Technician: Kara Vadman

Summary:

• 3 Sedimentologists, 5 Petrologists, and 3 Micropaleontologists (1 planktic foraminifera, 2 nannofossil) onboard. 1 shore-based benthic foraminifera specialist.
• Joint expedition with Exp 390: same templates were used by Exp 393 core describers, with modifications approved by the co-chiefs and EPM.
• Thin Section Report Builder and Writer were used for all shipboard thin sections (81 total).
• Scientists used the SEM occasionally, with no issues. The sputter coater was not used.

Petrologists: Elmar Albers, Thomas Belgrano, Aled Evans, Michelle Harris, Mallika Jonnalagadda

Sedimentologists: Paul Moal-Darrigade, Stephen Pekar, Alina Shchepetkina

Micropaleontologists: Daisuke Kuwano (nannofossil), Marcin Latas (planktic foraminifera), Nobuhiro Doi (nannofossil)

System Status:

DescLogik

The current version is 16.2.0.0.

• Scientists described using Exp 393 templates and under the 393 project in DescLogik for all cores.
• Cores from Exp 390C (U1558A) and Exp 395E (U1560A) were taken out during the 8 day transit and described, along with corresponding smear slides and thin sections.
• The goal of Exp 393 templates was to retain the same format from joint Exp 390. Early in the expedition, the petrology team agreed on changes to the 390 templates to streamline their core description workflow and the specialties in their description capabilities. They identified areas in the templates where duplication in description was present from the prior expedition and removed where there was duplication. They also relocated where certain descriptions occurred within tabs. The Co-chief scientists and EPM agreed on changes. Similar adjustments were made to the microscopic template to be consistent with the macroscopic template. Scientists recorded template adjustments in their methods documents.
• Sedimentologists requested only one template change, which was to separate the bioturbation columns onto a dedicated tab, then add a columns for ichnofossil species for the specialist onboard.
• Macroscopic tabs: drilling_disturbance, sediment, bioturbation, extrusive_hypabyssal, glass, alteration, veins_halos_fills, vesicles_other_fills, breccias, section_unit_summary, core_summary, hole_summary
• Microscopic tabs: thin_section, sediment_ts, smear_slide, extrusive_hypabyssal, alteration, veins_halos_fills, vesicles_other_fills, structures

Issues:

• An error seen on previous expeditions (most recently Exp 391, Error 2 in tech report) occurred again beginning on 23 June and reported to developer. Occurred in the macroscopic template on the veins_halos_fills tab (see screen capture below). Link to the error box text: DescLogik error message 07082022.docx
• The error would repeatedly pop up until the worksheet was cleared and sample description re-started. Another temporary fix was to re-load the macroscopic template.
• Eventually, scientists noticed that the error appeared when they entered data on the 101^st line of the spreadsheet. To avoid this, do not record past the 100^th line on a sheet.

LIVE

• One 393_DESC template was created with columns: sample type, LSIMG, principal lithology, and physical properties.

Smear Slide Atlas

• Checked out by Sedimentologists, and returned to locked Microscope Lab cabinet (3D-4).
• During Week 1, sedimentologists requested printed paper copies of the Smear Slide Atlas Part I and II. Two binders are labeled, which are now available to future users to accompany the slide boxes.
• Part I of the Smear Slide Atlas (“Siliciclastic and volcanic components”) is on Confluence, but Part 2 (“Biogenic components”) was not a live link. I updated Confluence with the link to the Part 2 file. All the atlas files are also saved on in “ALL things DESCLOGIK” folder on IODP_Share.

Thin Section Report Builder and Writer

• Thin Section Reports were created for all thin sections described in DescLogik during Exp 393 (TS109-TS189, 81 in total).
• The Thin Section Reports were adjusted according to the Exp 393 information recorded in DescLogik. Two new Thin Section Report Builder templates called 393_HARDROCK_REPORTS and 393_SEDIMENT_REPORTS were created.
• Compared to joint Exp 390, I adjusted the Exp 393 report format to be more succinct so that the block title doesn’t repeat for additional domains.

SEM

• Used by micropaleontologists without reported issues. Sputter coater was not used.

Paleontology Wet Lab

• Used by the three micropaleontologists for nannofossil and foraminifera sample processing and slide making.

Microscope Lab

• See Imaging Specialist report. Nannofossil photomicrographs are saved to LIMS and data1/Uservol 10.1 Core description and 12.1 Micropaleontology within a folder called "Nannofossil Microscopy Images." 

Data Backup:

• All DESClogik data was exported to Excel and saved on a hole-by-hole and template-by-template basis to data1/10.1 Core description, and copied to Uservol.
• All current value lists (main and sub), were copied from "All things DESC" on IODP Share to data1/10.1 Core description.
• DESC data was backed up at the official "End of Expedition" at close of data submission Aug 4^th 1800hr.
• Photomicrographs and SEM files were uploaded to LIMS, and SEM txt and TIF files are saved to data1/25.1 SEM.