The vast extent of sunset on the ocean put Lab. staff's heart at ease.

The third week of the Shimokita Riser Drilling Shakedown cruise started with a new Bottom Hole Assembly (BHA). Hole has been re-entered and coring continued. On august 23rd, 40 cores were collected down to a depth of about 365m.

Since the first core collected on August 18th, non destructive analyses of whole round cores are continuously conducted. Standard measurements include (1) X ray Computed Tomography scanning of the cores to get a 3D image of the entire core structure that is be useful in guiding further sampling for interstitial water analysis and microbiological investigations, (2) thermal conductivity indicative of the thermal gradient governing most of the diagenetic processes and microbiological activity, finally and (3) continuous measurement of the physical properties of the cores (natural gamma radiation, electrical resistivity, density, magnetic susceptibility and P-wave velocity).

On August 25th, the full scientific crew changed. After a quick introduction the sequence of measurement including splitting, visual core description, color reflectance and color imaging scannings, natural remanent magnetization and sampling is initiated and will last until Sept. Meantime several preparation works have been conducted on the rig floor in preparation of the first riser drilling operation of Chikyu. To be described in details next week...

Week #04 [8/27-9/2]