Exp397 ALO Report

by Dan Marone and Beth Novak

Expedition Info

Expedition 397 was a high recovery expedition with APC and XCB coring. XCB core recovery was higher than anticipated, likely due to the use of the PDC bits and PDC cutting shoes as well as the sediment type.  Final recovery was 6176 m of core with 104 percent recovery for the expedition.  We experienced a lot of waiting on weather time and had mechanical issues related to the forward core line winch cable kinking, which reduced the total recovery for the expedition. At 3 of the 4 sites we experienced core expansion due to gas.  At Site U1588, the gas in the cores was causing meters of core to be extruded from the liner before it could reach the catwalk, so the drill crew opted to do XCB half cores to allow for core expansion within the liner without losing material. This method was successful and we consistently recovered over 100 percent on each core.  One core returned with 182 percent recovery.  Due to the extreme gas expansion at U1588, the expedition recovery increased from approximately 95% to 104%.

COVID Protocol

Technical staff arrived to the hotel in Lisbon on October 9th. Hotel quarantine was carried until boarding the JR on the morning of the 13th. During the hotel quarantine everyone received a PCR and antigen which were both negative before boarding. One staff member who arrived on the 10th boarded on the 14th. Tech crossovers were conducted via ZOOM from the hotel. The PCR test on the dock (on the 15th) identified two positive cases, which led to some covid spread on the ship.  Before leaving port, management decided we needed to try and work with covid on the ship, which meant possibly having covid positive people sharing cabins or work spaces with people who were negative if necessary. Any person who was uncomfortable working with covid on the ship was given an option to disembark the ship before leaving port. Covid mitigation ended October 29th.

Shipping

We had emails from the Portugal agent that 4 shipments had issues once they reached the destination countries.  The shipments were originally carried by UPS.  It is unclear as to what the issue was, but 3 of the shipments were returned to Portugal.  The shipments were resent via DHL and made it to the scientists.

The Archive sections are being shipped to 4 locations.  We color coded the boxes when we were boxing the sections to simplify the offloading process.  Portugal shipment is red, GCR shipment is Blue, Cambridge shipment is Silver, and all unpainted boxes are being sent to the BCR.

We experienced issues again with the Kinley Cutter shipping.  Because there is no record of the Kinley cutters coming to the ship, import is an issue.  Shore approved the shipment as long as the items were not sent to IODP and therefore IODP was not the importer of record.

Offgoing:

SURF

• 1 Truck of core to Portugal

• 1 Truck of core to Cambridge

• 1 40ft. container to GCR including core and regular freight returning to College Station.

• 2 containers of core to BCR

FLATS

• 1 Flat with Schlumberger cable drum

RAF

• F397_RAF

• F397_SCHLUM

FAF

• F397FAF_BROO - Germany

• F397FAF_FLOR - Spain

• F397FAF_IKED - Japan

• F397FAF_PERA - France

• F397FAF_VERM - India

• F397FAF_WU - China

• F397FAF_XUAN - U.K.

WC

• F397WC_HEYG

• F397WC_HEYG2

On Coming:

-Chamber for the new freezer dryer in FPREP.  The freeze dryer itself is already in FPREP.

AMS/inventory/storerooms

• Spin mops are in UTSHOP. One was unpacked, other still in box. The extra mop heads are stored in the cabinet with the floor buffer pads.

• All HF (5 liters) were offloaded in Lisbon, Portugal.

• Two pXRF standards were sent to IODP via Tim Bronk at David Houpt's request

• When receiving Property, make sure to go to the property location page in AMS and make sure it appears in the right location.  We have been experiencing issues with the items showing up as in B135 after they have been received. 

• IODPS:  Discontinuing grey long sleeve?  Note that there are duplicates of the store items in the 398 shipment so it will appear you are going to receive double of some items, but Mia confirmed she did not send more than requested.  We have put in a large order for 398P due to the increased number of visitors.

• AMS address page was updated to display mobile phone number field on the shipping paperwork.  We have a request in with Saravanan to update the address page further and change the Phone and mobile fields to Primary Phone and Secondary Phone.

• Found we can buy the top cap/nozzle part of the red wash bottles (acetone bottles) from USPlastics. Added to inventory as LS5506 and 20 should be on order. These will go in the same drawer in UTS but be separately checked out from the whole bottle as we often only need to replace the cap. 

Discussion/important information for upcoming expedition

• Experienced flooding in the splitting room twice from the forward drain line (water backs up through sink drains.  The crew snaked the line twice and found some large rock pieces. We have ordered drain filters/inserts for the sinks and a new sediment trap to be installed along the forward wall.  It is best to also ensure everyone is trying to avoid putting rock cuttings down the drains when possible.  We also had the main splitting room drain flood, bringing water up out of the floor drains.  The crew worked on the lines, and we found a lot of sediment in the pipes.  They informed us the splitting room pipe goes to a 3 inch pipe and then down to a 2 inch pipe.  

• Issues with some computers having IODP launcher installed under ADMIN privileges, the IODP apps could not update or run properly as they were trying to access protected folders.  MUT2 had issues accessing necessary folders and could not upload files.  Some computers still require the use of .\daq as the username for systems to work properly.  The NGR is one of these systems.

Load outs and Sample Locations

• 397 Loadout

• Cold Shipment Locations

Miscellaneous

-Christmas Fire place is in TBULK by red and black end caps

-REQ was made for mesh/steel sink drain inserts for the three counter sinks in the splitting room. This is more of an effort for keeping rock out of the lines as we have recently had issues with both drainage sides of the splitting room clogging down the line(X397 forward drainage, X396 aft drainage).  A sediment trap was ordered to install in the splitting room and should be in the AF to 398.

-Replaced the paleo prep lab eyewash station as the hose was deteriorating.  We ordered a new hose as a spare, but it won't arrive until tie up.  The spare (used but good) eye wash and handle are in the UTS blue cabinet.

-Kevin Greiger completed drawings for the original style core cutter with some slight modifications.  A 3D model was left on board.  We have shipped a broken core cutter back to shore and will be working to have 2 made.

-The chemists replaced a balance in the last few days of the expedition.  It was too close to the end of expedition to ship the balance.  They were waiting on information from shore to determine if we should ship the balance back to IODP.  This may need to be shipped at the end of 398P.

Mountain of dtubes in Tbulk and Cores in the reefer at the end of Exp 397

Open

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