It is very busy everywhere on the ship. Drilling is continuing. The scientists and Laboratory specialists are getting their labs ready for sample processing and data analyses. I found time to look around the ship and found the hospital.

Here is a partial update for today given by Adam Klaus:

The installation of the reentry cone and 20-inch casing went well. While deploying the camera/sonar system, the winch had a couple of problems, but they were fixed and the final jetting-in of the cone and release of the casing running tool went well. Once the bottom-hole assembly (BHA - consists of bit, bit sub, and drill collars) was on deck, we started assembling the 18.5-inch pilot bit and underreamer (U-R). I think most everyone saw the testing of the U-R (water show in the moonpool area). This test was to ensure proper functioning of the U-R arms. The U-R BHA was lowered to the seafloor, the camera/sonar deployed, and at ~1430 we quickly reentered Hole 301-1301A. (They made it look very easy!). We'll lower the pilot bit and U-R until it's just below the bottom of the 20-inch casing (~39 mbsf) and then start pumping seawater (to open the U-R arms) and rotating the drill string (to cut the formation). This will open the hole below the 20-inch casing to ~21 inches. We'll continue drilling down until the sediments get too hard or we hit basaltic basement. The U-R is not designed for hard formations, so at that point we'll trip the pipe to replace the U-R with the bicenter bit. The entire opening of the hole (with both U-R and bicenter bit) is estimated to take ~3 days.

Godofredo (Jeffrey) Hernandez of the Philippines is the shipboard physician for the JOIDES Resolution. The ship has a small hospital with three beds and plenty of modern emergency equipment. According to Jeffrey, he rarely has to deal with anything more severe than seasickness or minor cuts and bruises. However, he has the equipment to deal with more severe problems such as heart attacks.

Dr. Hernandez shows his wares.

Keir Becker, CORK Hydrologist, gives his morning presentation on the CORKs and packers that will be used on Expedition 301. Each morning at 0900 a different scientist presents his research goals and the rationale supporting it. This will continue until we start receiving core. Personally, I look forward to this time of day because it gives me a chance to find out what “cutting edge” research is being done in many different science areas such as hydrogeology, geochemistry, microbiology, etc.

RUN FOR COVER!!! This was COOL. We were getting ready to send down the underreamer drill bit so it had to be tested. The bit is designed to drill a hole that is larger than the casing that it goes through. Yesterday, we laid 20-inch diameter casing to keep the hole from collapsing during all the different drilling operations that are planned for this hole. The under reamer will go down the hole and drill a 21- to 22-inch hole below the 20 inch pipe. The bit arms are raised during drilling by the pressure of sea water that is pumped into the pipe from the surface. The next photo shows a nice close up of the bit.

Underreamer bit arms extend due to pressure from water pumped from the surface. This bit will drill a 22-inch hole below the 20-inch casing.

Marine Chemistry Laboratory Specialist Dennis Graham (USA) shows how an HP 6890 Gas Chromatograph works. Dennis and Bob Wheatley (see next photo) gave me an extensive tour of the JOIDES Resolution’s chemistry lab. In the next few days I will be writing a lab brief for teachers and students to visit or download. The brief will describe what type of data is collected in this lab, what machines/techniques are used, and some examples of research that are done using the data.

This small lab has the ability to test core samples for a wide variety of elements. Some of the machines in the chemistry lab include an ion chromatograph, spectrometer, organic sampler, ICP elemental analyzer, gas chromatograph, coulometer, salinity indicator, and hydrocarbon analyzers. The geochemists on board should be able to get all the data that they need.

Marine Laboratory Specialist Robert (Bob) Wheatley (USA) flushes the chemistry water purification system. This system takes fresh water from the ship’s supply and further purifies so that it can be used in testing borehole water samples for trace elements.

REENTRY… There are televisions set up all over the ship that broadcast drilling operations. Here is a view from a subsea camera showing the underreamer about to be lowered into the reentry cone. It is amazing that this is happening over 2655 meters (7300 feet) below sea level.