Core Processing
The first drill core from Surtsey arrived August 12th. Here is a record of our activities as we have processed, described and archived the nearly four metric tons of Surtsey basalt obtained in August and early September 2017.
Preparation for Transport from Heimaey to IINH
Nearly 700 m of drill core were scanned and described in the Heimaey core processing laboratory from August 10 – September 27. On September 28-30, all the equipment and drill core were removed from the Heimaey Laboratory, leaving an empty warehouse at the harbor. Core trays were loaded on trucks for transport by ferry boat to Þorlákshöfn and then to Garðabær, south of Reykjavik.
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Girls of Scouts International, Heimaey, Explore the Surtsey Drill Core
Today, the 7th and 8th grade girls (Unnur, Bertha, Thorgerdur Katrin, Eva and Maria Fonn) of the Heimaey Chapter of Scouts International explored the Surtsey drill core. Everyone got to observe mineral cements and volcanic textures with the stereomicroscope. They saw the core archived in trays and new data from the 1979 drill core, and asked lots of really good questions. They also got a bit silly after all that science!
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Ancient Gneiss Found in Young Surtsey Tuff
According to Kristján Jónasson, curator at the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, this is a fragment of gneiss, an metamorphic rock, most likely Precambrian in age (at least 541 million years old!). It was probably transported from eastern Greenland, as glacial ice rafted debris across the ocean floor. During explosive eruptions from Surtsey in 1963-1964 it was incorporated into the tephra sequence. The ancient rock is now captured in the very young hydrothermally altered, dark grey, lapilli tuff. Simon Prause found this foliated clast was found in core section D-93Z-2 at 275 m in the inclined drill hole.
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Volcanologist Jocelyn McPhie discovers new volcanic textures in the Surtsey Core Lab
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Icelandic artist Anna Líndal visits the Core Processing Laboratory
On September 8 and 9 Icelandic artist Anna Guðrún Líndal visited our Heimaey laboratory. She made many photos and videos, exploring the Surtsey drill core and our warehouse surroundings. She saw beauty in the mundane aspects of core trays, wall art, collaborative team work and shared these photos with us.
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Washing & Scanning the Core
The science team works on washing core. After washing, it is directly transferred to the DMT scanner in order to be imaged. The DMT can rotate core 360 degrees, allowing us to view core images in 3D in the imaging software.
Watch the videos by clicking the link above.
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Describing the Core
Once washed and scanned, each section of core is examined and described. The majority of core found on Surtsey is lapilli tuff.
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Core Washing Station
Scientists at work getting a core ready to be washed at the washing station. Core must be washed before it can be imaged. An example of a freshly washed core. This is the first time core has been removed from the liner.
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Beginnings of the DIS
To properly record information about the core for later scientific use, the International Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) inputs information into the Drilling Information System (DIS).
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Organizing the Core
After removal from the helicopter and transport to the warehouse, core must be cross-referenced to notes taken on Surtsey. To help organize the core into proper consecutive sections, it is laid out on plastic on the floor of the warehouse.
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DMT Scanner
Images of the core will be taken here. Both single images of one side of the core and 360 degree rotation images will be taken.
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MSCL Machine
Setting up the Multi-sensor Core Logging (MSCL) machine. This will be the first instrument used to analyze the core.
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Core Processing Warehouse
The drill core processing operation is taking place in the warehouse, to the left, at Heimaey harbor.
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