Expedition 403 ALO Tech Report

Owned by jr_novak
Last updated: Jul 30, 2024
5 min read

Expedition Info

Staff and scientists embarked for Exp. 403 from Amsterdam June 4th and returned August 2nd, 2024. Sediments cored were predominately gassy mud with drop stones with a total recovery of 5343 m.  We encountered a lot of core expansion due to methane gas at most sites.  At the northern sites, we encountered C1/C2 ratios in the anomalous zone, which resulted in us ending holes, waiting on guidance from the EPSP, and waiting on headspace data prior to proceeding with coring. The gas in some locations was determined to be of a biogenic nature rather than thermogenic.  The high hydrocarbons were not often present, but we did encounter them in some sites.  This meant that hole safety was not a concern and we could not base decisions on C1/C2 ratio. Methane values were often high and we experienced issues with exploding core liners, and liners shattering. Kevlar blankets were used on multiple holes while carrying core and while the core was being pulled from the barrel on the drill floor. We also encountered liners jamming in the barrel, requiring hours of work to pump the core out of the barrel, many times needing to be heated with blow torches to get them out. Some of this may have been due to the quality of the liner itself. We completed ancient DNA sampling on the catwalk and the splitting room, which is covered more in the Chemistry report.  

COVID Protocol

Reduced COPE protocol was enacted for Exp 403. There was no hotel quarantine prior to the expedition and no mandatory masking period.  Two covid cases were detected and isolated on board and one scientist departed prior to sailing. 

Shipping

CORE REEFERS

  • F403_GCR1 and F403_GCR2- 2 Reefers to GCR with 416 boxes of archive half sections and Misc. items returning to College Station. 

    • Empty rented MBIO gas bottle in crate 

    • Spare dtubes (3 pallets)

    • Play core returning for use on shore

  • F403_BCR1 and F403_BCR2 Reefers to BCR with 416 boxes of working half sections and 23 boxes of sample residues.  One box is actually samples for DESC that need to remain refrigerated and will be held at the BCR for later pick up.

FAF

  • 10 total DHL sample shipments to non-USA destinations

  • One shipment (BARC) must be held until last August due to university closure.

RAF 

  • 7 US scientists with samples in this shipment

Staff P-boxes

  • Staff not returning to the JR were given 1 box to ship safety gear.  These boxes have been gathered and are to be shipped from demob when space is available.

3rd Party Equipment 

  • Return shipment for Yuhi Sakai to Japan.

    • This is a return shipment that Yuhi is organizing.  It is one pallet of items and is staged on the bridge deck inside by the elevator

  • Shipment for Stijn DeSchepper

    • Shipment organized by Stijin.  One silver box, staged on the bridge deck inside by the elevator

World Courier 

DUXB -Australia: 2 x GDI 80L Frozen, -20 Freezer HRS -This shipment requires special permit papers be attached and placed within the box.

DESC- Norway: 2 x GDI 80L Frozen,  -20 Freezer HRS

HAYG- USA: 2x GDI 80L Frozen -86 Freezer FDECK

BARC-Spain: 1x GDI 15L Frozen, -20 Freezer HRS  (shipment does not leave until late August due to University closure)

IIZU- Japan: 1x GTC 12L Refrigerated  HRS shelves

SAKA- Japan: 1xGTC 56L Refrigerated HRS shelves

GONZ- United Kingdom: 1x GTC 12L Refrigerated HRS Shelves

Inventory

Shopping list was not generated and no supplies ordered except for those specific for demob.

IODP Store

Behavior has changed with the credit card machine. It now accepts tap to pay, and no longer displays the name of the card holder on the printed receipt.

Sold out of a few items. Nothing is being sent from shore to restock for demob.

General Notes:

 

  • We had issues with core liners breaking in the lab.  Some sections with extender caps had their core liner break just beyond the extender caps, meaning the extender and core would fall off.  This appeared to be due to the cap catching on the core rack, but we are unsure why the core liner broke off rather than the extender caps themselves.  The liner shattered easily when using the hack saw as well.  

  • May have been a bad batch of liners as they were breaking (long spiral shards) and sticking in the core barrel.  At site U1621 and U1622 there were instances of it taking hours to pump the core out of the barrel.  In multiple cases the barrel was taken to the core tech shop and worked on while coring continued.  The rest of the core was brought into the lab and held until it could be properly entered.

Examples of the liner breaking beyond the extender caps

Core liner after being extracted from barrel with pumping and heating core barrel

  • We may have had an old batch of Dtubes, but encountered some poor quality dtubes again.  We had many dtubes stuck together in the boxes, some instances the entire box of 25 were stuck together.  We had to throw away dtubes because when they were pulled apart, holes would be ripped in the dtubes or they would have large chunks of plastic stuck to them, making them unusable.  The front edges of the dtubes were sometimes rough and extra sharp like we have seen in the past.  If we were to need to buy more dtubes, we should ensure quality control.

 

Ancient DNA procedures:

  • Ran Tracer pumps on multiple holes (APC, XCB) for MBIO Ancient DNA work.

  • Sampling on catwalk was done with the help of 3 'clean techs' in masks, hair nets, double gloves, and lab coats, plus the scientist taking the samples.  All other technicians left the catwalk during sampling.  This was low resolution sampling of only 1 sample per core.  Samples were taken in APC and XCB core.

  • Splitting room sampling was done at higher resolution on a separate hole than the catwalk sampling. Four total people were in the splitting room for these sampling sessions in  Tyvek suits, masks, and double gloves.  Two technicians assisted with splitting using the wire and the saw, depending on the core.  A third person was available to hand items to the scientist taking samples.

  • Core flow was interrupted by the splitting room sampling for multiple reasons.  1)Cores needed to run through WRMSL, STMSL, and NGR, but without the GRA on, 2) The cores of interest needed to be run in the NGR out of order to ensure sampling could happen as soon as the WRMSL measurements were completed, 3) the splitting room was closed for long periods before and during sampling to properly clean the room and complete sampling.

Refer to the MBIO section of the Chemistry Report for a write up on the basic procedures used.

 

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