Hello, there. How have you been after the New Year holiday? I’m Satoguchi aboard Chikyu.

The expedition 333 is on its final stage. Each group is doing the surveys of expedition, trying to finish before they get off the ship. There are many discussions going on everywhere; some group discussions, inter-group discussions, and discussions on what to keep studying after getting off Chikyu, and so on. I can feel the heated atmosphere of the expedition’s last phase and scientists’ enthusiastic attitude!

Each group is giving presentation on research progress and summary. Many scientists including the Co-Chief Scientist Pierre ask questions and lively debate follows...

Hmm… I feel like I’m writing too seriously and it’s getting almost “fake”, isn’t it? I’m writing the truth, but the way I’m writing is too serious! What should I do? I’m thinking about writing things like, “This scientist sitting next to me is newly-married, and he is telling me every day, ‘8 more days and this’ll be done!’ I wonder if he means he’s counting the days for he can’t wait to see his wife ASAP…”

Well, let’s return to the main subject. Recently, a thought came across my mind that this ship Chikyu is a deep sea drilling vessel, therefore she is cruising basically for the sake of “drilling”. This means that drilling engineers, we scientists, cleaning staff and catering staff are all working for that one ultimate purpose; to drill the seafloor thousands of metres below and do the research! This fact deeply impressed me, especially when I see cores coming up on deck.

Among all those staff, there are Lab technician. They support analytical and sampling works, checking and managing the cores for sampling and for archive.

Technical staff dealing with processing cores, analysis support, management of archive cores etc. The lab for halving cores; half for sampling and half for archive (bottom left), photographing cores before describing (top right), organising cores after describing (bottom right), etc... However, why is she sitting on the floor (bottom right)?

Actually, without these Lab technicians, we scientists can not do anything! They are that important. I’ve often heard them arguing heatedly about the work procedures. They must have such passion for research and supporting the scientists, I think...

The expedition is almost ending, but for the scientists, the “real thing” or the research is just beginning. Each scientist has his or her research purposes. When they get off Chikyu, they will work on their results and samples back in their labs on land.

By the way, do all the cores go to scientists as their “samples” to work on? The answer is no. The cores get halved by Lab technicians, then “sampling half” goes to the scientists to work on, and the rest called “archive half” goes to Kochi Core Centre (Kochi Institute for Core Sample Research). If there were any errors or mistakes on core sample labels or data inputting, the Curator (the person in charge of core management. One of the Lab technicians.) comes literally running and mentions “Here, it says... Would you PLEASE correct it?” rather politely but firmly. I understand this kind of system for that’s similar to what I do in the museum. At the same time, I do also know how hard it is to be the curator to preserve and manage valuable materials, although what I deal with in the museum are not boring cores, but other things.

I’m finishing up this report with this photo from the table tennis tournament.

An excellent game by great players!

Yasufumi Satoguchi