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Expedition 301
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Journal
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6 July 2004
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RECREATION and DRILLING PROBLEMS
There is more time for relaxation as the scientists and technicians near completion of their laboratory preparations. I took a tour of the ship and found that there are many things to entertain the shipboard party.
To date, the drilling has gone well. However, there seems to be some problem getting it ready to put in the 10-3/4-inch casing; it cannot be lowered the last 2 meters into the hole. The drillers have been “washing” the hole all day trying to free the blockage from the hole. This casing must be put in to make this our deep hole with core samples. If we can’t put it in, the hole will be made into a shallow CORK hole, and we will move to another location to attempt a deep hole.
Here is a partial update for today given by Expedition Project Manager/IODP-USIO Staff Scientist Adam Klaus (USA):
“After having finally cleaned up such challenging hole conditions, we assembled the 10-3/4-inch casing and lowered it into the hole. During the reentry, there was sediment ponded up around the cone up to the top of it - all you could see was an octagon shape and part of the Hole 1301A written inside the cone. The casing was lowered to the base of the 16-inch casing where the top drive was hooked up so we could pump in seawater to help it get down to the bottom of the hole. It went very well until ~3 m from latching in. Just before lowering it the final few meters, we had to attach the cementing manifold to the top of the drill pipe, because immediately after latching we were going to pump cement. When we tried to lower it the last few meters, we could not move the casing down. We have been trying to work the casing up and down as well as pumping seawater at high rates (I suspect with some mud potentially too) since before dinner (over 3-4 hrs). If we can't advance the casing the last three meters, we have only one choice and that is to retrieve the entire casing string. Once back on board, there are a couple of options depending on what the drillers feel is the problem. We could use an underreamer/mud motor through the casing to drill it in. Alternatively, we could remove a small amount of casing and try to wash it in again. At this point, I'm not sure what the decision will be. We'll let you know as soon as we hear from the drillers. In any case, core on deck will likely be delayed.”
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 SUNBATHING ON DECK. The weather is perfect for sunbathing—Northern Pacific style. Undergraduate Student Trainee Lisa Hawkins (USA) reads a book, listens to some tunes, and protects herself from the cold as she takes in the rays.
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 MUSICAL DUO. Expedition Project Manager/IODP-USIO Staff Scientist Adam Klaus (USA) and Marine Under Way Specialist Lisa Crowder (USA) play the guitar. Great music!
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 STAYING FIT. The gym is small and loud, but very popular especially after a long day of work. Marine Laboratory Specialist Bob Wheat (USA), Igneous and Metamorphic Petrologist Masumi Sakaguchi (Japan), and Physical Properties Specialist Mike Hutnak (USA) burn off the pounds on the many different exercise machines.
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 SOUVENIR. Igneous and Metamorphic Petrologist Rosalind Coggon (United Kingdom) prepares a styrofoam cup that will be sent down to the bottom of the Pacific on one of the camera runs. The immense pressure from the water column will compress the cup.
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 MOVIES. The crowd has gathered for a special presentation called “Hydrothermal Activity and the Earth System, a Video Report of the Ridge Flux Project.” This project covered the Southern East Pacific Rise, Manus Basin and the “TAG site” on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The scientists were especially interested in this film because on this IODP Expedition we are studying the hydrothermal flux on the flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, a seafloor spreading center.
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 REQUESTING CORE SAMPLES. Some of the most difficult meetings concern the distribution of samples. The cores that come up from below the seafloor are very small and almost all of the scientists on the expedition need to take pieces of the rock for the research that they will conduct over the next few years. This meeting was to determine the hard rock sample distribution plan among the scientists. They decided how big the samples would be and where they would be taken from. Fortunately, several of the groups of scientists have been collaborating and it is expected that there will be enough core material to meet everyone’s needs.
Pictured here (counterclockwise from the upper right) are Igneous and Metamorphic Petrologist Rosalind Coggon (United Kingdom), Expedition Co-Chief Scientist Andy Fisher (USA), Logging Scientist Anne Bartetzko (Germany), Organic Geochemist Marion Dumont (Sweeden), Microbiologist Fumio Inagaki (Japan), Paleomagnetist Will Sager (USA), Microbiologist Mark Lever (USA), Expedition Co-Chief Scientist Tetsuro Urabe (Japan), Expedition Project Manager/IODP-USIO Staff Scientist Adam Klaus (USA), Physical Properties Specialist Mark Nielson (USA), Organic Geochemist Verena Heuer (Germany), Marine Laboratory Specialist Paula Weiss (USA), Igneous and Metamorphic Petrologist Masumi Sakaguchi (Japan), and Inorganic Geochemist Takuroh Noguchi (Japan).
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 MARK’S TEST. Microbiologist Mark Lever (USA) is testing standards in the gas chromatograph in the microbiology lab. He is testing the sensitivity of the machine to PFT, a PerFluorocarbon tracer that will be introduced into the well when drilling the core samples later this week.
PFT is circulated in a hole during drilling so that scientists can assess whether or not drilling mud has contaminated the core samples. When a sample is taken from the core, its outer surface is contaminated because it was in direct contact with circulating drilling fluids (mostly seawater from the ocean). When the sample is broken open, a piece of rock will be taken from the fresh surface and analyzed for PFT. If PFT is present, it suggests that the drilling fluid was forced inside of the sample, indicating that it might be contaminated with bacteria that was not living in the rock.
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 CLEANING THE HOLE. The drillers are cleaning the hole in preparation for the 10 3/4-inch casing which will be placed in the hole to keep it stable while the coring is done.
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 10 3/4-inch CASING. The drillers are assembling the 10 3/4-inch casing. Once it was assembled, it was attached to the drilling string and lowered into the hole. It was successfully placed in the hole. Unfortunately, the casing would not go all the way into the hole. It came up about 3 meters short. We spent the rest of the day washing the hole and trying to get it to go the final 3 meters in. No luck so far. We will have to see what tomorrow brings. The operations people believe the rubble zone that we drilled through very rapidly two days ago was not stable. As a result, some rock probably collapsed into the hole partially blocking it.
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