We are getting ready for the sampling party that will start March 2. All cores will be made available for the FAR DEEP partners, and we expect to work through ca. 100 m of core per day. All partners are welcome to Trondheim, you too!
Archiving is completed! 3.6 km of core has been split, photographed and lithologically described by logging the core centimeter by centimeter. Our Russian colleagues Dima and Sasha, who were the backbone of the archiving enterprise, are safely back in Petrosavodsk. After months of vigorous activity, the core repository is strangely quiet. But not for a long. We expect to see most of the FAR DEEP partners to collect specimens for their research at the sampling party that starts already in March. Check the information on the web and plan your sampling and research strategies.
We feel pretty confident that the data that have been obtained on our cores during the course of archiving are well organized and properly stored in the database. It is time to start using the data, and to make plans for showing up at the sampling party in Trondheim in March-May 2009.
The first geochemical data produced in the NGU lab on archive samples from holes 3A and 12A are out on the web, and updates are about to come soon. We are proud of the effective progress we have made over the past few weeks, and now it feels for the first time that the end of our archiving enterprise is within reach. One more month to go.
The first data tables with XRF and Leco results from NGU lab on achieve samples have started to come in. We are optimistic that there will be a full dataset on the achieve samples available, and accessible on the web, before the sampling party in Trondheim in winter/spring 2009.
Work is progressing well in the archiving world of FARDEEP. Victor could even find time to attend an important meeting in Russia last week (namely, celebration of his 60th birthday!), but the show goes on in Trondheim
While there is still about 1.5 km of core to be cut and described, the first set of archive samples (at ca. 8m intervals) of processed core are turned in for analyses. XRF and Leco analyses as well as thin sections on all these samples will be done at NGU whereas selected samples from this set will be analyzed for S isotopes (Münster), C and O isotopes on carbonates (Glasgow), Sr isotopes on carbonates (St Petersburg), C and N isotopes on carbonaceous matter (Penn State) and Fe isotopes on shales (Woods Hole). In addition to the direct scientific value that the results of these analyses will give, it is expected that they will also provide guide-lines for planning detailed sampling and research.
Processing of archive samples is presently the focus in the FARDEEP lab at NGU. Cutting, thin section production, crushing and milling constitute the first phase of preparation and analysis.
Workshop days are here again! On May 29-30, some 32 participants from approximately (!) 23 institutions were gathered at NGU, Trondheim for fruitful discussions and presentation of plans and reports on available funding, people and laboratory facilities at the different members of the FARDEEP community.
Sampling is the last step in the core archiving enterprise. About 500 samples, taken at ca. 7 m intervals will be used for XRF and Leco analyses and for making thin sections. This sample set is meant for general documentation of core that should guide us around, and help to find best intervals for detailed research sampling.
Photographing of core boxes and image scanning of split cores is essential part of the archiving work. The images together with lithologic descriptions and magnetic susceptibility logs, which are all stored in the database, should give a realistic impression of the core material we have obtained from Kola and Karelia.
There are four of us (Dima, Sasha, Aivo and Tor Erik) who have been trained to use the ICDP’s digital information system (DIS). This database system facilitates a smooth flow of core documentation from the lab to the server in Potsdam, and through the project’s website to our partners worldwide.
One last core box and the conveyor belt is loaded. It will be several days until the lab ride of core boxes that includes stops at photographing, sawing, description and sampling stands is completed. On an average day we process some eight boxes of core.
We have passed the 1000 m milestone while logging spectacular shungite core 12A with stunning carbonate and sulfide concretions and various occurrences of in situ and remobilized carbonaceous matter. But this is still just the beginning as we got 2600 m yet to go. NGUs director Morten Smelror took a tour through the core logging facility for an update. He was pleased about the setup and progress, and could not keep his eyes away from the beautiful core.
'Fractioned core - no scan', an unavoidable situation in periods of the archiving work. Crumbling core sometimes leaves us no choice but to move on to the next section. Other parts of the core reveal poor geotechnical properties after sawing, and are left in the box, bypassing the image scanner for now.
We have moved on to the third hole in the archiving sequence, and are currently logging red colored Jatuli siltstones, carbonates and stromatolites in hole 11A.
All cores are being imaged using the scanner that has been provided by the ICDP. The high resolution images obtained by this device will, along with geological description, help to plan the sampling of cores by our partners.
Magnetic susceptibility measurements using a loop sensor are part of the archiving work. Melani Mesli has pulled a total of more than 400 m of core though the susceptibility loop already as we are finishing the hole 4A though Umba sediments.
Archiving of the hole 1A is completed. All descriptions and images are safely stored in the database. Samples that were taken for routine documentation at intervals of about 7 m have already turned in for thin sections and XRF analyses. The next time we will see this core will be at the FAR-DEEP sampling party.
Geologists Dmitry Rychanchik and Alexander Romashkin from Karelian Science Centre in Petrozavodsk, who were the backbone of our filed operations, are in business again. They have joined the lab team, and among several other tasks provide detailed geological descriptions of cores.
Logging and archiving of FAR-DEEP cores is on the way. We started with hole 1A that intersects 2.4 Ga Seidorechka sediments. NGU’s lab veteran Tom Jacobsen has given a heroic effort in preparation of facilities for smooth processing of cores. Tom is now in charge of sawing the core. His presence gives us the confidence that we are on a safe track.
Core archiving that includes geophysical logging, splitting by sawing, image scanning, geological description and routine sampling is just about to start. But before we start moving core boxes on the conveyer belt, we have to make sure that our digital information system (DIS) is ready for data flow and storage. We are very happy to have the database expert Ronald Conze from the ICDP’s office working currently with us setting up the DIS.
The first regular core logging tasks have been under taken. Beginning from now the FAR-DEEP core logging crew will work hard to get everything prepared for the science team.
