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A Visit to the Gulf Core Repository

While at Texas A&M University for our postcruise editorial meeting [1] with some old friends from the Bengal Fan expedition, I took the opportunity to visit IODP’s Gulf Core Repository.

Cores in the Gulf Core Repository.
Cores in the Gulf Core Repository.

Fortunately, Curatorial Specialist Hannah Kastor, who sailed with us in the Bay of Bengal, was there to show us around the repository. Along with Michael Weber, my bunkmate from the ship, Hannah and I checked out the cold-storage facility that stores ocean drilling cores from the Eastern Pacific and Southern Oceans as well as the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. There are also some surprises mixed in there.

Some of the cores here are from the early days of deep-sea drilling, when the GLOMAR Challenger was the drill ship.
Some of the cores here are from the early days of deep-sea drilling, when the GLOMAR Challenger was the drill ship. These Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) cores used to be in San Diego when I was in grad school, but were moved here a decade or so ago.
Scientists can come here and sample cores (you need to submit a sample request and have that request approved first), or you can have IODP staff collect samples and send them to you (again, sample request required).
Scientists can come here and sample cores (you need to submit a sample request and have that request approved first), or you can have IODP staff collect samples and send them to you (again, sample request required).
Cores are kept in refrigerated rooms to keep them from drying out.
Cores are kept in refrigerated rooms to keep them from drying out.
An x-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanner, which allows scientists to measure variations in the chemistry of rocks or sediments within a core.
An x-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanner, which allows scientists to measure variations in the chemistry of rocks or sediments within a core. You put the core in the machine, and zzzzzzzzzip! in a little while you get hundreds of measurements of chemical composition, all along the core’s length. It’s not as accurate as other methods for geochemical analysis, but it allows us to measure a lot of material quickly.
Here's a surprise: not all of the cores at the repository are marine!
Here’s a surprise: not all of the cores at the repository are marine! This is a core from the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD), a deep borehole through the San Andreas Fault that was later fitted with instruments to measure deformation and seismic activity. This is the section that cored through the main San Andreas Fault itself, Hannah thinks.
A core through some corals.
A core through some corals.
Gabbro - part of the lower ocean crust.
Gabbro – part of the lower ocean crust. I believe this is from Ocean Drilling Program Leg 206.
Here is the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (K-Pg, or "K-T" in the old nomenclature), where the dinosaurs - as well as countless marine creatures - went extinct. I'm not sure which core this is from, but the dark deposit is found in just about all K-Pg marine sediments.
Here is the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (K-Pg, or “K-T” in the old nomenclature), where the dinosaurs – as well as countless marine creatures – went extinct. I’m not sure which core this is from, but the dark deposit is found in just about all K-Pg marine sediments.
Here's Hannah with the K-Pg boundary core, so you can get an idea how small the dark layer is.
Here’s Hannah with the K-Pg boundary core, so you can get an idea how small the dark layer is.
Drilling doesn't always go so well: here's a drill pipe that had to be blown up with TNT because it was stuck in the seafloor!
Drilling doesn’t always go so well: here’s a drill pipe that had to be blown up with TNT because it was stuck in the seafloor! Fortunately, we never had to do this.
A cutaway view of the coring assembly, including the bit with rotary cones and fluid vents, the core catcher, and an advanced piston core (APC) cutting shoe.
A cutaway view of the coring assembly, including the bit with rotary cones and fluid vents, the core catcher, and an advanced piston core (APC) cutting shoe.

[1] Although we spent many hours writing and editing our reports on the ship, we were under a lot of time pressure on the cruise. Fast writing isn’t necessarily good writing. So, typically, a subset of the scientists from a drilling expedition gets together after the expedition to edit the reports. We had the benefit of shorter shifts (not 12 hours! Yay!), good communication with the outside world, fast internet access, and an publications staff including editors and illustrators. Soon after we’re done, we should have a document that looks like this example from a previous expedition. It won’t be published for a year due to the post-cruise moratorium – we get a year’s head start on publications from our work – but you can read a summary here.

The editing session is also a bit of a reunion. It was great seeing friends from the ship again!

 

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