Another viscous attack on site. We could really use a biologist in our team but Tony is clearly getting help in describing black shale! The current driller's depth is about 300 m.
We were prepared against mosquitoes, but were caught by surprise with the amount of bees interested in our activities at site 5075_3 (Suly). Drillers depth this morning ~ 210 m.
Home office at night: punching in registrations from the previous bore holes and getting ready for the start of the third bore hole at the "Suly Site" (5075_3_A) tomorrow .
We finished our second hole on the Okouma Plateau at the at the depth of 360m. Will the beautiful bedded black and gray mudstones provide us clues for the origin and diversification of eukaryotes?
When life gives us lemons, we make boxes. Big thanks to COMILOG for providing us with core boxes on such a short notice due to the delays in arrival of our own box.
If the core boxes keep filling in such a speed, we might need to find a faster gear to hang on with database registrations. Current drilling depth: ~ 310 m.
We are making a great progress as cores keep coming 40 m per shift . Our Capital drillers have found a nice drilling rhythm. Depth of the hole is now ~ 240 m
Our drillers keep delivering three meters of core at a time. We are half way down in our second hole on the Okouma Plateau intersecting gray shales/mudstones of FB1b, another stratigraphic section of the Francevillian Basin. Today we reached - 142 m.
Bases covered, particularly the mDIS database. The transfer of mDIS expertise from Melanie to Timmu has been smooth and no major risk for blisters when Melanie soon leaves the drilling operations and leaves big shoes to fill. M-DIS is the mobile DrillingInformation System, the database developed by ICDP and used in ICDP drilling projects.
Laminated black shales of the FB1c, a specific stratigraphic interval in the Francevillian succession, on the Okouma Plateau have not been explosed to particularly high temperatures or pressure, but do they preserve organic compounds that allow robust biodiagniostics?
Moving day for the drillers gave us the opportunity to explore the hidden gems of Gabon. We used this time to drive to Franceville and on to the Poubara falls. What a great, helmet free day!
ICDP project Goe-Deep celebrates the first "end of hole"! 330.4m of beautiful cores have been retrieved and science crew and the team of Capital Drilling are beaming.
Searching for the birth certificate of Francevillian FA Formation near the end of the first hole at 300 m depth: Are there dateable minerals in these rocks.
A successful scientific drilling project is deeply rooted in a teamwork between the drillers and the science crew. We are expecting a success given the friendly and constructive interactions with our drillers from the Capital Drilling.
Goe-Deep has started to drill it's first hole. Without our wonderful partners at Capital Drilling and the Comilog Manganese mine we couldn't have come this far. Thank you guys!
