Beth Novak and Dan Marone

Expedition Info

Staff and scientists embarked for Exp 395 in Ponta Delgada (Portugal) on June 13th and disembarked on August 13th,2023.  When staff boarded a cleaning crew was on board to clean the labs and test for asbestos.  The core lab and chemistry lab were closed for the first 2 and half days.  Once the results for asbestos returned as negative we were able to return to the labs and begin reinstalling computers and testing the instruments. The expedition consisted of fast paced sediment coring in the first weeks followed by RCB coring of sediments and basement.  We recovered 3825.76m of core, which is a total of 87% recovery.  An Icelandic Coast Guard vessel delivered the severing charges, end caps, saw blades, and a thin section billet at our return to site U1564.    

COVID Protocol

Reduced COPE protocol was enacted for Exp 395.   There was no hotel quarantine prior to the expedition. The COPE period was five days of testing and masking on board.  In person crossover was conducted with all persons in masks.

Shipping

CORE REEFER

• 2 Reefers to GCR with the Archive half sections

  • Archive halves from U1602 were marked with blue spray paint.  These boxes should be kept on separate pallets as they will be forwarded to Scripps after arriving in College Station.  

  • Shipment also includes the surface freight returning to College Station (MTT tools, MFTM, PICAT, Cahn balance, gas bottles, etc.)

• 2 Reefers to BCR with the Working half sections and sample residues

FAF

• 11 total DHL shipments to non-USA destinations

RAF

• 1 K-box of Misc. items returning to IODP and U.S. based scientists samples.

EXPRESS

• One p-box to go back to College Station with FLIR camera and platinum crucibles.

3rd Party Equipment 

• Quemeneur-  3rd party pressure chambers in black pelican case and table to be picked up in Reykjavik (table in upper tween and black pelican case in reefer)  Pick up scheduled for August 14th.

SCHLUMBERGER (AF)

• UBI tools (wooden crate)

World Courier 

Due to transport issues with dry ice to Ponta Delgada and availability of dry ice, some of the frozen 399 samples had to remain on board for expedition 395.  These included the samples for Robare and Wang.  The Brazelton samples were held back to be shipped with the Lindsay samples post exp 395.

LIND -USA: 5 x GDI 80L Frozen FDECK

BRAZ  - USA:  5 x GDI 80L Frozen TBULK (send to LINDSAY at END OF EXP395)

ROBA - USA:  4 x GDI 80L Frozen TBULK

WANG - CHINA: 5 x GDI 80L Frozen TBULK

DODD- USA: 1 x GTC 56L Refrigerated FCL

ROSE- USA: 1 x GTC 56L Refrigerated FCL

HEMM-USA: 1 x GTC 56L Refrigerated FCL

Shore Purchase in Reykjavik :

• 4 Lighters for the chemistry lab were requested.  The agent will procure them and deliver to the ship.

Inventory

• We were low on blue and grey end caps.  We started using reusable caps for the end of the core liner to help preserve the grey end caps.  There is one reusable end cap, pictured below.  The second one broke during the last day of coring.  They were cleaned after each core and given back to the drill floor crew.  We had 2 boxes of blue end caps and 2 boxes of grey sent to Reykjavik and delivered via the Icelandic coast guard vessel.  The reusable cap is in the splitting room catwalk drawer.

Open

Open

• Super saw blade inventory was incorrect.  We ordered blades from the Iceland agent as the typical blades we use were back ordered.  The blades were delivered by the Icelandic Coast Guard vessel Thor.  The blade from Cape Town (blue blade) worked well and held up for a long time during RCB coring.

• We were out of many of the glass vials typically used in the lab. LS0361 vials were used but did not have dividers in the box, so we hand made dividers.

• We had a lot of shattered liner early in the expedition due to the gas and core expansion.  This was while we used the black lined liners.  The breakage was predominately in spiderweb type cracks, which resulted in us using significant amounts of liner patch.

• New ethafoam rods were ordered and sent to 395.  The foam is less dense (more porous) and was difficult to write on legibly. 

IODP Store

• Received more damaged blue mugs.  Marcia Walker and Stacey Vogelpohl indicated we should send the damaged mugs home.  5 mugs were removed from inventory and sent back in the 395 shipment

• Reorganized the Medium fleece to sort the Men's from the Women's.  The best way to tell them apart is by the curved stitching on the back (women's) vs the straight stitching (men's).

Software related Issues

• All IODP launcher applications were updated mid-expedition in an effort to fix an issue with the Cahn balance and Columeter software.  After this change was made, we encountered many on going issues with MegaUploadaTron.   The issues were still persisting at the end of the expedition.

  • Issues with MUT were occurring on the tracks in the core lab.  Main issues were:

    • 1)MUT not seeing some files even thought they were in the IN file (WRMSL/STMSL tracks)

      • Resolution was to close and reopen MUT.  The files would then be 'seen' by MUT and upload.

    • 2)MUT sending files to ERROR folder even though there was no error (SHMSL/SHIL)

      • Resolution was to move the files back into the IN folder from the ERROR folder until MUT would properly upload the files, often taking multiple tries. This would result in having to cancel blank lines in LORE from the failed uploads. 

    • 3)360 images not uploading correctly.  The TIF image would show up as only the overlay in LIMS and the jpg/trim.jpg were mislabeled or non-existent 

      • To reduce issues with the 360 image uploads, MUT was taken out of automatic upload until all four quadrant images were taken and then the files could upload normally.  

• Data1 space was an issue at the end of the expedition.  The data back ups resulted in the server going down multiple times in an 8 hour period causing issues with the data back ups and report writing for the scientists.  Data1 needs to be increased if we are going to continue to put Xscan images on the server.

• Catwalk entry was sluggish when entering section lengths.  Piece entry was exceptionally slow.  

General Notes:

• The core entry printer feeding mechanism lost teeth on the feed belt and was no longer feeding the labels properly.  The printer was replaced with a spare.  There is one more new spare in LTIT.

• Core liners switched from black lines to blue lines.  The lines on the blue liners are not at 90 degree angles.  One of the working lines is directly on the 90 degree, instead of being centered around the 90 degree.  Staff need to be careful when labeling and splitting and not rely on the working half lines as their reference.

• Frame for enclosing the splitting table was kept together and is stored in UTBULK above the core boxes and cage supplies.  Save for Exp 402.

• If the blue mats are removed from the lab, please store them neatly in upper tween.  And ensure they are labeled and taken apart in a way that they can be easily reassembled.  Scientists and technical staff requested to have the mats in core description.

• On the 11th of August we noticed the Rad Van air conditioner (starboard side) had frozen up.  There was thick ice on the entire side of the unit.  The unit was turned off and we set up a plastic sheet to catch and drain the water.  This AC unit will need a service if we plan to use it in the future.

Load Outs