blade was changed did not match the inside flange (which is usually hidden by the blade). The entire saw was disassembled and cleaned. The flanges were cleaned, and repaired by SIEM electricians/mechanics. The saw was then reassembled. The blade was also centered. Please see the LO/ALO technical report for further detail. We were still having problems with the blade stalling, and causing the saw to shut down (flip the breaker). We changed the blade to a notched blade, and this helped tremendously.

COMPUTER SOFTWARE AND DATABASE

LIMS On Line (LOL)

One useful (hidden) software tool that has been available for quite some time is LIMS on Line (LOL). It is found in the following location: http://web/tasapps/lol/. I believe this may be a pre-cursor to the data editing tool that is currently being developed by David Houpt's group. The most useful application of this tool for curation is that you can use it to change parentage on a sample. For example, if the user accidently logs a sample from the section instead of the section half you can change the parentage the following way:

1. Go to the page, and click on the eye in the upper right hand corner. This brings up a dialogue to select your sample.
2. Choose the parent information you would like to modify down to the section level, and click OK. This brings up all samples logged under that section.
3. Then find the sample that contains the incorrect parent information.
4. Finally, drag and drop that sample from the incorrect parent (in this case the section) to the correct parent (section half).

This prevents the curator from having to delete, and completely re-enter the sample. It also prevents us from having to find a developer to fix these types of problems.

SPECIAL PROJECTS

Scanning and Cataloging of Curatorial Reports

Prior to this expedition, the GCR received a sample request from Leg 145. When searching for the core material, the requested sections were found to be missing from the racks. The GCR did not have documentation suggesting that these core sections had been loaned out to a requesting scientist. Phil Rumford, GCR Superintendent, suggested that the cores from that particular site/hole could have been dedicated exclusively to sampling on Leg 145. Upon searching ODP online information, I could not find any documentation to support this. I then searched for the Leg 145 Curatorial Report at the TAMU-IODP facility, and could not find any copies past Curatorial Reports (with the exception of 2 microfiche from Legs 120, and 121). I knew that all of these reports existed in binders on board the Joides Resolution. I had Brad Weymer (Exp. 342 Curator) scan a copy of the Leg 145 report. This report contained valuable information, as it explained that the all cores from the requested site/hole had been dedicated to high resolution sampling. This was the only document that provided this information. I decided that it was very important that we digitally archive all curatorial reports starting from Leg 101.
The Cannon copier on board the JR has the capability of scanning documents to image files, and saving them on the server. I took time when we were waiting on ice to scan all of the curatorial reports from Leg 101 to Expedition 312. To begin with, I started scanning the documents (Leg 101 to Leg 151) at 200 x 200 dpi, black and white. I then discovered that the copier has the capability to scan documents at 300 x 300 dpi, and 600 x 600 dpi. I scanned Leg 155 at 300 x 300 dpi. There was a notable difference in the image however a user can still read the scans at 200 x 200 dpi. Leg 156 was scanned at 600 x 600 dpi. I started to scan the rest of the documents at this higher resolution. I quickly found that this resolution causes the copier to skip pages, almost every time you use it. I then went back to scanning at 300 x 300 dpi, and was satisfied with the resolution this provided. Legs 158 to Expedition 312 were scanned at this resolution (300 x 300 dpi). With that being said, we now have digital copies of all curatorial reports from Leg 101 to Expedition 312. I archived these in the Curator folder on the ship (VOL1(
JR1)(T Curator), my external hard drive, and on my laptop.
I also took this opportunity to organize all Curatorial Reports from IODP Phase II, Expeditions 320T-344S.

Shipboard Curatorial Cookbook Update

There were several opportunities to work on the cookbook during this expedition. We had long periods of not receiving core due to icebergs. I began updating the cookbook in 2011, as it had not been updated since 2005. Several things have changed between then and now. I first dove into updating the text of the document which is 104 pages long. Subsequent work was done on the figures, which are all quite dated.

PUBLICATIONS REPORT

Debbie Partain

Summary

Collected/formatted volume reports for delivery at the end of the expedition, used revised versions of DescLogik, L2E, and Strater software on PC, continued to provide feedback to refine DescLogik and Lims2Excel data export for plotting in Strater, updated Publications files on server, scanner software installed on the Mac.

Software

DescLogik –

Desc team worked out procedure for entering hole summary data into Desc to plot in Strater.
No major problems with data entry or export.
To be resolved:
This has been brought up before, but will need to revisit at next Geology working group meeting. DescLogik ab, and abc concatenation (prefix + principal name, and prefix + principal name + suffix) creates multiple versions of spelling because of added spaces and removal of classification. This creates a large number of "spellings" that need to be mapped in Strater.
Simplified lithology approach; define principal lithology with the modifier and plot only the principal lithology provides the best results for graphic display. E.g. "carbonaceous mudstone".
Hole data uploaded through Desc template but could not be downloaded and could not be exported through L2E. "The problem is in the sample table for a hole sample.  If x_sca_depth_top is null, then desclogik will not download.  When we put a zero in the field, then desclogik will download.  Desclogik is checking the x_sca_depth_top for a value and gets confused when there is a null value.  We need desclogik to quit checking for this value.  But for this trip, it was simpler to add the 0."
Export of Excel file from Desc is replacing headers with "Ship File Links" and "Shore File Links". It first appeared on hole summary tab, replacing "unit description" with "Ship File Links". It is now randomly replacing depth column headers on different tabs; "Top Depth (m) with "Ship File Links" and Bottom Depth (m) with "Shore File LInks".
The Excel sheet downloaded from Desc must be resaved to open into Strater. On the PC, an error message appears when opening the Desc Excel file (Excel found unreadable content, do you want to recover the contents…), click yes and save the file. All of the contents are there (less the headers swapped with ship, shore links)
Value list changes are linked to Google Docs and there have been problems with the connection. The work around was to type in the new values in Desc (instead of using the pull-down menu). Discovered that the red box appears around the typed in entry (as would be expected, but the red box disappears with the next download.

Lims2Excel:

Used new version of L2E on this expedition, worked through some minor bugs related to DescLogik.
To be resolved:
L2E has the option to set the character length of text description. The first line of the text is often much longer than the remainder of text, creating the appearance of truncated text. Discovered this is a character width issue. The scientists are using all caps for the major lithologies. L2E count characters, but does not take into account the actual width of each character. I discussed options with the developers to fix this, either in L2E or in automating the work in Excel. Work around is to manually adjust in Excel.

Strater 3

Used new version of Strater during expedition.
Benefits - there is no longer a limit in the number of text characters that can be displayed in the summary, columns and headers can be moved using the arrow key, scheme items can be moved from one scheme to another, and a scheme item can be duplicated making it much easier to map multiple names to the same pattern/symbol.
Using the reload all option to update the data across the data tables; sometimes the ID Filter does not show the full list of core numbers (Hole IDs). Reloading just the collars table will refresh the ID Filter list and the Hole IDs will appear.

Hardware

USERVOL and Yeop – incredibly slow, space became issue towards end of expedition.
Recommend larger screen monitors on both Mac and PC.

DEVELOPER'S REPORT

Dwight HornBACHER, David Fackler, Dean FerreLL, William Mills

Overview

This document highlights changes to the JOIDES Resolution laboratory data management environment during Expedition 344S.
Selected issues are highlighted, but not reviewed in exhaustive detail. In general, see the Pending pages of various products on the developer site for additional detail: https://sites.google.com/a/scientific-ocean-drilling.org/developer-page.

Curation and Core Handling

SampleMaster

Operational. At release 2.2.3.9 since Exp. 342; rolled back from Exp. 342 return transit release of 2.2.4.1. Release 2.2.3.9 installed at the sampling table, in the dog shack, CT shop, and at the core entry station and used for the duration of the expedition. Late in the expedition, the 2.2.4.2 version was specifically released for use on the Operations Manager station. It provided better hole entry/edit experiences than the previous version even with the known issues.
After these issues are resolved, the tool can be applied for operations and drilling usage without additional support overhead:

• [Noted 2.2.3.9+] Hole edit and view tabs take 10-15 seconds to display content selected in the hierarchy browser. Cause: The underlying data retrieval is insufficiently restrictive. This expedition it was picking up numerous DESC hole summary description records in addition to the hole-specific analyses (LATLONG, ORIGDEPTH, BHA).

• [Regression 2.2.4.2] Hole and Core edits only update "entry" fields, not "formatted entry" fields. Essentially the operator can always see their entries and edits in SampleMaster, but external users cannot because the reports pull content from fields not updated.

Numerous conversations with the curator. Notes cataloged on the SampleMaster "pending" page [accessible from the link above]. Screenshots from a variety of SampleMaster errors captured available on TAS/AD/support/344S Work for Others 20120801-1006/SampleMaster/ErrorData*.

LaserEngraver aka LazerKatjie

Operational. At release 2.1.0.2 since Exp. 342.

Geology

DESCLogik

Operational. At release 3.23.6.3 since Exp. 342.This version was run throughout the expedition. Release 3.23.6.6 version was made available for testing and evaluation by technical staff, but not applied for general shipboard use.
Noted:

• Google Apps since late August only exports Microsoft Office 2007+ document formats. This broke our value list management process. The DESC service component was revised to support XLSX document formats.
• When hole top depth is empty, DescLogik fails to retrieve descriptive data known to be present for the hole. A correction was made to the DESC retrieval service. This work-around was used until the transit: edit the offending hole top depth field to zero. Already deployed on shore. Retrieval differences between the old and new release are a result of variance in depth records between the "old" and "new" models.

Above fixed as of release 1.6.8.7 of resteasy-desclogik-services. Deployed on shore; pending deployment shipboard during transit to St. John's.

Virtual core composite generation

No change. At release 2.0.3.2 since Exp. 336.

Correlator

No change. Not used.

Affine and Splice CSV to XML format Converter

No change. At release x since Exp 342. Not used.

Splice Parser

No change. Not used.

AffineSpliceUploader

No change. Not used.

Closeup, Microphoto, Thinsection Capture

Operational. The Closeup and PICAT workstations were reverted to release 2.0.0.8. These two stations will continue to flip-flop with crew-change.
Label formats for Closeup station were revised. Applied labels "Closeup Photo Lg v4" and "Closeup Photo Sm v3" for the duration of 344S. Previous are retained. The label layouts are tied to field definitions in particular code versions—they are not interchangeable in a useful way.
Noted:

• Fixed. In "microscope" mode, the application captures the current image to c:\temp. If the current user does not have permissions on that directory, an image acquisition will generate a crash report, and the program will exit.
• Not fixed. The login screen has a username field, but you must SHIFT-TAB to get to it. Clicking on it with the mouse doesn't work.
• Not fixed. In "thin section" mode, the application fails to auto-recognize new images acquired into the "incoming" folder—formerly new images were auto-detected. Work-around: batch the image captures, then catalog the images via the image capture utility.
• Not fixed. The scale bar applied to "microscope" images is not correct for scopes with "zoom" packs. Ok when "zoom" is set to one, but current configuration is not correct for other values.

CloseupCapture2 is unmodified and remains available in http://web/tasapps/imagecapture2.

Geophysics

Whole core systems

Whole-round logger (WRMSL), Special task logger (STMSL)

No change. At release 2.0.3.4 since Exp. 342. WRMSL was used routinely. STMSL was not used.
Noted:

• A "drip feed" was installed to wet the PWL transducers. Removed during end-of-expedition transit.
• Fix pending. Regression: The laser switch occasionally trips before material has reached its detection region. This leads to instrument observations being attributed to the wrong position and wrong material. The issue has been observed up to 5 times per shift (when running core continuously). In all cases caught early and the material re-run. If caught late (after splitting), cancelation of offending observations is called for and shifting of observation offsets may be considered. A release fixing this behavior is pending and is in test on the STMSL.
• Not fixed. Sensors may be turned off temporarily by "disabling" them on the main software panel. In "disabled" mode a file is still generated even though it carries no observations. These empty files have no science value, and result in innocuous database filler: PWL tests with no results.

Natural gamma (NGR)

No change. Software release 3.0.0.0 in continued use. Intermittent spikes encountered in detector 3 data were ignored for 344S usage as the channels affected are culled in the data reduction process.
Not resolved:

• Detector 3 shows intermittent spikes on the order of 10^5 counts in channels 11-14. Of 11,304 sections run, 88 show the anomaly. A survey of past expedition data show no similar occurrences. From Sep 24-29 (during coring) there were no further occurrences of the spike.
• As an isolation test, the inputs into multi-channel buffers 3 and 4 from detectors 3 and 4 were swapped. The occurrence of the spike was seen to follow the detector input.
• The multi-channel buffer unit was swapped with the spare. No difference in behavior.

• For testing during transit, detectors have been reconfigured so that the lowest eleven [0-10] channels are counted. Normally these are discriminated, i.e. ignored by setting to 0. Detector settings changed via Maestro; for a given detector: right-click > Properties...

• TODO: No one has observed the scintillator summary counters at the time of an anomaly. Noting changes in these counters would aid in further isolation of the anomaly source.
• TODO: capture spectrums with Galil motion control noise for comparison.

Split core systems

Section half image logger (SHIL)

Operational. Retired release 2.6.1. At release 2.6.2 since a week in Exp. 344S. Thanks Mills, et al.
Noted. Seen twice on this system: power interruptions to motion control system lead to failure of the track lighting system. One case was power down via the power strip feeding SHIL and SHMSL transformers. The other was due to a depressed emergency abort button [Did you check that? First?]. Upon recovering motion control, found that the National Instrument serial port drivers "disappeared". The lighting system is controlled via these ports. Restart as an administrator was sufficient to recover the lights in one case. In the other, pulling the serial-port control board, restarting, shut-down and re-installing the serial board was sufficient to recover. Both the result of helpful hands during coring down-time.

Sonic velocity (GANTRY)

Operational. Began with release 2.0.0.2. Migrated to release 2.0.3.4. Previous release was well-tailored for workflow on section half material (PWAVE_B). Revisited and refactored code to provide the same experience for observations on cubes (PWAVE_C). Revised user interface and underlying code to distinguish "sensor station" from "axis frame of reference" selectors.
Noted. The caliper system drifts excessively. To obtain quality results a calibration and calibration check must be run with every set of three observations on a cube sample. Under evaluation.

Reflectance and susceptibility (SHMSL)

Operational. At release 5.0 unchanged since Exp. 340T. Tray was fabricated for new color standards. The new color standards were added to the LIMS database and configured for use on the SHMSL.
Noted. With bulb replacement, a distinct baseline shift occurs in the color reflectance data. This occurs at least once an expedition: leads to clarification of calibration process, questioning of calibration math, and rerun of material to ensure relative consistency of the acquired record.

Discrete sample systems

Thermal conductivity (TCON)

Operational. Instrument used once. Observation not important to the objectives of this expedition. Data load utility at release 1.2.2.0: no longer computes average—just loads the individual readings.

Moisture and density (MAD)

Operational. No software changes to MadMax since release 2.0.0.7 on Exp. 340.
Bookkeeping. Noted that the latest release on the USIO Software Distribution Volume (tasapps) did not carry a matching release in subversion. Retroactively applied.

Penetration Strength

No change. Not used. At release 1.0.0.3 since Exp. 340T.

Paleomagnetics

Adjunct to the paleomagnetics report. Defer to the respective report for more detail.

General

Technician workstation updated with

Point susceptibility

Operational. No change. Not used.

Kappa Bridge KLY-4S

No changes. Spinner control software extensively vetted for use on Hess Deep. The software donated by Jeff Gee of Scripps Paleomagnetics Institute and compiled long ago for the PC, is now checked into Subversion [see developer google site link].
A file writing component of the control software was modified into the product KappaBridgeEigenValues to aid technical staff vetting of Kappa Bridge files previously captured.

Superconducting magnetometer (SRM section)

No modifications to the deployed software system since Exp 339.

Superconducting magnetometer (SRM discrete)

No modifications to the deployed software system since Exp 339.
Charter submitted toward improving:

• Robustness of magnetometer data acquisition and
• The user experience obtaining and working with the data.

Noted. Not fixed. When scanning barcodes for wedges (WDGE), the standard flag "F" was being inserted in the tray field. This caused the tray to be dissociated from the subsequent run, which caused writing of final data to fail. Much technical staff effort to reconstruct the runs from the backup data recorded. Carl Richter identified the cause.

Demag and Internal Field Intelligence (DAFI)

Source release. Work in progress. This tool automates the process of observing magnetometer internal fields via the FluxGate or a Hall probe. The tool is applied to evaluate naturally derived internal fields, and those fields induced by the degaussing mechanism. Current implementation leverages code from SRM, GANTRY, and other products.

Underway

Refer to Underway report.

Navigation, bathymetry feed

Operational. No changes since 340T. Maintained in operation on Winfrog1.

JR Navigation, Site Fix, Heading

The JRNav project has been backed-up into SVN. This project holds the code, executable and installers for the following applications. Note, none of these applications are IODP supported programs.
JRNav:

• Operational, but there was observed issues in calculating waypoint crossing with the ship running north-south. This resulted in a mis-calculated ETA. User manual pending.

SITE FIX:

• New fix editor added
• Updated UI
• Fix issue with plotting data at high latitude on a square graph.
• New user manual written.

HDG:

• Operational, provided Maggie with a sub0-set of the code to incorporate into the DAFI program

Winfrog1, Winfrog2

No issues to report.

BATHY 2010

• Application moved to desktop PC
• Firmware on DSP board upgraded to version #86
• BATHY2010 software upgraded to version #2.0.1.22

Geochemistry

Adjunct to the Chemistry and X-ray reports. Defer to the respective reports for more detail.

Alkalinity

Not used. At release 3.0.0.0 since Exp. 335.

CHNS

Operational. No change. ChemWorklistGenerator is used to manage samples. MUT is used to manage upload of experimental results to LIMS. Refer to the Chemistry report.

Gas bottle monitoring

Operational. No change. At release 2.0.0.3 since Sep 2011. Is a fairly long toolchain. Need better docs for the dependent components. Some added to the application developer site, but prefer to update the laboratory procedures and methods documentation.

ICPAnalyzer

Not used. Noted, but not changed as of this writing: the standards management facility of this application depends on Bennight's LIMS account to function. It does not currently support the conventional LIMS login screen.

X-ray fluorescence

No changes. Not used. Reminder from 340T: Co-Chief Jon Snow [345 Hess] looking into adapting and calibrating this Niton XRF equipment for the science requirements of Hess.

X-ray diffraction

Operational. No change.
Outstanding feature requests:

• The MUT uploader module does not move the PDF or UXD file when the RAW files are loaded.

• At present the XRD files are labeled with just a text_id [e.g. PWDR1234.pdf]. For human browsing and readability it is requested that the uploader support file names of this pattern: 340-U1400C-1H-2-W 43-44 pwdr1234.pdf—where the text_id will always be the trailing portion of the file name. This saves renaming effort to make the files presentable for participant consumption.

• Devise a mechanism to provide for additional comments on the files being uploaded. In such a way that the comments are applied to LIMS and accessible from LIMS Reports and WTR.

Rig Instrumentation Systems

Refer to the Engineering report for the official detail.

Depth Overlay and WITS Communication

Operational. Tool chain rewired. Software re-written. Thank you Ferrell.
Changed.

• Subsea Shop coreline vs. VIT winch VDRU switch shorted: both Veeder Root devices on the same RS-422 network, reconfigured for unique addresses—they only speak on the wire when polled explicitly.
• RS-422 to serial converter removed.
• Only one serial-to-IP (StarTech) converter in the RigWatch data junction box. It is tied directly to the Veeder-Root RS-422 network.
• Serial port splitter software removed from Krakatoa (RigWatch Master host server).
• Virtual serial port software removed from Krakatoa.
• Installed LabVIEW runtime environment 2011 at Krakatoa.
• Software written to poll both Veeder-Roots via a single StarTech device. Software then forwards those depth readings to: video overlay devices (Xbob 3), and outputs a WITS stream that is consumed by RigWatch.
• The dedicated coreline poller in RigWatch may be turned off and removed—custom component no longer needed.

• Two video overlay devices are set up in the core deck network locker: enables coreline and VIT overlays to be run in parallel, each to a separate channel [coax looped down from the radio room].

RigWatch

See the Engineering report.

Other

Oracle

Operational. Reset all sequences in the database for increments of 10 with keys ending in 1. Think of sequence numbers as tickets with seat numbers. One ticket, one seat. In the context of the database: enables ship and shore to operate independently, yet produce uniquely keyed datasets that can be merged back into a single warehouse without collisions—every data record has its own seat.
Expect to see issues with software using splice, map, and scale sequence keys. There are two sets of sequences for these tools. New code is on one set of these sequences, old code [theoretically retired] still references the other set.

Data Loaders

MegaUploadaTron5001

Operational. At release 2.0.8.4 since Exp. 342. No change. See pending pages for outstanding requests and defects.

Data Editors

Lims-On-Line

Operational. No change.

SQL Developer

Release 3.2.10.7 is installed on the shipboard build box. "Code insight" feature is now much less annoying than it used to be.

Reporting Systems

WebTabular reports

Operational. No change. At release 3.0.0.10 since Exp. 336.

LIMS Reports

Operational. Mostly. At release 3.1.2 since Exp. 342. Release 4.0 deployed for test and evaluation on shasta. Not being deployed to production until some additional defects are fixed. See application "pending" page.

DESCReport

No change. Not used.

LIMSPeak

Changed. At release 1.8.0. Additional templates added for physical properties data review needs: organic carbed a couple of templates to aid physicalNo change this reporting period. Last change 340.

INT

No change. Not used.

LIMS2Excel

Current version available from the web is 8.1.0.4. Changes were made in depth because of the change of depth models made on this expedition. Adjusted line length calculation to be more even; still problem with capital letters increasing line length. Changed status restraint in LIMS.TEST table to include all but canceled values.

Culling Utility

Deployed for use. First expedition in service. Linked on the shipboard application page for availability [Hornbacher].

Libraries

IODPUtils. No change.

Web Services

SUSE OES Tomcat Servers [Ararat, Rainier, Shasta]

ChangePassword. No change this reporting period.
DESCReport. No change this reporting period. Release 1.0
ReportOverview. No change this reporting period. Release 3.1.2 since Exp 342.
UWQ. No change this reporting period. Release 3.1.2 since Exp 342.
WTR. No change this reporting period. 3.0.0.10-PJR-20120601135217-hornbacher
closeuprequest. Removed. Not used.
depth-services. No change this reporting period. 2.5.1.2-PJR-b79-20110902153606-fackler
lims-log. No change this reporting period. 1.1.0.1-PJR-b4-20110904210505-fackler
ops. No change this reporting period. 2.0.1.0-PJR-b26-20110926101422-morgan
probe. Disabled but not uninstalled.
resteasy-affinesplice-webservices. No change this reporting period.
resteasy-desclogik-services. Changed. At release 1.6.8.7. Deployed to Ararat, rainier Oct 2, 2012
resteasy-drillreport. No change this reporting period. 0.2.0.1-PJR-b4-20110905001746-fackler
resteasy-error-reporting. No change this reporting period. 2.2.0.2-PJR-20120528164701-hornbacher
resteasy-lims-sync. No change this reporting period. Disabled the cron job which fires this utility. No data trickled back to the RTIF environment during 344S. 0.9.5.2-PJR-b320-20120106055221-bennight
resteasy-lims-webservices. At release 4.4.6.3. Release 4.4.6.6 is deployed only on Shasta for support of SampleMaster 2.2.4.2 testing. 4.4.6.3-PJR-b609-20120221110522-foster
resteasy-monitor. No change this reporting period. 1.0.0.1-PJR-b13-20110903171554-fackler
resteasy-printer. No change this reporting period. 2.0.1.5-PJR-b60-20110914204137-blaisdell
resteasy-reports. No change this reporting period. Release 4.0 was installed on Shasta for test and comparison to existing release 3.1.2 baseline. 3.1.2-PJR-20120718045915-zhao
resteasy-reqmgmt. No change this reporting period. 0.2.0.1-PJR-b33-20110905143055-fackler
resteasy-role-management. No change this reporting period. 0.9.0.1-PJR-b182-20111103145826-bennight
sampling-services. No change this reporting period. 1.3.0.1-PJR-b9-20110905030644-fackler

Solaris Tomcat Server

CumulusE. Unchanged.
CumulusWS8.1. Unchanged.
Sites. Unchanged.
hyperic-hq. Disabled. Not used.
labnotebookWebDav. Unchanged.
resteasy-asman. Unchanged. At release 2.5.0.1. 2.5.0.1-PJR-b67-20111125070258-blaisdell
resteasy-image-tiling. Unchanged. At release 2.0.0.1. 2.0.0.1-PJR-b12-20110905111358-fackler

Developer Resources

Desktops

PC51446. Installed multiple Tomcat instances to act as worker nodes for a mod_jk based load balancing test environment.
Mac51933. Enabled and configured Apache 2.2.21. Set it up as a mod_jk load balancer.

Servers

Load Balancer Apache at Solaris. No change in production configuration.
Resilient Load Balancing. No change in production configuration. Setup a test environment using Mac OS X as the Apache HTTP redirector. Setup several instance of Tomcat on PCs as worker nodes. First naïve configuration was functional. Less naïve configuration meeting more of the load balancing requirements is not yet functional. Documented configurations applied for the test environment [see link to developer google site].
Tomcat 7 Java 7 SUSE Linux OES. Removed AJP connector from Tomcat configurations as it is not presently in use. Stopped Lambda Probe on all load balancer nodes. Deploying resteasy-desclogik-services 1.6.8.7 to Ararat, Rainier. Shasta is NOT A MIRROR of the other Tomcat instances:

• It has updates supporting SampleMaster 2.2.4.2.
• It has a 4.0 release of LIMS Reports.

• It is configured to work with mod_jk load balancing. [To be disabled and restored toward normal production use on transit to St. John's].

BUILD box. Provided an account for Mills and Ferrell. Retired accounts for staff that have resigned. Software changes for this box noted in "BUILD Server Change Log and Notebook" [link to the developer google site].
Subversion code repositories. Added Mills as a user. Retired accounts for staff that have resigned.
Subversion repository replication mechanism. No change. Run reliably all expedition.

SYSTEM MANAGER'S REPORT

Andrew Trefethn and Mike HODGE

Summary:

During expedition 344S the IT infrastructure performed as intended with minimal impact to operations. The MCSs supported developers, techs and scientists as requested.

Servers (Microsoft):

• McAfee corporate made a change in their services where they implemented a timed connection period to their repository. They now only allow a 55 minute connect time. The size of their repository is such that we are not able to download and update our ship repository in the 55 minute limitation. The alternative is to setup a shore repository and point the ship's repository to the shore repository for its updates. This method is being implemented as of this writing.
• Acronis Backup and Recovery for C2 Backup Plan Group is failing but backups are running and working correctly. Vendor not able to resolve at this time.
• The AMS inventory management system was upgraded to v1.56.
• All other Windows servers performed as expected.

Servers (Novell):

• GroupWise was heavily utilized this expedition. There were several instances where the Web Access hung and required a restart. Some of the hangs were related to VSAT outages and required a restart to commence operating.
• Rainier hung once during expedition requiring a reboot of the server.

Servers (Solaris):

• After discussions with shore personnel a decision was made to migrate and upgrade Cumulus from Solaris to a Windows server. This task will be accomplished on the transit after this expedition.
• Implemented procedures to monitor and rotate new Sun/Oracle log files created from the Oracle 11g upgrade from last May.

EVA4000 Storage:

• No problems were encountered with the EVA, it performed as expected.

Network:

• Encountered what appears to have been a Denial of Service (DOS) attack on ship's network. First noticed extreme bandwidth utilization on August 20^th. After much investigation with satellite and network hardware vendors, isolated traffic pattern to a "Malformed Packet" from a shore based IP address. Vendors concurred that this appeared as a DOS attack. TAMU IT Security was notified and they implemented blocking procedures that restored our network connectivity. Afterwards an investigation ensued but, results have not been disclosed.
• The networking equipment performed as expected.

PC Workstations:

• Two Dell OptiPlex XE PCs were purchased prior to this expedition, configured and one installed in the Drill Shack for the drillers. The other unit is configured as a spare replacement unit. This replaced the two Zero Footprint PCs purchased during Phase 1 of IODP.
• Strater v3.2.367 was installed on 10 workstations. Version 2.6.846 was left in place by request from Publication Specialist.

Satellite/Internet/Phones:

• Due to our location there were multiple short period outages of ~5 minute duration this expedition.
• On August 11^th Rignet Houston encountered a power outage that took the Siem network offline for about 12 hours.
• Aft dome platform extension ready for installation. For safety reasons this is to be done at St. Johns or on transit to Panama.

Other Equipment:

• MSL6000 Tape Library: tape drives 0 & 1 failed. Tape drive 2 has incorrect firmware installed and would not update to correct firmware. HP delivered 3 tape drives to IODP for St. Johns' portcall exchange.
• Assisted Dean Ferrell with IP and port assignment for xBOB-VIT depth indicator.
• Assisted the Doctor with several Telemedicine video conference sessions. Overall very successful and well received by medical personnel on shore. Did discover that occasionally the Cisco router that interfaced to the PC, Bus Controller and C60 Codec required a reboot to make network connection. Problem unknown at this time.
• Chad Broyles and Margaret Hastedt both had laptop failures during the expedition. Exchanged each unit with a ship unit and exchanged again at the end of the expedition for them to take back to shore for repairs.