LAB OFFICER'S REPORT

Roy Davis

General Leg Information

Expedition 342 scientific objectives are drill to transect of the Paleogene Newfoundland sediment drifts. The Expedition was 61 days in length and originated from Bermuda on June 2, 2012. It ended at St Johns, Newfoundland on July 30, 2012. A test of the MDHDS was done at SITE U1402 the beginning of the Expedition. There were 10 Sites which produced 657 cores and 5,412 meters of core recovery.

Port Call Activities Overview

Bermuda

• The science and technical staff boarded the vessel
• All freight for the expedition was loaded in Curacao

St Johns

Offloading of

• Ocean Freight
  • 2 ea refrigerated shipping containers of cores and residues for BCR
  • 1ea 53 ft container of core to CS and Scripps
  • 1ea shipment of equipment and samples to CS
• IODP Airfreight
  • 16 boxes dry ice sample world courier shipment
  • 1 boxes blue ice sample world courier shipment

• Trash
  • 2 ea. core liner boxes

ASSISTANT LAB OFFICERS Report

Steve Prinz, Chieh Peng

Summary

This is high recovery sediment cruise. We prepared for 6000m recover, and we received close to 5500m of cores. We experienced high number of split, shattered, and mangled core liners.
Three temporary technicians sailed in the core lab this trip, Ty Cobb, Zuzanna Stroynowski, and Aaron Gewecke. They all worked very hard and managed to learn the skill of processing cores and made very few mistakes.
Most sites were close to each other, leaving very little break time in between to catch up. Logging was not scheduled after we lost one of the tools, so there is even less break time between sites.

AMS/Inventory

• The following tasks are completed and updated in Dropstone and McKinley[AMSProduction,AMSDevelopment].

1) Usage History(Task # 436) - Included "Location" in filter condition. So that, user can able to filter the inventory results based on location and Aisle Rack Bin number.This will solve the usage history quantity calculation issues, If the part number defined in more than one location(Eg: OP4432,HW0165).
2)Order Receiving -(Task # 429) - Make requisition notes visible in the receiving screen notes tab.

• SQL server was shut down for 2 days for upgrade. We didn't notice any issues.
• ROP/SL for printer cartridges for the HP color printer was revised. The copier might be replaced in the near future, therefore, the ROP/SL for copier supplies are not changed.

Special projects

A convenient on/off water flush valve was added to the far forward end of the catwalk. A blast of water every day helps keep the drain trough clear of mud and debris. Be sure to clean the screen under the grate at the aft end of the catwalk drain trough as well

LASER ENGRAVER

• The engraver was used extensively during EXP 342. The overall opinion is that the quality of the engraving is good, but the current configuration presents an impediment to efficient core flow. It takes more time and more work to do the job with the laser engraver. Most of the inefficiency is due to the limitation of working on only 4 sections at a time. The spacing between each section is not sufficient for easy access by hand to turn the section for label placement; therefore, one has to pull a section out some in order to turn it. This creates another inefficient labor process.
• Laser engraver software doesn't recognize any character, such as &, @, % in Sample Master. If the driller put such character in core comments, Laser Engraver software would put all sections from all cores under one drop down window, instead of separate them out under each core as normal layout.
• The current software control is not flexible enough to allow selection to engrave only Archive or only Work. This option should be added as a 'toggle switch' to the control panel with options to engrave: Both, A-only, or W-only.

PROBLEMS encountered

• High numbers of core liners were split, shattered, or mangled. We used large numbers of liner patches
• Sample Master had a real serious problem at the beginning of the cruise. It was assigning sections/samples to other cores at random. The true extent of the erroneous data writing is not known. We found sections later assigned to mad vials and had little available free time to sit down and systematically search for errors. The software bug was eventually corrected, but bad data probably still exists during the 1^st week of the cruise. The curator is going to follow up with Phil Rumford and John Firth about data cleanup projects.
• Clamp bar on the core splitter was bent due to repeated excess force. It created a lifting effect as the splitter cut through a core section, the end was lifted upward causing un-even splitting. The bar is reversed to offset the bent area. This has eliminated the lifting effect for now.
• Supersaw motor was very noisy and the sealed bearing was found to be the cause. The whole motor was removed and cleaned and put back in place. A new motor is ordered.
• Limspeak is used to verify the whole round tracks have uploaded data before cores are split. An irregularity was observed if NGR data was missing for a section in the middle of a core. The display connects the bottom of the section above to the top of the section below missing data. This appears as a perfectly straight line. It is easy to miss the fact that this 'straight' line is actually missing data. It would be better if the line would just break for all missing data.
• We have another issue with Limspeak. It can only load the data from entire hole at a time. Once the hole gets deeper, it takes more and more time to "refresh" data from the hole. Most often, we just want to verify data from a core, but have to wait for a few minutes until the software load the entire hole. We have written to jr_developer account and express the need to load data from a core or a range of cores, but were told it is not a priority.

OFF GOING SHIPMENTS

• Cores will be sent to 3 destinations, BCR, GCR and Scripps. All core boxes are labeled with Site/Hole sticker and color dots for easy identification. In addition, 7 boxes of core from the Curacao School of Rock will be included in this shipment to GCR.

Scripps: (Yellow)
Site 1407: (6 boxes ) 197, 198, 214, 215, 232, 233 (The rest of 1407 sent to BCR)
Site 1408
Site 1409 (18 boxes)
Site 1410
Site 1411
TAMU (GCR): (Red)
School of Rock (7 boxes)
Site 1404
Site 1405
Site 1406
Bremen (BCR): (Blue)
Site 1402
Site 1403
Site 1407
Site 1409

• There will be no FAF from St Johns. All foreign freight will be sent to College Station for forwarding. This means no personal items for foreign destinations as well.
• Old and obsoleted Pmag cubes are sent home. What remain onboard are MN0112 made by ASC, 14 boxes above gas bottles in TBULK, and the Japanese style, MN1004, in CPMAG (also on the CPMAG check out sheet).

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

Heather Barnes, Trevor Cobine

Summary

The physical properties laboratory ran without any major issues. The Thermcon gave some discussion at the beginning of expedition due to poor readings on one of the sites, but we have concluded that it is working properly.

Individual Measurement Systems

Velocity Gantry

Ran without any major issues.Trevor Cobine fixed numerous little bugs- none of which affected the accuracy of the system. Added feature to check for samples on the track before initializing (closing) X axis caliper, as requested by previous PP&P-mag techs.X Calibrate dialog boxes have had controls moved in order to understand what's happening during calibration process. X axis calibration sometimes fails, don't know why! Works OK when repeated. XCalibr8log.clg file in //data/log/ directory. File is cumulative x axis calibration data for later analysis to figure out measurement error parameters and evaluate stability of calibration. Every x axis calibration is saved here under time&date.

SPECIAL Task Multisensor Track (STMST)

Barcode scanner - reprogrammed barcode scanner to auto-populate the sample entry dialog box fields. Scanner set to "read entire string - [ENTER]" No parsing using tabs required.
GRA lost its calibration (reason unknown) a couple times during the expedition. Recalibration was all that was needed to bring it back to correct values. Should also note that at separate instances from above the scientists cleaned the area under the GRA and misaligned the open/close arm when returning to open position. The arm must be sitting on the detent for the source to correctly open.

Whole Rounds Multi Sensor Track (WRMST)

Only one issue encountered with the new 90mm Bartington MS2C loops. There is significant crosstalk between the 2 loops operating at the same frequency. The STMSL has a 565Hz, 90mm loop installed and the WRMSL has a 513Hz, 80mm loop installed. Crosstalk is now below noticeable limits.

SECTION HALF MULTI SENSOR LOGGER (SHMSL)

The magnetic susceptibility (mag susc) calibration (correction factor) is not functioning properly due to a slight misalignment when the sensor touches the mag susc calibration puck. It is not a significant problem because the software does not include that mag susc correction factor into its magnetic calculation. However, if time allows the hardware set up should be adjusted to make sure the sensor falls completely on the mag susc calibration puck.
Instructions for Setting up the Y-axis movement:
 
>From the Front Panel select DAQ> Y-Axis Setup to open the window below: The track will move to the Home position automatically if not already in position.
 
>Click Move Lift To Bench Mark:  The Y-Axis will move down and stop with each sensor just touching the black standard holder.  Because the standards sit just above the surface it is best to remove them first.
 
>IF they are close (within a couple of millimeter), use the screws on each sensor (sorry no picture, these ss machine screws that limit the downward swing of the white sensor arms).  The senors should lie flat on the black plastic surface (benchmark).
 
>IF NOT click Get Benchmark Data (do this several times and make sure the returned data is stable: reproduces at 0.01 mm).  If the values are erratic this means there could be an issue with the laser sensor.  If the data quality is good, then adjust the Touch Down Offset value until the sensor are close to the benchmark (pos =down and neg = up) and then use the screws to fine tune the touch and any height difference between the sensors.
 
Optional:
To insure that the sensor is pressed against the surface you can increase the Touch Correction which adds an extra push.  (this will leave a mark in very soft sediments).
 
 Here is what is happening:
 
After doing the above setup, we have two pieces of information:  The distance from the laser to the bench mark and the distance the Y-axis must move from the Home position so that the sensors just touches the bench mark.  The benchmark is the common reference point. 
 
Also, we also assume that the Y-axis Home switch location or the vertical sensors position or the height of the laser does not change.  Any changes and you must perform the Y-axis setup.
 
During a measurement, the Y-axis moves by the Touch Down Offset value corrected by the difference between core's surface and the bench mark.  If the Touch Correction is not zero, it will make second slower move to press the sensor into the surface. 
 
Because we have two sensors, we also have two distances to move down.  The Y-axis will always move the greater of the two but no more than 1 cm.  So there are some cases (hard rock or partially filled liner) where one of the sensors will not touch the core.
 
 
 
 
 
 

NGR

A couple issues:
As it was mentioned in exp.336 and 339 tech reports the Galil motor failed to deliver the boat to the chamber, showing the following error message:

"Restart" worked for clearing error.
Another issue Trevor Cobine experienced: UMBCI Server Open() failed error. Shutdown and restarted Nim and ISEG cages and server reconnected. Several computer closedowns did not reconnect to server.

MAD

Cell number 1 needed recalibration several times. All other cells worked without issue.
Three issues with the pre weighed Wheaton bottles: 1. there was a duplicate, 2. one of the bottle masses entered in onshore was incorrect and 3. At the beginning of the expedition the bottle number was not transferring from sample master to the MAD program. Algie Morgan, programmer, solved this issue. Please see the developers' notes.
The JAVA balance software's standard deviation display does not indicate a unit. It is misleading to the scientist. I suggest seeing what Chris Bennight used in his balance software in the chemistry lab to calculate the std deviation.

ThermCon

The uploader is using the .raw thermal conductivity file to calculate a thermal conductivity value. It is displayed in LIMS/Web Tabular reports at a TCON value with a long string of numbers (the TCON values calculated by TEKA/SAM is displayed with correct significant figures – 3 decimal places). This addition to the TEKA uploader was implemented by programmer Stephanie Zeldailt as per request from science party. It is currently being discussed if this feature should be removed this from the uploading process and have the final LIMS reports show only the TCON values accepted and calculated using SAM (TEKA 04's logarithm). This issue will be discussed by the PP Lab Working group.
The Instrumentation Specialists built a box lined with insulation and made test measurements to check the differences in measurements if the TK04 is connected to different power supplies. After this, with the TK04 plugged to the ship power as per the instructions from the Instrumentation Specialists, test measurements were performed on the reference material Macor (TC = 1.626 W / m K), saturated Ottawa Sand and cores drilled at U1402 (New Jersey). All these measurements showed good results! Having excluded hardware or instable measuring conditions and the fact that we get good results with standards and with some cores (U1402, U1409 U1410), the only problem that could cause the missing or bad results is the sample itself and at times inappropriate parameter settings of heating power.
The following reports the sequence of events and TCON testing:
Site U1403 did not provide good results. First assumption for cause of poor data was variation in surrounding environment (mainly temperature fluctuations). To remedy this, an insulated box was built to enclose the section while being measured. This box is a big improvement for the measurement set up, however it did not improve the thermal conductivity readings – suggesting that environmental instabilities is not the cause of poor data.
During the transit to Site U1404 sections for the New Jersey Site U1402 were measured. These produced fantastic results, the best any of us have seen. LET values were all over 100, some as high as tens of thousands and the #of solutions were also well into the hundreds and thousands. The macor standard also measured very well. We had confidence in the instrument after these tests, but when cores from U1404 were measured they did not produce acceptable values. Subsequent to this Mike Meiring tested the TEKA hardware and its response to varying ships power. He concluded that the instrument itself is functioning properly and must be plugged into the ships unregulated power, via UPS or not. See Miering's report below:
Mike Meiring's TCON Report:
The Thermcon did not produce results on cores from site U1404. I took the TK04 to the ET Shop to troubleshoot.  It was suggested that noise from the AC power could be the cause for the lack of results. I tested the system on different AC supplies and my observations are noted below. They are not new and only confirmed earlier findings by Jurie Kotze.
 
I could not find anything abnormal with the TK04 hardware when connected to Ship power.
Annick Fehr, Logging staff scientist and an experienced user of the TeKa TK04 instrument, offered to test the system as I could not fault it.  She performed multiple measurements on multiple samples and reported it was producing excellent results. (See attached report and test data.)
CONCLUSION:
When connected to Ship Power, the TK04 hardware performs the way it was designed to.
We need to shift the focus away from the TK04 hardware and investigate sample preparation problems and the setting of adequate measuring parameters.
Annick Fehr offered to lead this phase in an attempt to get to the bottom of the problem. She has contact with TeKa engineers and will collaborate with them if and when it becomes necessary.
She will let us have her findings when they become available.
For the record and for those interested, my observations:
The TK04 box has two functions:
It sources current to a heater element.
It measures temperature to 0.1 mK resolution.
Producing the heater current is relative simple. However, measuring temperature to 0.1 mK requires special precautions to be taken with regards to noise.The stability of the temperature measurement can be observed during the "Drift control mode" at the start of each measurement.
  
Observations made by connecting TK04 to different AC supplies:
 
With TK04 connected to Regulated power (Blue socket) the temperature measurement was erratic and values varied ~10 mK due to noise entering via the power supply.
Connected to Ship power (white receptacle) or a UPS via the Ship power, temperature measurements were noise free to 0.1 mK resolution.The two TK04 LV supplies were replaced by two batteries, 12VDC and 20VDC, completely isolating the instrument from ship power. This arrangement gave similar results as in "Ship power" above.
Note:
Six measurements were taken on each AC supply. (see attached ACsupply.xls) 
 
The TeKa application requires temperature data to be noise free to 1 mK resolution.
 
Measurements were made while the Rigfloor was operational with Draw works and Top Drive operating.
  
TK04 grounding was improved by grounding the HP Multimeter, common of DC Power supplies, and Electrical ground at a common point.

Table 1: Test of ship unregulated (white) versus regulated (blue) power

End Meiring Report.
 
Fehr and Barnes tested the instrument on the standard and unconsolidated Ottawa sand mixed with water and obtained great results (see Fehr's report below), but did not get any acceptable results on succeeding cores. Our next thought was that there is a very slight difference in temperature (to a thousandth of a degree) through the section. We were thinking 4-5 hours was not long enough for these sections to fully equilibrate. The science party decided to let us keep a section of core for 48 hours to test that theory. Assuming 48 hours is long enough for the core to equilibrate completely, we ran the TCON instrument in this section in 3 different spots for over 40 hours - but did not see any change or improvement in the data.
Table2: Some of the test runs - illustrates that the instrument works properly.

Annick Fehr's TCON Report: Troubleshooting TK04 measurements
At the beginning of expedition 342, the physical properties scientists and techs found that the thermal conductivity measurement unit TK04 was not properly working, giving only a low number of solution points (and low LET values) and in most cases delivering no results due to poor data quality. I assisted the technicians in finding the reason for this malfunction, because RWTH Aachen has the same TK04 measurement unit from TeKa to perform thermal conductivity measurements for the ECORD Science Operator in IODP.
We tried to exclude the possibility of instable measuring conditions or hardware problems. In a first step, Etienne Claassen, Instrumentation Specialist, built a box lined with Styrofoam to eliminate instabilities in ambient temperature and environmental conditions. During the transit to U1404, measurements on the reference material ST 1.6 "Macor" and a core drilled on the New Jersey Site U1402 (more than a week old) gave good results. However, measurements on cores U1403 and U1404 that were drilled less than 20 hours before, gave low numbers of solutions or no results at all. After arrival at U1404, no good measurements could be achieved on the cores, nor with the Macor nor the New Jersey core. Thus, we suspected fluctuations in the ship current due to drilling operations could be a reason for this as Macor standard and New Jersey core showed results during transit, when there were no operations on the rigfloor and in the lab! In a next step, Mike Meiring, Instrumentation Specialist, compared the stability of the temperature measurement versus the used power source (AC, DC, UPS…) the TK04 was connected to. He concluded that when connected to Regulated power(Blue receptacle) the temperature measurement became erratic, rendering the data useless. Measurements proved to be stable when connected to Ship power (White receptacle) or a UPS connected to Ship power.
The TK04 was connected to Ship power as per his instructions and I performed the test measurements below.
Ten measurements were performed with the needle probe (V10702) on reference material Macor (TC = 1.626 W / m K) and showed great results with number of solutions ranging between 697 and 1463 and LET values between 367.1 and 4179.1. Then, ten measurements were performed on a sample of saturated Ottawa Sand without any compaction. These results also had a high number of solutions (and high LET values) and showed smooth asymptotes. Finally, ten measurements were performed on the New Jersey core with satisfying results! The heating power was adjusted depending on the measured sample to optimize the results!
The TK04 instrument and the needle probe work fine!
After performing all these measurements with good results, excluding hardware or instable measuring conditions, the only problem that could cause the missing or bad results is, in my opinion, improper sample preparation (temperature non equilibrated)! We tested that theory by measuring a section for 48 hours (assuming the section would be fully equilibrated in 48 hours), but did not see any improvement in results.

PALEOMAGNETICS LAB

Trevor Cobine
Scientists: Carl Richter & Chuang Xuan

Summary

• On this expedition, only sections samples were run in the SRM. The JR6A spinner magnetometer was used sparingly but the KappaBridge was used extensively.
• 2000 Japanese P-Mag plastic cubes were placed in stock. Uhjgie Yamamoto brought another 1200 cubes. Japanese P-Mag Cube stocks after expedition = zero.
• Uhjgie Yamamoto worked out the settings for theJR6A Spinner as being 12-0-12-0 with A=0 D=90 & geographic settings of D.I. for the Japanese cubes.
• The FlexIT tools were run on holes A&B at each site. Standpipe pressure was used to identify time of shot and this assisted greatly with speedy reduction of the data. Due to heave, the data didn't have the usual 0.05 degrees standard deviation that we had been seeing in previous expeditions. Standard deviations of up to 10 degrees were common during periods of large swells and large heave.

Issues

• D-Tech 2000The D-Tech 2000 gave error message. (Power level was higher than requested, power adjusted after starting demag, poor connection to coil). Turn everything off & restarted and it was OK. Checked connection quickly and all seemed OK.
• SRM Antenna Effect. Had flux jumps on Y axis. Some extra shielding was added to where the demag cables go into the demag unit. This has alleviated the problem of flux jumps. For the last 2 weeks of the expedition, the bore of the magnetometer was wiped daily with anti-static fluid to prevent flux jumps. Section samples were run wrapped in "Glad Wrap"One of the graphite strips in the loading area has come adrift and needs to be re-glued when the SRM is not in use.

Resolved

• The bench near the KappaBridge was repaired. It is recommended that the cabinet under the KappaBridge is NOT screwed to the bench as it was the weight of the cabinet that cracked the bench.

OUTSTANDING ISSUES

• JR6A spinner magnetometer power supply is still faulty. A full set of semi-conductors has been ordered and should be in WFO freight. These semiconductors are probably also applicable to the KappaBridge KLY4s power supply.

CORE DESCRIPTION

Sandra Herrmann

Summary

Expedition 342 was a typical sediment expedition.
The pre-cruise preparation started beginning of April 2012. Almost no feedback was received until one to two weeks prior to the expedition. When the scientists came on board the JR, they checked the core description template that was created based on the experience gathered on EXP339 (Mediterranean Outflow) and the paleontological templates that were based on their input as well as created based on the prospectus. The paleontological templates were changed (species, events, datums, abundance codes, preservation codes). The scientists decided to use a new time scale (Gradstein et al., 2012), which will be published soon. Minor modifications were applied to the core description template.
All templates were fully prepared before the first core was on deck.
A total number of 10 core describers and seven paleontologists worked with Desclogik during EXP342. The templates were used for the following scientific disciplines: core description, benthic foraminifers, planktic foraminifers, nannofossils, radiolarians.

PRE-CRUISE PREPARATION

Peter Blum sent the template used for sediment description on EXP339 with minor modifications to the core describers and co-chiefs via e-mail. The feedback received stated that this form was a good starting point for EXP342.
All paleontologists also got an e-mail with preservation, abundance, datum, zone and species list as well as an example of an occurrence worksheet (exported from a nannofossil template) at beginning of April 2012. They were asked to choose their basic set up. The last feedback to this e-mail was received a few days before the port call in Bermuda, July 2^nd 2012.

PRE-U1403 PREPARATION

The templates, based on the pre-cruise surveys mentioned, were discussed with the core describers and paleontologists. Major changes were made to the paleontological templates:

• Following the decision of the group to use the Gradstein et al., 2012 time scale, all events (datums) and zones had to be adjusted in the DescInfo schema and accordingly associated with the planktic foraminifera, nannofossil and radiolarian template.
• The nannofossil template was built based on an excel occurrence chart provided by Paul Bown. The template is the first one of its layout because it is based on a differentiation of Neogene/Paleogene/Cretaceous occurrence charts, where some species occur in more than one tab. To keep all entries unique an additional age qualifier was added in the configuration setup.
• Radiolarian datums and zones were adjusted following a discussion with Chris Hollis. He uses evolutionary transitions instead of first and last occurrences for his zonation.
• The benthic foraminifera template was modified to separate the observations from U1402 (mainly Pleistocene) and the upcoming Oligocene to Paleogene samples post-U1402.

The core description template was slightly adjusted:

• A column for diagenetic constituent composition was added.
• Abundance codes for the smear slide tab were changed.

CHANGES DURING THE EXPEDITION

As expected, paleontologists requested additional species in their templates every day or two. Several new species and genera were added to the value lists – all approved through references in books and online databases.
A bigger reorganization was done on the PF template after finishing up Hole U1403. The scientists wanted age-based occurrence tabs (Neogene/Paleogene/Cretaceous) instead of one occurrence chart tab. After downloading all data from the previously documented cores (U1402B, U1403A, U1404B), rearranging species in the set-up and adding approximately 150 more species, I saved the new template and reentered all data in the new tabs.
Some additions were made to the core description value list (e.g. component composition).
By request of paleontologists the templates for PF, rads and nannos were changed on 1/7/2012 – the datum name, zone name and zone name short was added to all occurrence charts. The paleontologists were familiar with this layout and felt more comfortable entering occurrences, datums and zones in one tab.
This change required a small remapping of components in L2E to plot the zones in the VCDs.
Radiolarian datums where reviewed after U1406C. Chris Hollis added/changed about 100-150 entries to be able to have a more precise biostratigraphic base.

Issues/CHANGES TO DESCLOGIK

• Scientists kept complaining about not being able to sort value lists, as requested (e.g. last/first occurrence by age, abundance in logical order). Algie Morgan was working on a potential fix, which did not work out.
• The export of a template with 256+ columns in the spreadsheet layout did not work, instead the exported file (.xls) eliminates all the columns beyond 256. Temporary fix: Export as .csv- file. Long-term fix: Algie Morgan released the test version of Desclogik followed by version 6.1 where a .xlsx file export of tabs with 256+ columns is possible.
• The "edit visibility" feature was not available when clicking on a column far to the right within a paleo template. Algie Morgan fixed this issue (The pop-up window did show up outside the screen of the PC, He forced it to be visible.)
• Paleontologists criticized that the symbol "book" for value list on top of a column header overlaps with species names. A change request was submitted to Algie Morgan who changed the color of all columns that have a value list associated. He deleted the book.
  

  Other information

  Approximately 20 new google sites for the Desclogik HELP were created. These few sites explain how Desclogik works plus some hints and tricks how to work better and faster with Desclogik.
  
  
  
  

  CURATION

  Bradley A. Weymer

  Summary

  Samples

  A total of19,010 samples were taken for Expedition 342. 16,957 shipboard samples, and 2,053 personal samples were taken. Personal samples were limited to: Microbiology/Organic Geochemistry requests including: (Jennifer Biddle, 1433IODP), (Jessica Whiteside, 1560IODP), (Kazuyoshi Moriya, 1470IODP), and (Masanori, Kaneko 1439IODP). All other personal sampling will occur during the sample party to be held at the Bremen Core Repository (BCR) in February, 2013. I am including an excel spreadsheet with the sample information in the email that includes this report.
  

  Shipments

  Core-There were 657 cores recovered on Expedition 342. 5,412.52 meters were recovered during the expedition. There are a total of 804 boxes (Working and Archive). All of the working-halves are being shipped to Bremen, while the archive-halves are being sent to 3 different locations for high-resolution XRF scanning. Sites U1402, U1403, U1407 and U1409 are being sent to the BCR. Sites U1404, U1405 and U1406 are being sent to the GCR. Lastly, sites U1407 (boxes 197, 198, 214, 215, 232, 233), U1408, U1410 and U1411 are being sent to Scripts Institute of Oceanography (via ground shipment from St. Johns, Canada to College Station onwards to California).
  Frozen and Refrigerated Samples
  All frozen and refrigerated shipments are being sent to:
  BIDD: 1433IODP KANE: 1439IODP
  Jennifer Biddle Masanori Kaneko
  University of Delaware Institute of Biogeosciences
  125 Cannon Laboratory Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
  700 Pilottown Road 2-15 Natsushima-cho
  Lewes, DE 19958 Yokosuka, 237-0061
  USA Japan
  Email: jfbiddle@udel.edu Email: m_kaneko@jamstec.go.jp
  Tel: (814)-360-4899 Tel: (81) 46-867-9812
  WHIT: 1560IODP MORI: 1470IODP
  Jessica H. Whiteside Kazuyoshi MoriyaDepartment of Geological SciencesDivision of Earth and Environmental SciencesBrown University Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology 324 Brook Street Kanazawa University Box 1846 Room 2B-218, Kakuma-machi, KanazawaProvidence RI 02912 Ishikawa 920-1192USA Japan jessica_whiteside@brown.eduEmail: kmoriya@aoni.waseda.jpTel: (401) 863-6465 Tel: (81) 3-5286-9864
  These shipments are being sent from the Joides Resolution in St. Johns, Canada via World Courier. The shipment contains 17 frozen boxes of microbiology whole rounds, 5 cc plugs and IW squeeze cakes, and 1 refrigerated box of microbiology syringe samples.
  

  Residues

  
  The residue distribution is as follows:
  Residue Destination

  CARB(U1403: alternating samples with JO, U1404, U1405, U1406, U1409, U1411)	SCHE: 1520IODP
  CARB (U1407: alternating samples with JO, U1408, U1410)	LIU: 1521IODP
  CARB (U1403: alternating samples with SCHE, U1407: alternating samples with JO)	JO: 1453IODP
  HS	All to JO: 1453IODP
  IW Squeeze Cake (U1403-U1411)	KANE: 1439IODP
  IW Squeeze Cake (U1403-U1411)	JUNI: 1523IODP
  IW, IWS, IWSy, IW-Isotope, IW-Chloride, IWICP; All are pore waters.	All to JUNI: 1523IODP
  MADC(PP): (U1403 all, except cores 12-16, U1404, U1405: alternating samples with YAMA, U1406: Cores 5-13 alternating with YAMA and all remaining cores, U1407: all other cores (excluding cores 3-10), U1408 all other cores (excluding cores 5-14), U1409: all cores (excluding cores 5-9), U1410 and U1411	SCHE: 1520IODP
  MADC(PP): (U1405: alternating samples with SCHE, U1406: cores 5-15 alternating with SCHE, U1407: cores 3-5, U1408: cores 5-24, U1409: cores 5-9)	YAMA: 1435IODP
  MADC(PP): (U1403: cores 12-16, U1407: cores 6-10, U1409: cores 10-17)	SEXT: 1489IODP
  NANNO	All to BCR
  PAL (U1403-U1411)	PAL splits to MORI: 1470IODP
  PAL (U1403-U1411)	PAL splits to NORR: 1452IODP
  PAL (U1403-U1411)	PAL splits to SEXT: 1489IODP
  PAL (U1403-U1411)	PAL splits to FRIE: 1463IODP
  PAL (U1403-U1411)	PAL splits to NISH: 1459IODP
  PAL (U1403-U1411)	PAL splits to HOLL: 1421IODP
  PAL (U1403-U1411)	PAL splits to AGNI: 1510IODP
  PAL (U1403-U1411)	PAL splits to BOWN: 1591IODP
  PMAG (U1403: 0-150 m, U1404: 230 m – btm, U1406: 230-250 m, U1407: 0-120 m & 200 m – btm, U1408: 0-220 m, U1409: 0-130 m, U1410: all)	PMAG cubes to MOTO: 1435IODP
  PMAG (U1403: 150-200 m, U1404: 0-200 m, U1405: all, U1406: 0-200 m, U1409: 130m – btm)	PMAG cubes to LIPP: 1543IODP
  PMAG (U1403: 200 m – btm, U1404: 200 – 230 m, U1406: 200 -230 m & 250 – btm, U1407: 120 – 200 m, U1408: 220 m – btm)	PMAG cubes to COUR: 1465IODP
  XRD	All to BCR
  TSB	All to BCR

  
  
  Thin Sections
  A total of 16 thin sections (and duplicates) were prepared by Gus on Expedition 342. The following table is a complete list of all thin sections produced:

  Thin Section Number	Exp	Site	Hole	Core	Core Type	Section	Sec. Half	Int. Top (cm)	Int. Bot (cm)	Comments
  TS_01	342	U1404	A	1	H	1	W	5	7
  TS_02	342	U1407	A	16	X	1	W	0	1
  TS_03	342	U1407	A	31	X	CC	W	17	18
  TS_04	342	U1407	A	32	X	CC	W	0	3
  TS_05	342	U1407	A	32	X	CC	W	0	3	duplicate
  TS_06	342	U1407	A	32	X	CC	W	0	3	duplicate
  TS_07	342	U1407	A	32	X	CC	W	0	3
  TS_08	342	U1407	A	31	X	CC	W	4	6
  TS_09	342	U1407	A	35	X	CC	W	0	2
  TS_10	342	U1407	A	35	X	CC	W	2	4
  TS_11	342	U1407	B	24	X	2	W	113	115
  TS_12	342	U1407	B	24	X	3	W	22	24
  TS_13a, b and c	342	U1407	B	24	X	3	W	56	57	duplicates
  TS_14	342	U1407	A	34	X	CC	W	7	9
  TS_15	342	U1409	A	20	X	3	W	69	70
  TS_16	342	U1409	A	20	X	3	W	69	70	duplicate

  
  Smear Slides – Sedimentologists prepared and described 2,026 smear slides. A complete
  list of smear slides is being emailed to the BCR.
  
  

  ACTION ITEMS

  
  EXPEDITION 342 CURATION & SAMPLING
  

  Pre-site to Site Conversion

  U1073	U1402A, B
  JA-1A	U1403A, B, C
  JA-13A	U1404A, B, C
  JA-14A	U1405A, B, C
  JA-6A	U1406A, B, C
  SENR-20A	U1407A, B, C
  SENR-21B	U1408A, B, C
  SENR-22A	U1409A, B, C
  SENR-23A	U1410A, B, C
  SENR-11A	U1411A, B, C

  U1402B Catwalk Sampling

  
  Microbiology- No MBIO samples were taken at this site.
  Site U1402 was part of the Motion Decoupled Hydraulic Delivery System (MDHDS) testing off the New Jersey coast. The primary objective for this site consisted of engineering testing therefore, coring was minimal and only 2 cores were collected: Cores 342-U1402B-1H and 342-U1402B-2H.
  Head space gas (HS)-Standard shipboard HS samples were taken from the top of section 1 (85-90 cm) for Cores 342-U1402B-1H and 342-U1402B-2H (Figure 1).
  Paleontology (PAL)-Standard shipboard paleontology (PAL) samples were taken from the Core Catcher in both cores. This consisted of 5 centimeter whole round at the bottom to the Core Catcher. This was then subdivided by the paleontologists (Figure 1).
  

  U1403A-U1411A Catwalk Sampling

  
  Microbiology-Microbiology samples were taken for Jennifer Biddle (BIDD: 1433IODP), Masanori Kaneko (KANE: 1439IODP), Jessica Whiteside (WHIT: 1560IODP) and Kazuyoshi Moriya (MORI: 1470IODP). There were 2 sampling programs followed (Figure 2). The first consisted of one, 3 cm whole-round MBIO sample taken above the IW sample in section 6 and 2, 5 cc MBIO plugs from the top of section 7. The whole-round MBIO samples were normally taken from the bottom of section 6 for MORI/WHIT (3cm above the IW sample). 5 cc plug MBIO samples were taken at the top of section 7 (0-5 cm) for BIDD/KANE, adjacent to the standard shipboard HS sample. The second sampling program was for every 5^th core where the standard 5 cc BIDD plug was substituted for a 5 cm whole-round BIDD sample above the 3 cm MORI/WHIT whole-round at the bottom of section 6.
  Head space gas (HS)-Standard shipboard HS samples were taken from the top of section of 7. If the core was short or disturbed the HS sample was moved to an appropriate location in the top of a different section.
  Paleontology (PAL)-Standard shipboard paleontology (PAL) samples were taken from the Core Catcher in every core. Typically, this consisted of 5-10 cm whole rounds at the bottom to the Core Catcher. The PAL sample was then subdivided (between 8 scientists) to be taken back to their respective institutions for further analysis.
  

  U1403B Catwalk Sampling

  
  Microbiology-A modified MBIO catwalk sampling plan was devised for site U1403B (Figure 3). Usually no samples are taken from Hole B, but additional sampling was approved by the co-chiefs to accommodate KANE. Samples were taken for Masanori Kaneko (KANE: 1439IODP), Jessica Whiteside (WHIT: 1560IODP) and Kazuyoshi Moriya (MORI: 1470IODP). Special instructions called for no acetone for sections 1 and 6 (taped endcaps) until after the sections were run through the fast-trak to ensure we weren't sampling from the splice. Once the splice was determined, either section 1 or 6 was sampled for WRND's that included a 3 cm KANE WRND from the bottom of the section, and a 3 cm whole-round MORI/WHIT sample directly above the KANE sample. This sampling plan was only conducted for U1403B and no other sites.
  Head space gas (HS)- No HS samples were taken (already taken in Hole A).
  Paleontology (PAL)-Standard shipboard paleontology (PAL) samples were taken from the Core Catcher in every core. Typically, this consisted of a 2 cm whole round at the bottom to the Core Catcher. The PAL sample was then subdivided (between 8 scientists) to be taken back to their respective institutions for further analysis.
  

  Site U1404C Catwalk Sampling

  
  Microbiology-At U1404B there was some evidence of potential gas hydrates in the first few cores. In order to test this hypothesis, an exploratory catwalk sampling plan was devised to hopefully capture potential hydrates in U1404C (Figure 4). Cores U1404C 2-4 were subject to the following special sampling plan (for every section in each core). First, the entire core was scanned with a handheld infra-red imager to see whether there was a cold anomaly that possibly would indicate the presence of hydrates. Next, a WRND 5 cm IW sample was taken from the bottom of each section. A 5 cm whole-round MBIO sample was taken directly above the IW sample. Two 5 cc plugs were then taken above the MBIO sample that included a HS plug and a KANE plug. The sections were then taken into the core lab and scanned with on the GRA track. Once the sections were scanned, high-resolution RHIZON samples were taken along the length of each section. The first core (Core 2) did not show any evidence of hydrates, however this sampling plan was carried out for the next two cores (Cores 3 and 4) until it was decided by the co-chiefs to send the hole/site.
  Head space gas (HS)-Standard shipboard HS samples were taken from the bottom of every section, just above the 5 cm whole-round MBIO sample.
  Paleontology (PAL)-Standard shipboard paleontology (PAL) samples were taken from the Core Catcher in every core. This consisted of 5 cm whole rounds at the bottom to the Core Catcher. The PAL sample was then subdivided (between 8 scientists) to be taken back to their respective institutions for further analysis.
  

  Exp 342 Section Half Sampling

  
  Site U1402 Sample Table Plan:
  The first sample table plan for the expedition was focused around the special MDHDS engineering tests (Figure 5). The first plan (top figure) was designed for sampling hole A cores, of which none were recovered. The second plan was created for sampling the hole B cores. Peter Flemings (MDHDS engineer) requested the bottom 2 sections to be kept as whole-rounds (each 1 m long) to be used for comparison with the MDHDS data. Since the testing was not successful, he withdrew his request for these 2 WRND sections. The remaining sections were sampled according to Figure 5, with 2 MAD samples per section, 1 PMAG and 1 CARB sample per section. The two WRND sections will either stay onboard as play cores, or be shipped back to College Station for NGR testing/calibrating at the GCR.
  Site U1403-U1411 Sample Table Plan:
  Standard shipboard samples (All sites)- These samples were taken from working half sections (Figure 6). This included Moisture and Density (MADC) samples (10 cc syringes, 1 per section), Paleomagnetism (7 cc cubes, 1 per section), CARB (5cc tubes, 1 per section, adjacent to the MADC sample), 1 PAL sample (10 cc) and Nannofossil (toothpick samples, as needed). Thin Section Billets 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.
  342SP (1597IODP) Hi-Resolution TPICK Samples- At the beginning of the expedition we encountered several critical boundaries such as the PETM, KPg (KT) etc. In order to guide post-cruise sampling activities in Bremen, it was decided to take non-destructive, high-resolution TPICK samples across these important boundaries. This activity continued throughout the expedition at several sites. The toothpick samples will be divided amongst various research groups and sent to several institutions for post cruise analysis. The results of all these tests will be made available to the entire 342 science party to help better determine sampling strategies in Bremen. All samples were entered into Sample Master with a specific name field code (see Appendix on pg. 16) so that data reports can be generated in LIMS as a way to track and organize all of the samples.
  

  Core Wrapping

  Archive and working halves were wrapped in Glad Wrap until they can be shrink-wrapped at the BCR.
  
  

  PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED

  
  

  Split/Shattered Liners (All Sites)

  
  A significant amount of APC core liners were split and/or shattered and had to be pumped out during the expedition. At site U1410 there were even a few XCB cores that were stuck in the core barrel and had to be heated and pumped out. However, there were no major issues with expansion, gas, voids and/or exploding core.
  

  DATA MANAGEMENT

  
  

  Sample Master

  At the beginning of the expedition, we experienced a series of problems with Sample Master that were critical to the success of the expedition. At our first site (U1402) several problems arose with sample entry that included: samples disappearing from the database (even after labels were printed), sections being assigned to previous cores and MADC samples disappearing from the database. For the record, I include the following email correspondence between ship and shore:
  _________________________________________________________________________
  >>> JR Algie Morgan 06/16/12 12:39 AM >>>
  I am glad to report that I have finally been able to isolate and fix the bug that was causing so much confusion and concern, both here and on shore. After finding the cause of the errors and correcting it I ran a series of tests to verify that the error was corrected. Then I deployed this version to the Core Entry station in the Core Lab several hours ago. Since then Chieh and Steve have reported that they have seen no more instances of the errant behavior that was plaguing them. From my research I have found that the offending code has been in place for at least two years without any changes. From other emails I have seen it appears that this error has manifested itself very sporadically over this time, but because, up til now, the sequence of steps required to trip the error happened so infrequently the behavior was viewed as an anomaly, could not be repeated, and so was ignored. In the explanation below I use an example where a user remains on the "Enter" tab in SampleMaster and tries to input a series of new samples into LIMS. This error comes about when a user makes a series of uploads from different worksheet tabs (i.e., "Core", "Section", Sample_Table", etc.) in SampleMaster, e.g., entering and uploading sections, entering and uploading Sample_Table samples, click the "Clear Form" button, enter and upload sections again, enter and upload new samples on the Sample_Table tab. The final upload would not generate new samples as expected, but would overwrite the previously entered samples on the Sample_Table tab.This was caused by the fact that SampleMaster keeps a buffer of sample_numbers that are returned from LIMS when it uploads samples; this buffer contains a separate list of sample_numbers for each of the worksheets ("Core", "Section", "Sample_Table", etc). At the end of an Upload operation it then inserts these sample-numbers into the SampleNumber columns on the various worksheets, and it would insert the sample_numbers on each worksheet after every Upload operation. This was especially troublesome because by default the SampleNumber column is hidden on all of the worksheets, so there was no visible clue that this was happening. As I stated previously, I believe that the reason this problem was not detected earlier is because it is reasonably rare that an individual or a small group of individuals switch around among the various worksheets while performing uploads. The usual workflow for most instances is to enter only cores, or only sections, or only "sample-table" samples. As long as you upload from only one worksheet, clearing that worksheet will clear the hidden sample-numbers as well. In the rare instance when this "misfire" was encountered in the past, it was at best cursorily investigated, deemed a fluke, and passed over. Over the last couple of days I went through several iterations of trying and failing to find the flaw myself. I was finally able to find the problem by going to the Core Entry station and working with Chieh and Steve. I asked them to un-hide the hidden columns in all of the Entry sheets and then I observed closely as they went through their process of entering sections and uploading them, then switching to the "Sample_Table" sheet to enter PAL, IW, and other special-request samples. During one of these cycles we noticed the "phantom" sample-numbers on a sheet that had previously been cleared. Using that clue I was able to perform more tests and finally determine the cause of the problem, and then to correct it. My solution was to disallow any changes to any sheet except the "active" (i.e., visible) worksheet.
  This has been a trying and frustrating experience for many of the staff here on the JR, and a source of concern for the shore staff; I am glad that I can say with confidence that I have fixed this pernicious bug. I cannot close without pointing out that this has truly been a team effort, and I want everyone to know about all of the people who worked to correct this problem. I especially want to thank Chieh, who has been exceptionally helpful with her expertise and her encouragement; Steve Prinz, helped immensely with his suggestions and advice and his seemingly unending patience; Peter has been staunch as ever in his understanding and support as we worked through these problems over the several days it took to resolve; Jim Rosser offered the perfect balance between concern and encouragement from shore; and Tim Blaisdell emailed several suggestions about possible solutions even while he was on vacation. This has certainly been a team effort, and once more Team JR carries the day.
  Algie Morgan
  Software Developer
  on JR
  >>> JR Peter Blum 6/13/2012 10:28 AM >>>
  All:
  Just to be clear: this is a crises of its own class, all other software problems we experienced so far pale in comparison. Sample records are randomly reassigned to other parents or disappear all together. The problem is reported from all labs, all stations, incuding driller shack, by our experienced users and scientists alike. It is not an operator error. At this point, I am not sure if we should even call it a Sample Master problem, could be some other process/program - who knows.
  If this doesn't get fixed soon we will have problems a la 320/321, or worse.
  Peter >>> "David Houpt" <houpt@iodp.tamu.edu> 6/13/2012 1:56 PM >>>Hey, Steve, Sorry to hear about your troubles. I experienced something like that myself in Sample Master when I went from core to section screen (reported that to the developers (specifically Blaisdell) during "kick the tires;" I guess it didn't get fixed?). The issue came up if I entered cores, went to the section screen, entered sections, then went back to enter more cores; replaced core 1 with core 11, core 12 with core 2, etc. The specific example of that problem can be found in TEST-342 (might be TEST-342P); I left the sections and cores there for troubleshooting and created a new site, TEST-U342P, for the rest of the "kick the tires" testing. In order to fix the behavior, every time I wanted to switch from core tab to section tab or vice versa, I had to exit Sample Master and restart it. To cover bases, however, in the specific example you listed, did you ensure the parent was correct? The symptoms you describe could also be "wrong parent." Hope this helps, David >>> JR Steve Prinz 06/13/12 2:37 AM >>>
  Just a note to document a serious issue with sample master. Chieh and Heather had a hint of a potential problem when first making sample master entries during site 1402, the logging site. There were only 2 cores, which didn't offer an opportunity to fully characterize the potential problem.
  During crossover at 0000 tonight, Chieh passed on the news that sample master is saving samples to other cores/sections. I have had 2 serious issues with this error in the past several hours. Identifying this problem and correcting it properly is essential to the success of this high recovery Expedition.
  Examples:
  I enter section lengths for 1403A core 14, and they are saved to core 13, wiping out the core 13 section lengths! Labels print out as core 13. The view tab shows nothing was saved to core 14.
  I enter 1403A-15h-6 HS sample and the label prints out as core 6 section 1. The HS sample was not saved to core 15.
  This is very serious issue which Algie is looking at, and James watched this error occur as well.
  HELP.
  Steven Prinz
  Assistant Lab OfficerOcean Drilling Program1000 Discovery Dr.College Station, TX 77845
  979-845-2483 979-845-0876 faxEmail: prinz@iodp.tamu.edu
  ______________________________________________________________________________
  Error printing section half labels on upload (Sample Master)
  When entering sections on a core, Sample Master prints 3 labels of both the Working (W) and Archive (A) halves for the core liner, d-tube, and d-tube end cap. The user can also select the box, "Print Labels on Upload". In many cases the program skipped the first section for W and A labels, and did not print them at all. The value was uploaded to the database, but the label did not print. This seems to be a problem with the print service that Sample Master uses, and not the program itself. This issue was reported on previous expeditions (i.e., 339) and still has yet to be resolved. We noticed that in the SECTION tab (core entry) if you delete an entry in the first row before continuing to enter the correct length this would result in the labels not printing correctly (as mentioned above) when selecting the "print on upload" option. If you upload first and then print labels, there wasn't a problem.
  Erroneous Core Lengths (Sample Master)
  Another Sample Master issue to report for the record: There have been several instances when we enter a section/CC length that is only a few centimeters long. For example, at U1407A we recovered a few cores whose total length was less than 10 cm (bits of coral reef fragments).
  After entering in the created/curated catwalk length in the SECTION tab, I uploaded the data and printed the labels. Afterwards, the drillers called and said that when they viewed the catwalk length in the CORE tab, the catwalk length was zero even though I entered the length correctly in the SECTION tab. I spoke with James and he suggested that I recalculate depths. This worked, however I'm not sure why this happens and asked if the issue can be resolved.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  FIGURES:

  
  
  Figure 1. Expedition 342 U1402A catwalk sampling plan. Note: only 2 cores were drilled at this site (1H and 2H).
  
  
  
  Figure 2. Catwalk sampling plan for (HOLE A ONLY) the remainder of the expedition (Sites U1403A-U1411A). There were 2 sampling programs followed. The first consisted of one, 3 cm WRND MBIO sample taken above the IW sample in section 6 and 2, 5 cc MBIO plugs from the top of section 7. The whole-round MBIO samples were normally taken from the bottom of section 6 for MORI/WHIT (3cm above the IW sample). 5 cc plug MBIO samples were taken at the top of section 7 (0-5 cm) for BIDD/KANE, adjacent to the standard shipboard HS sample. The second sampling program was for every 5^th core where the standard 5 cc BIDD plug was substituted for a 5 cm whole-round BIDD sample above the 3 cm MORI/WHIT WRND at the bottom of section 6. Standard shipboard paleontology (PAL) samples were taken from each core catcher with lengths normally ranging from 5-10 cm.
  
  Figure 3. A modified MBIO catwalk sampling plan was devised for site U1403B. Samples were taken for Masanori Kaneko (KANE: 1439IODP), Jessica Whiteside (WHIT: 1560IODP) and Kazuyoshi Moriya (MORI: 1470IODP). Special instructions called for no acetone for sections 1 and 6 (taped endcaps) until after the sections were run through the fast-trak to ensure we weren't sampling from the splice. Once the splice was determined, either section 1 or 6 was sampled for WRND's that included a 3 cm KANE whole-round from the bottom of the section, and a 3 cm whole-round MORI/WHIT sample directly above the KANE sample. No HS samples were taken (already taken in Hole A). Standard shipboard paleontology (PAL) samples were taken from the bottom 2 cm of the Core Catcher in every core.
  
  
  Figure 4. Cores U1404C 2-4 were subject to the following special sampling plan (for every section in each core). First, the entire core was scanned with a handheld infra-red imager to see whether there was a cold anomaly that possibly would indicate the presence of hydrates. Next, a WRND 5 cm IW sample was taken from the bottom of each section. A 5 cm whole-round MBIO sample was taken directly above the IW sample. Two 5 cc plugs were then taken above the MBIO sample that included a HS plug and a KANE plug. The sections were then taken into the core lab and scanned with on the GRA track. Once the sections were scanned, high-resolution RHIZON samples were taken along the length of each section. Standard shipboard HS samples were taken from the bottom of every section, just above the 5 cm whole-round MBIO sample. Additionally, standard shipboard paleontology (PAL) samples were taken from the bottom 5 cm of the Core Catcher in every core.
  
  
  
  Figure 5. Sampling table plans for site U1402. Note: the last two sections were kept as whole-rounds.
  
  Figure 6. Sampling table plan for the remainder of the expedition (Sites U1403-U1411A).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Appendix

  Name field codes for various 342SP hi-resolution TPICK samples

  
  EXP_342 Hi-Res Toothpick Samples
  Sample Code: 342SP (SP = Science Party)
  

  Critical Boundary/Time Interval CODES:

  
  MIO = Miocene
  EO = Eocene/Oligocene
  MECO = Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum
  EMT = Early-Middle Eocene Transition
  EO = Early Eocene
  ME = Middle Eocene
  MCE = ?
  CAE = Carbonate Accumulation Events
  ETM2 = Eocene Thermal Maximum II
  PETM = Paleo-Eocene Thermal Maximum
  DS = Danian/Selandian Transition
  KPG = Cretaceous/Paleogene Boundary
  OAE2CARB = OAE2 Carbonate
  OAE2OC = OAE2 Organic Carbon
  K = Cretaceous
  

  Template Example

  TYPE	TOOL	TOP	BOT	LENGTH	LENGTH	VOLUME	TEST	REQ CODE	REQ #	CONT	NAME
  TPCK	TPICK	5	6			0.1		342SP	1597IODP		PETM

  IMAGING LAB

  John Beck
  All tiff section scans, no matter how long the section is, are the full 171.5 mb due to the fact that the program does not get rid of the unused buffer space. This information was sent back to the beach. Bill Mills made a correction to the program but it was decided not to implement it in the middle of an expedition without proper testing first. The program also does not provide any additional image space after the designated section length. This leads to some loss of section image. I have asked that the scientific party add two centimeters to every section length so that no image is cut short.
  There was an additional problem relating to lighting on the track. Core that had liner patch and irregular cutting sat to high in the track. Due to the lighting set up this caused the core to be improperly exposed. In some instances we were able to scan the working half since it sat lower in the track due to it's narrower dimension. In other instances this could not be done since the dimension changed as you progressed down the section. Therefore there are some sections that areas are improperly exposed. There were no additional problems with the track.
  
  Mike Cannon installed remote desktop control for both the close up and thin section PCs in the core lab on the computer in the imaging office. This allowed me to enter close up and thin section images to the database from the imaging office rather than having to stand in the middle of the core lab at either station to do it. It worked perfectly.
  One Canon strobe was sent back to the beach for repair. All other photographic equipment worked fine.
  4300 section scans have been reviewed so far and 50 close ups have been produced.
  
  
  

  MICROSCOPES

  John Beck, Sandra Herrmann
  

  Configuration

  The microscopes were configured as per the request of the users. The microscope usage was light with a setup for microfossils (Axioskop, Objectives: 5x, 10x, 20x, 40x; Axiophot, Objectives: 5x, 10x, 40x, 63x and 2x100x oil; Axioplan, Objectives: 20x, 40x, 63x and 100x oil), three binocular for foraminifera analyses (benthic and planktic), and one microscopes for core description investigations (Axioskop, Objectives: 2.5x, 10x, 20x, 50x).
  

  Instruments

  One Axioscope and one SV-11 were moved to the microbio lab to provide more space for those scientists using the paleo lab.
  The smear slide scope had no vibration dampening material under it and was not usable with higher power objectives. Some vibration dampening material was removed from the scopes that had been removed from the paleo lab and used on the smear slide scope. This corrected the problem, though making the scope overall a bit wobbly since this scope doesn't have a base. Without a base on this scope the light source has burnt the counter top.
  Two Zeiss light sources went out, not due to bulbs burning out but wiring in the bases burning through. Both were repaired by the ETs and put back in service. Several of the scopes had to have objectives centered. The tools for doing this seem to have vanished. This can be done using allen wrenches but it would be nice to have the proper tool.
  One Schott KL1500 light source was returned for repair.
  
  
  
  

  XRD LAB

  Heather Barnes

  Summary

  Expedition 342 was a sedimentary expedition with high recovery. The XRD lab ran without any problems.
  An issue I pressed with the Moisture and Density JAVA balance and should be addressed with the XRD JAVA balance: the display of Standard Deviation is misleading. No units are expressed. I suggest using Chris Bennight's equation for standard deviation that is on the chemistry lab balance.
  Total XRD samples: 69

  Equipment and Software

  The Bruker Diffractometer ran without any problems. The parameters for the scans were:
  35 kV, 40 mA
  Scan angles: 4 – 70° 2 ¿
  Step Size: 0.0174
  Scan Speed: 2 s/step
  Div Slit: 0.3° = 0.6 mm
  

  Methods

  Carbonate removal was used several samples. I followed the method outlined by the USGS 'A Laboratory Manual for X-Ray Powder Diffraction' using Acetic Acid to dissolve the carbonate. It worked much better than dissolving with HCL.
  
  
  
  
  

  PALEONTOLOGY PREP LAB

  Sandra Herrmann

  Summary

  A total number of seven paleontologists worked in the Paleontology Lab during EXP342. The expertise was nannofossils (using the UV light, smear slide preparation, etc.), planktic and benthic foraminifera (using sieves, filtration, needles, valves etc.) and radiolarians. Smear slides of sediments were also prepared in the Paleontology Lab. A sieve inventory of "in stock" and "in use" was created on EXP340. The current comparison [while labs were running on EXP342] shows some missing and/or overstock "in use" sieves. A correct count needs to be done during the next longer transit and/or tie up.
  
  <ac:structured-macro ac:name="anchor" ac:schema-version="1" ac:macro-id="2da87d11-b13e-4f56-99dc-ee2bd0556cf9"><ac:parameter ac:name="">_Toc131650070</ac:parameter></ac:structured-macro>
  
  

  THIN SECTION LAB

  Gus

  Summary

  There have been 13 thin sections made to date for both sedimentology and paleontology use. Materials included clay stones, carbonates, sandstone, limestone and chert.
  2 limestone sections were made for the L.O. from materials used in the acid neutralizing tank and gravel acquired in Victoria for HF acid neutralizing in the lab.

  Special projects

  None

  Problems encountered

  None
  

  Miscellaneous

• Faulty V-Brick decoder was replaced.
• Stripped epoxy gun feed teeth were repaired.
• Routine cleaning and maintenance was undertaken as necessary.
• An18volt1/2 gallon portable vacuum was added to the lab.
• New dispenser pumps for resin use have been ordered.

ELECTRONIC TECHNICIANS REPORT

Etienne Claassen, Mike Meiring

Core lab

Pycnometer

Cell 1 showed interference from actions in other cells. Found pin68 of J1 (PCI0) bent over and not mating. It was possible to repair by straightening out pin

Section half multi sensor logger

Light source went out. Replaced lamp with new.

THERMCON

Thermcon was producing "no results" on most cores.
A box was constructed to isolate the core under test from changing environmental conditions.
When connected to ship power the instrument produced acceptable results on the Makor standard. It was agreed that the hardware was ok and the problem had to be sample preparation. Wiring and schematic diagrams were traced from the power supply boards. See Physical properties report for more info.

Super Saw

Mega saw motor bearings failed.
The replacement motor was a 1740 RPM motor and could not be used. With the help of Siem Electricians bearings and seals on original motor were replaced with the faceplate from the replacement motor.
A suitable replacement motor has been ordered.

Paleo Lab

Hot plate from the Paleo lab was only working on hot and cold,
The resistor pot was found to be repairable and no spares was
available, new hot plates was ordered.

Chem lab

Barrington Reverse Osmoses

The Barrington reverse osmoses instrument pump stopped working. It was removed, overhauled and installed again.
A new spare pump was received and is kept in the chemistry lab.

Downhole lab

APCT-3

Temperature tools were deployed on Sites U1405 and U1408. APCT3 calibration files were requested from IODP shore and saved in the Antares/calibration folder on DHML PC.
APCT3 Tool S/N 21 was deployed on both sites. APCT3 and TPfit data were uploaded to LIMS and to T:\data1\14.1 Formation Temperature APCT-3_ SET_ WINTEMP_ TPFIT\Exp 342 Temperature.

SET Tool

SETP was prepared to be deployed with the new delivery system, but time ran out. Mike M gave Etienne C refresher training on the preparation/deployment of the SET/SETP tool.

MDHSDS

Help was given to Peter Fleming and his crew deploying the new T2P prototype tool and MDHSDS-delivery system.

ENTERTAINMENT

Movie Room

The new amplifier was installed in the movie room. New front, center and middle speakers were ordered.
External devices are connected via HDMI cables to the Amplifier.
A "Quick start" guide was made for the new amp and equipment.
The "old" amplifier is currently in the DHML on the center workbench and it is suggested it be installed in the gym.
AAA batteries keep disappearing from the remote controls in the movie room. We have not yet found a solution to this, but have brought it up with the LO and ALO

Rigwatch

Instrumented Loadpins

The box with Solar panel, battery and transmitters was installed. The switch disconnecting the current to loadpins, when compensator closes, was shorted. This allowed us to record data 24 HRS a day to evaluate the system. The battery lasted 11 days before disconnecting the load in this configuration. The short was removed and endurance of system will be determined in normal configuration.

Driller PC resolution

Before starting the Rigwatch application on the Driller PC in the MCS office, set the PC resolution to 1024 x 768. When the resolution on this PC is higher than the PC in the drill shack, only a partial screen can be viewed.

Pipe counter

Sensors had to be lined up. Large square reflector will be purchased to improve reliability.

Draw works encoder

Feedback from driller was that tracking was bad after replacement of a faulty encoder on a previous expedition. New calibration figures obtained are:
Meter Pulses
0.78M -47683
4.99 -45553
14.035 -41305

Dongle Keys

Keys were renewed for 255 days from 28 May 2012

WITS Data

Schlumberger Winch data are available in Rigwatch. Quick start setup guide available on Server.
Raw and ASCI data for all sites were saved at: T:\data1\1.1 Ops RIS rig instrumentation system\Exp 342 RIS Data
Raw RIS data from Exp 339 were found and saved at: T:\data1\1.1 Ops RIS rig instrumentation system

General

Numerous smaller odd jobs were done as we went through the expedition and
Constant lubrication and cleaning on battery operated drills used on Catwalk were done to keep it from corrosion as it was a high core recovery expedition.
Some spare parts were ordered and probably a component order will follow a stock take soon.
Two speakers were installed on the cat walk and new outdoor speakers were ordered to replace these.

PUBLICATIONS SPECIALIST

Tim Fulton

Summary

Expedition 342 was a high recovery sediment expedition. The data entry in DESClogik and output through LIMS2Excel seemed to work well once we installed the "rolled back version of LIMS2Excel). There were four instances of DESClogik not cancelling data that was previously entered and uploaded then corrected and re-uploaded. This issue was handled by the programmer cleaning the old data out of DESClogik. The scientists waited till mid cruise to redesign the VCD which took some time to regenerate the VCD's with the new layout and lithology. The only other issue was that the sedimentologists would occasionally miss an interval and would have to be prompted to add the data to DESClogic.

Equipment & Software Performance Summary

• The latest version of Strater was used on the Publication Office PC and ran smoothly.
• Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, & Bridge ran fine. No issues to report.
• The Publications Office Mac and PC ran fine. No issues to report.
• Microsoft Excel & Word worked fine as well.
• GroupWise worked fine for emails.
• The copy machine worked acceptably. The paper holder was broken early and maintaining proper spacing on the page was a bit of work.

SYSTEM MANAGERS' REPORT

Mike Cannon and Tiffany Bloxom

Summary:

During expedition 342 the IT infrastructure performed as intended with minimal impact to operations.

Servers (Microsoft):

• Completed migration of VBrick services from McKinley to Krakatoa and updated links on the website to reflect that change.
• Completed a scheduled upgrade of McKinley to Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2.
• Mauna-Loa's operating system was found to be unstable. A complete reinstallation of the operating system as well as HP Systems Insight Manager and Acronis Backup & Recovery was planned, executed and completed.
• A power supply failed on Mauna-Loa and was replaced with a spare power supply from our on board inventory.
• A hard drive predictive failure occurred on Everest and the drive was replaced with a spare drive from our on board inventory.
• Upgraded the MatLab license server on Everest to 2012a.

Servers (Solaris):

• Cumulus continues to consume disk space in the logging directory requiring an occasional restart of the Cumulus service to free it up. This is an issue with Cumulus itself and should be fixed in the next update of the product.

Servers (Novell):

• Developed a method for scientists to change their server passwords from a web browser instead of using the Novell client. This allows users an easier, more convenient method to change their password.

EVA4000 Storage:

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

Network:

• The networking equipment performed as expected with no issues to report.

PC Workstations:

• Completed an upgrade of MatLab on all installed workstations to version 2012a.
• Upgraded Acronis backup software on the instrument hosts to the latest version.
• The Zero Footprint computer in the drill shack had issues early on. It would not boot up but would hang at the XP splash screen. I brought it down to the office and determined that a piece of hardware in the upper portion had failed. I removed the hard drive and memory from this computer and installed them into the other unit and was able to get it working. This computer will be replaced on 344S with a new computer.

MAC Workstations:

• Completed an upgrade of MatLab on all installed workstations to version 2012a.

Printers:

• The top paper cassette on the Canon copier was damaged by persons unknown. The paper guides in the cassette would not lock into place and allowed the paper to shift in the cassette causing printing to shift off the paper. The cassette was temporarily repaired and a replacement is being purchased to permanently fix the problem.

Satellite/Internet/Phones:

• We lost internet connectivity late in the expedition for approximately one hour. Service was restored in relative short order and we worked with our service provider to make adjustments to the antenna control units to prevent further outages.

Other Equipment:

• A tape drive failed in the tape library but caused no downtime to our backup operations. A replacement is being sent to the next port call.

DEVELOPERS REPORT

James Zhao, Algie Morgan

Summary

This document highlights changes to the JOIDES Resolution laboratory data management environment during Expedition 342.

• For this expedition attention was given primarily to SampleMaster, Correlator download, splice upload and download, DESClogik, MegaUploadaTron, and LIMS Reports. Only minor problems were reported on the lab instruments and these were taken care of by the physical properties tech , Cobine.

• A features and issue list is not provided. See the Pending pages of the various products on the developer site: https://sites.google.com/site/iodpdeveloperwork/projects [its Google, just search].

Curation and Core Handling

SampleMaster 2.2.4.1

Operational. This release is deployed into production on all sample entry stations in the Core Lab. Release fixes a major bug that was causing updates to be posted improperly. It also incorporates significant changes requested by the Operations Superintendent; most notably the ability to enter hole-start-time, hole-end-time, and prospectus-site-name on holes and multiple core-catchers on core-entry. In addition it fixes several small but annoying bugs.

LaserEngraver aka LazerKatjie 2.1.0.2

Operational. No change Expedition 342.
We observed several instances of special characters in the LIMS.SAMPLE.DESCRIPTION field would break the hierarchy search of the engraver. Manually updating the SAMPLE.DESCRIPTION field to remove the special characters fixed the problem.

Geology

DESCLogik 3.23.6.3

Operational. This release contains several enhancements and bug-fixes that were requested by the EPM and expedition scientists.

Virtual core composite generation

No change.

Correlator

No change.

Affine and Splice CSV to XML format Converter

Create a new tool that converts Affine and Splice CSV format to xml format so that the Uploader is able to upload Affine and Splice data.

Splice Parser

Create a new tool SpliceParser that splits one splice file into many files by hole and instrument, also inserts blank line between cores, so that plot program is able to plot splice.

Closeup, Microphoto, Thinsection Capture 2.0.0.8

No change.
Reminder that binaries for evaluation of the next version are available in tasapps/imagecapture2 since expedition 339. Code for the new version is forked to NET/CloseupCapture2.
Geophysics

Whole core systems

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

No changes were implemented by either of the developers. See Phys Props Tech Report for any fixes or remaining issues.

Natural gamma (NGR)

No changes were implemented by either of the developers. See Phys Props Tech Report for any fixes or remaining issues.

Split core systems

Section half image logger (SHIL)

Bill Mills has prepared a new version of the Image Logger code that makes a number of improvements in the user interface, especially regarding the cropping of images. We received notice that this version is ready for deployment on 17 June, but due to a large volume of coring with virtually no significant breaks we did not deploy it. We will leave this for deployment during port call.

Sonic velocity (GANTRY) 2.0.0.2

Operational. No changes made by the two developers. See Phys Props tech report for minor changes made during Exp. 342.

Reflectance and susceptibility (SHMSL)

Operational. No changes were made during Exp. 342.

Discrete sample systems

Thermal conductivity (TCON) 1.2.0.3

Operational. Instrument is not working.

Moisture and density (MAD) 2.0.0.7

Operational. No changes were made on Exp. 342. Note: we had a lot of problems getting the TCON to yield results; the ET with help from the logging scientist conducted a thorough troubleshooting exercise and determined that there is no problem with the hardware or software. They also rigged up a thermal enclosure that was used to try to isolate the section during a measurement cycle. They concluded that the problem may be caused by insufficient contact with the core material by the probe.

MadMax

Operational. No changes were made on Exp. 342.

Penetration Strength 1.0.0.3

Operational. No changes were made on Exp. 342.
Paleomagnetics
The paleomagnetics report supersedes content here.

Point susceptibility

Operational. No changes were made on Exp. 342.

Kappa Bridge KLY-4S

No changes were made on Exp. 342.

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.
Suggestion. For both Section and discrete, let us separate the logger from the data reduction. The SRM can be run as a logger, and the data can be held until the scientist has time to analyze the data at their leisure.

Fluxgate Field Survey

No software changes this reporting period. Efforts in progress to capture field survey data for health and maintenance evaluations. Refer to Paleomagnetics report.
Underway
Content here adjunct to Underway report.

Navigation, bathymetry feed

No changes this reporting period to NAVloader system or installation. Remains running in Underway on the Winfrog boxes. NOTE: The NAVLoader was stopped twice during this expedition. In both cases the stoppage was detected by developers performing spot checks of the Navigation report in WebTabular. We need more training and stronger procedures of the L.O. and their staff to ensure that they monitor this more carefully.

Winfrog1, Winfrog2

No software changes this reporting period. Refer to Underway report.

Geochemistry

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

General

A number of stations in this lab carry installations of SampleMaster and DescLogik. Where found, these products were uninstalled and re-installed from updated product—respectively 2.2.3.6, 3.23.5.0 [Fackler].
Alkalinity 3.0.0.0
No software changes this reporting period. Refer to Chemistry report.
CHNS
No software changes this reporting period. Refer to the Chemistry report.
Gas bottle monitoring
No change this expedition.
ICPAnalyzer
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 login screen.
Crashes when reducing data for spreadsheet. Being debugged.
X-ray fluorescence
No software changes. Co-Chief Jon Snow [345 Hess] looking into adapting and calibrating this equipment for the science requirements of Hess.
X-ray diffraction
No change. Outstanding bug: The MUT uploader module does not move the PDF or UXD file when the RAW files are loaded.
Outstanding feature request: 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.
Rig Instrumentation Systems
Core/VIT winch counter video overlay
Unchanged since Exp 340. Not used during tieup or transit.
Carried forward from Exp 340. Experiences periods where the numeric record received in the Video Overlay Transfer software is an incorrect number of bytes—e.g. transmission truncated in some way. This results in incorrect and unstable numeric display. Intermittent. Often sufficient to stop and restart the Video Overlay Transfer software. Sometimes have to disconnect RigWatch and the serial splitter software too.
RigWatch
Unchanged during Exp. 342.
Other
Oracle
Unchanged during Exp. 342.

Data Loaders

MegaUploadaTron5001

We released version 2.0.8.3; includes a small change to the ORIENT analysis uploader to make it more robust. It now accepts several variations in the CSV file format. It fixes bug that causes MUT to crash if you open it while pointed to a drive path that is not available; e.g., to a Novell drive that is not currently mapped.

Reporting Systems

Lims-On-Line

No change this reporting period.

WebTabular reports 3.0.0.9

LIMS Reports 3.0.5.1

a. Improve the UI (user interface) performance dramatically, now sites list is able to show up instantaneously. Even running Shore LimsReport from ship, it is still instantaneous. Before, after user inputs the expedition, the busy icon will be spinning for 5-10 seconds, then site list will popup. This problem bothers the user all the time, now it is solved. Has been deployed for shore testing.
b. Populate water depth for HoleSummary report, this problem has been reported since last year.
c. Fix SRANL report problem that miss rows when certain component entry is blank.
d. Make CCSF scale and Splice download working on LIMS Report.

DESCReport 1.0

a. Add batch download function to DESC Report.
b. Change user interface, re-group asset type and asset category.

LIMSPeak 1.7.7

No change this reporting period. Last change 340.

INT

Scientists requested INT is really helpful for making leg summary figures. INT owns the following unique features:
a. displaying high resolution image.
b. compatible with other graphic software, such as Illustrator.
c. cross platform.
Redeployed on JR.

LIMS2Excel

Roll back to old version 4.5, now the format one, format two, format three are working properly. Pub has been using it smoothly for the entire expedition. No losing value occurs on this expedition. The only issue is that if we need to add feature to split property data by instrument, now Pub splits data using Excel alternatively.

Culling Utility

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

Libraries

IODPUtils. Updated again when reworking the ErrorReporter system for use for the specific needs of the MUT application. The main benefit of this system is that it allows error messages reported by the web services to bubble up and be reported in error dialogs to the user. Recompiled into SampleMaster, DescLogik, and MegaUploadaTron this release cycle.
New build key created for .NET products so they don't yap about builds (or click-once installs??) when the key expires.

Web Services

SUSE OES Tomcat Servers [Ararat, Rainier, Shasta]
ChangePassword. No change this reporting period.
ReportOverview. No change this reporting period.
UWQ. Disabled "download data file" button after the user click it once. This eliminated the chance that Tomcat overacts when multiple download work occurs by any chance that the user clicks it for the 2nd or 3rd time. Basically, as long as the Tomcat receives the command that the user wants to download the file, it starts working. If the users clicked the button several times when they were not sure whether the download is working or not (or it just turns to grey after the first click), the data is downloaded only once which will avoid repetitive data downloading and improve the date downloading speed dramatically..
WTR. No change this reporting period.
closeuprequest. No change this reporting period.
depth-services. No change this reporting period.
lims-log. No change this reporting period.
ops. No change this reporting period.
probe. Unchanged.
resteasy-affinesplice-webservices.
Add user authentication mechanism to the Affine and Splice Uploader so that only certain users are able to access this application.
resteasy-desclogik-services. No change this reporting period.
resteasy-drillreport. No change this reporting period.
resteasy-error-reporting. No change this reporting period.
resteasy-lims-sync. No change this reporting period.
resteasy-lims-webservices. Deployed version 4.4.6.5; this contains a couple of new services required by SampleMaster 2.2.6.5, along with new services to retrieve detail information for analyses and components..
resteasy-monitor. No change this reporting period.
resteasy-printer. No change this reporting period.
resteasy-reports.
Fix the problem that water depth doesn't display on Hole Summary Report.
resteasy-reqmgmt. No change this reporting period.
resteasy-role-management. No change this reporting period.
sampling-services. No change this reporting period.
Solaris Tomcat Server
CumulusE. Unchanged.
CumulusWS8.1. Unchanged.
Sites. Unchanged.
hyperic-hq. Unchanged.
labnotebookWebDav. Unchanged.
resteasy-asman. Unchanged at release 2.5.0.1.
resteasy-image-tiling. Unchanged at release 2.0.0.1.

Developer Resources

Desktops
PC51446. No change this reporting period.
Mac51933. No change this reporting period.
Servers
Load Balancer Apache at Solaris. No change this reporting period.
Tomcat 7 Java 7 SUSE Linux OES. No change this reporting period.
BUILD box. No change this reporting period.
Subversion code repositories. No change this reporting period.
Repository replication mechanism. Continues to run reliably.

Data Management
Expedition 342 samples, tests, results are being left by request of Paul Foster so that oncoming developers can test new EOX / BOX scripts.

CHEMISTRY LAB

Mike Bertoli & Erik Moortgat
(as of July 27 11h15, 2012)

Ampulator

The ampulator was not used.

Balances

No problems were encountered with either the Cahn or Mettler balances. The Cahn balance's software did crash at least half a dozen times.

Carver Presses

Replaced washers in top pressure gauges.
Removed the 'safety' sides and stored them under the stairs in the Hold Deck.
Installed a temporary light above the sink. Still need MORE LIGHTING.

Cary Spectrophotometer

The Cary was used to analyze ammonium and phosphate concentrations. Phosphate was measured at the first two sites but after measuring only trace amounts of ammonium it was decided to only measure phosphate in samples that exhibited some amount of ammonium (this did not occur at any of the remaining sites).

CHNS

Troubleshooting the remaining issue from Curacao (high TCD value): the teflon column was baked at 190ºC for three hours. After this was done, the TCD level dropped to a normal 1000µV.
New piston installed.
Due to significant carbon tailing after a certain number of samples were combusted, we tried to limit the number of samples to ~ 140 per combustion column. Pre-packed columns save a lot of time, especially on a busy expedition.
Calibration standard
The Scientists had a difficult time selecting a carbon standard due to the varied TC, TOC concentrations. They originally started with the 1645A Estuarine Sediment (1.65% C) but then switched to the LaLuna Shale (11.52% C). The TC value written on the side of the bottle was used as 'factual' with no know nitrogen concentration.
The sulfur and hydrogen values are being switched during upload to the LIMS, by the uploader. The programmers were notified but nothing has been done as of yet.

Coulometer

The coulometer was heavily used. No issues to report.

Freeze-drier

Pump oil was changed. There are still leaky valves on the top manifold, and for its size the pump takes a long time to come down in pressure.

Gas Lines/manifold

The diaphragm on the Argon regulator (in the pallet stores) blew apart because it was rated for 400psi. Whoever installed those lines also used liquid Teflon on the joints, meaning we had to rip down the entire manifold to do any work on it. Both the Argon and Helium regulators were changed to higher capacity versions, and a blow-off valve was installed in each line.

GC3/NGA

All headspace samples were analyzed on the GC3. No issues were observed with the instrument itself.
All of our headspace gas concentrations were below about 10-20 ppm and unfortunately we ran out of StdA gas so we used StdB as the occasional check standard.
A few times the MUT appeared to not be processing results, for no apparent reason we could determine. Result CSV files were placed back in the queue and the MUT processed without errors.

Hydrogen generators

No issues to report.

IC

Installed new autosampler (AS) switching valves. The sample syringe valve was the broken one but both were replaced anyway.
Finished the remaining AS maintenance items (installed the needle seal assembly, performed the sample needle alignment and inject port volume calibration.
Replaced the guard/separation columns. After one run the anion pump pressure reached a maximum and would not come-down/stabilize. It appears it is due to a 'faulty' separation column. It was a Thermo, and not DIONEX, column. Being sent back to shore.
Changed anion eluent bottle. Change the bottle serial number in Chromeleon's Instrument Configuration Manager application.
About 18% remaining in cation eluent life.

ICP

Upon starting ICP Analyzer, the standard tables were empty, both solid and liquid tables. James (programmer) said to use the version tasapps/icp/test instead of the link from the webpage (tasapps/icp). This one is still a mystery.
Ran out of strontium standard. Two sites of Sr data were collected. The scientists decided to take the Z-Boat out and collect some surface seawater so as to use it as a low-end Sr standard. After "processing" said seawater for several weeks, nothing has come of this; the site samples since then have all been analyzed without Sr.
Why no B/Li in alignment solution methodology? Issues getting lithium calibration on wavelengths previously acquired. Good barium, iron and manganese data.

salinity

The optical refractometer was used, no issues to report.

SRA

The SR Analyzer ran well at the beginning of the cruise, but was not used until Week 6. At this point the scientists though it would be a good idea to begin use of the SRA; when S3 (and therefore the Oxygen Index) produced zero values, we contacted Weatherford. A high CO2 baseline led to the theory that the ship's Lab Air intake was taking in the exhaust from the ship's engines, resulting in the high CO2 signal. We built a CO2 scrubber out of Swagelok, steel gas tubing and some leftover soda lime from X210, attached a 0.2um particle filter, and equipped it to the instrument. SRA now runs fine.

Pipettors

A number of pipettors were calibrated in Bermuda. A new 3mL fixed pipettor is coming out to St. John's.

titrations

alkalinity
The 339.RATS dispensing rate was used the entire Expedition and two new standard ratios had to be determined after measured IAPSO value deviated outside an acceptable limit.
Chloride
Chloride titrations were done on the first couple of sites and then deemed redundant by the Scientists so they solely used the IC data after this.

Water system

Etienne cleaned the brushings of the 'faulty' pump. Going to flog this pump until it dies. The one brought on the supply boat is stored in the drawer as a backup.
Replaced the carbon filter.
The Cold Room water system, despite significant effort during the cruise, will not generate water above ~10MΩ.

Misc

lighting
The requested lighting for above the IW prep area/titrators has yet to be installed.
Shipping equipment

• DIONEX anion eluent bottle, AS switching valves and Thermo separation column
  -new ICP standards, as nearly all standards expired at least one year ago
  
  

  UNDERWAY GEOPHYSICS LAB

  Roy Davis/Erik Moortgat

  Summary

  The magnetometer was deployed on the transit from the transit to the MDHDS test site then to the first site of the Expedition. Bathymetric data was collected on the transits.

  Data Summary

  Expedition 342 consisted of eleven transits (2120.8 nm) and ten sites.
  Transits Bermuda to U1402 (L1T ≈ 552nm)
  U1402 to U1403 (L2T ≈ 947nm)
  U1403 to U1404 (L3T ≈ 4nm)
  U1404 to U1405 (L4T ≈ 8nm)
  U1405 to U1406 (L5T ≈ 15nm)
  U1406 to U1407 (L6T ≈ 119nm)
  U1407 to U1408 (L7T ≈ 1nm)
  U1408 to U1409 (L8T ≈ 26nm)
  U1409 to U1410 (L9T ≈ 3nm)
  U1410 to U1411 (L10T ≈ 19nm)
  U1411 to St Johns (L11T ≈ 390nm
  
  Sites: U1402 A U1407 A/B/C
  U1403 A/B U1408 A/B/C
  U1404 A/B/C U1409 A/B/C
  U1405 A/B/C U1410 A/B/C
  U1406 A/B/C U1411 A/B/C
  
  
  
  
  
  Site fixes were performed at each site/hole.
  Event data points were gathered every sixty seconds when underway and every thirty seconds when on-site.

  Equipment Performance Summary:

  WinFrog

  WinFrog2 was used entirely for primary navigation acquisition. There were no problems encountered. WinFrog1 was available as a backup.
  

  WinFrog Technical Notice: UTC Leap Second

  18 June 2012
  Overview
  At midnight on June 30, 2012 there will be a "Leap Second" (1 second shift) introduced into the UTC time system. Since there is no correlating time shift in the GPS time, this will cause the difference between GPS and UTC time (GPS-UTC) to change from 15 seconds to 16 seconds at that moment.
  Software and Versions Affected
  All WinFrog versions.
  Who Is Affected
  Operators synchronizing WinFrog to an external time source using only those specific devices mentioned below. In this case, the leap second will affect the use of devices that decode and use GPS time and the application of the Kalman Filter for vehicle positioning.
  Detailed Description / Action
  Devices Using GPS Time
  The devices that use GPS time are FUGRO RVM, NOVATEL OEMV3, NOVATEL RS232 and TRIMBLE TSIP. At the time of the leap second, position latency will appear to increase by 1 second. To address this, the GPS UTC time difference setting must be updated. This is done by entering 16 for the Offset at the main menu Configure > GPS UTC Time Difference. Note that this term is saved to and loaded from the initialization and configuration files.
  Application of the Kalman Filter for Vehicle Positioning
  At the time of the leap second, the vehicle's position will appear to jump backwards approximately the distance normally traveled in 1 second. It will take several seconds for the filter to settle again, which can be monitored with the calculated vehicle speed.
  Upgrade
  Not applicable.
  

  Trimble GPS

  The aft/forward Trimble GPSs were the primary GPSs used for the duration of the Expedition. No problems were encountered. A Trimble GPS unit was available as a backup.

  WinFrog

  WinFrog2 was used entirely for primary navigation acquisition. There were no problems encountered. WinFrog1 was available as a backup.

  Bathy 2010

  No problems were encountered during the Expedition.
  

  Data Backups

  data files for the Expedition were copied to:
  \\JR1\Vol1\data1\1.5 Ops Navigation
  \\JR1\Vol1\data1\1.6 Ops Bathymetry - PDR pulse depth recorder
  
  
  

  FANTAIL

  Gus

  Summary

  Bathymetry, magnetometer and navigation were collected while on transit from Bermuda to the Jersey engineering test site and on to the first X-342 site location. Only bathymetry and navigation was collected between site locations and transit to St. Johns.

  Special projects

  None

  Problems encountered

  The magnetometer winch leveler is again experiencing tracking problems. Mechanical adjustments were checked and found to be correct. The problem is thought to be electronic. Tracking can be corrected as needed by using the manual override control.

  Miscellaneous

• G-guns were overhauled by tie up crew in Curacao.
• Routine lubrication on winches leveler and crane was done on transit to St. Johns
• Air manifold dump hose lines were replaced.

IODP Staff

SIEM Crew

Catering Staff

EXPEDITION 342 GROUP PHOTO

EXPEDITION 342 SCIENCE PARTY

EXPEDITION 342 STAFFF