Teachers

Alan Gelatt (Exp. 309)
Jon Rice (Exp. 301)

Expedition 301

Cruise Objectives
Scientific Prospectus

Journal

Week 8: Aug 12 - Aug 20
Week 7: Aug 05 - Aug 11
Week 6: July 29 - Aug 04
Week 5: July 22 - July 28
Week 4: July 15 - July 21
Week 3: July 07 - July 14
Week 2: July 02 - July 06
Week 1: June 25 - July 01

31 July 2004
LAST DAY OF BASEMENT CORING, GALLEY: BEHIND THE SCENES, and “BLUE MOON”
Today is the last day of coring basement basalts at Hole 1301B. There was a lot of interest in getting samples from the last core. Next we will be pulling the bit out of the hole and then the loggers will send a series of logging tools down to measure the physical properties of the rocks. We still have sediment coring on our operations schedule for next week some time.

I have been interested in how many supplies the Catermar staff have to bring aboard the ship to feed 110 people for two months. Today, Rui Felix, Camp Boss, (Portugal), gave me a tour of the food pantries, the coolers, and the freezer. I have included a few of the highlights in today’s entry.

Here is a partial update for today given by Adam Klaus, Expedition Project Manager/IODP-USIO Staff Scientist (USA):
The Good News: Core recovery improved over the last few cores. Cores 1301B-32R to -34R recovered 7.17 m (52%; 550 to 563.6 mbsf; 284.84 to 298.44 m below basement).

What's the Plan? We will be meeting with Mike again today to review our plan and determine how much longer/deeper to core. We have so many important operations left to accomplish and there are uncertainties with all of them. The big question is how much time to allocate to the various activities to ensure we have enough cushion to have some problems and still get it all done.

Local News: The Coast Guard received a distress call from a sailing boat taking on water ~30 nmi west of us. The CG is in contact with boat. Currently pumps on the sailing vessel are keeping up with inflow of water. CG contacted the JOIDES Resolution in case we may be required to assist. If required, we may need to provide helo landing/fuel or even other assistance. The CG has been informed of our constraints in case we were needed (e.g., time to pull pipe).

Latest - We have just been notified that the CG is sending an airplane out to airdrop a bilge pump to the boat! Makes one very happy to be on a big safe ship with lots of very capable people onboard who can fix just about anything, eh?!!

Countdown to Astoria: 20 days.
Today is the last day of hard rock (basement basalt) drilling during IODP Expedition 301. After today, we will be logging Hole 1301B and then will resume the installation of the subseafloor observatories. The core in this picture is one of the last cores; I had a very difficult time getting to the last core (as you will see in the next picture) because everyone wanted a sample from the last core.

Shown from left to right are: Adam Klaus, Expedition Project Manager/IODP-USIO Staff Scientist (USA); Steve Prinz, Marine Laboratory Specialist (USA); Paula Weiss, Marine Laboratory Specialist and Curator (USA); and Takamitsu Sugihara, Marine Laboratory Specialist (Japan).
LAST BASEMENT CORE. The marine laboratory specialists are preparing the final core, CORE 301-1301B-36R. This means it is a core taken with the rotary core barrel coring system (R), it’s the 36th core, it came from the second (B) hole at Site 1301, during Expedition 301! This may seem a complex way to identify cores (samples get even more numbers to identify them!), but over 30 years of ocean drilling has produced lots of cores and scientists need to be able to keep track of every one. This is the largest turnout of scientists since the first day of coring! Everyone wants a piece of this core if they can get it.

Shown leaning over the core to the left (from front to back) are: Eric Jackson, Marine Laboratory Specialist (USA); Dennis Graham, Marine Laboratory Specialist (USA); Trevor Cobine, Marine Laboratory Specialist (Australia); and Paula Weiss, Marine Laboratory Specialist and Curator (USA). Surrounding the core counterclockwise from the door in the foreground are: Wayne Malone, Offshore Installation Manager (USA); and Rosalind (Roz) Coggon, Igneous and Metamorphic Petrologist (UK); Masumi Sakaguchi, Igneous and Metamorphic Petrologist (Japan); Mark Lever, Microbiologist (USA); Bert Engelen, Microbiologist (Germany); Verena Heuer, Organic Geochemist (Germany); Tetsuro Urabe, Microbiologist (Japan); Richard Dixon (behind Tetsuro), Operations Engineer (USA); Geoff Wheat, CORK Geochemist (USA); Mike Storms, Operations Manager (USA); Bjoern Steinsbu, Microbiologist (Norway); and Derryl Schroeder, Operations Engineer (USA).
Mark Nielson, Physical Properties Specialist (UK), and Rosalind (Roz) Coggon, Igneous and Metamorphic Petrologist (UK), inspect a core for a microbiology sample.
It is still too cold out to have a barbeque. However, this hasn’t stopped Rui Felix, Camp Boss (Portugal), from making us some creative meals from the outdoor grill. Here he is smoking a turkey that we will have in a couple of days.
PANTRY. Rui Felix, Camp Boss (Portugal), took time out of his busy schedule to give me a tour of the ship’s pantries, coolers, and freezer. Here we are in one of the pantries. The blue cans on the top shelf are coffee. We must go through a huge amount of coffee; these cans will all be used up by the end of our cruise - only 2 1/2 more weeks! When I saw all the food, I figured that he must order for more than one expedition. He said that he only orders an extra week’s worth of food to be used in the event that we are delayed. Otherwise, this will all be eaten. Felix said that they are very careful to check and honor all of the expiration dates on the food. That must be a challenge with the tremendous volume of food that his staff deals with. His good planning means that we are eating very well and very little will go to waste.
EGGS BY THE DOZEN… There are over 100 people on the ship and we consume a lot of food. Felix tells me that he ordered 840 dozen eggs—OVER 10,000!!!—And they will all be consumed during our 2 month trip.
FROZEN VEGGIES. We had a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables when the trip started, but as we near the end of our trip, they are just about gone. However, good planning by Felix has ensured that we will still have our vegetables; he ordered 1,500 lbs (680 kg) of frozen veggies for this trip. I also found out that he ordered another 1,400 lbs (635 kg) of french fries. This is only the frozen stock. When we started, we had 10,000 lbs (4,500 kg) of fresh produce, including fruits, vegetables, potatoes, and onions!!!
This is one of two freezers that are dedicated for the frozen foods. Rui Felix, Camp Boss (Portugal), is showing much of the frozen meats that we have left. For our cruise, Felix ordered 1,500 lbs (680 kg) of fish and 7,500 lbs (3,400 kg) of other types of meat.
“BLUE MOON.” For those of you who have always heard the expression “once in a blue moon,” we had one tonight. A blue moon is the second full moon in the same month. This happens about once every three years.