Also the wind picked up unexpected during lunch and the waves were quiet high the platform entered the harbor at 3 o´clock today. So, that is the definitely the end of drilling operations on Lake Van. Now, drillers and scientist are relaxed and ready for the party tonight. We wish to all future ICDP projects good luck!
Our colleagues from the Istanbul Technical University finished with the MSCL measurements last night. About 1000 sections went through their hands! Now is packing time for everybody.
The day shift worked under extreme dry and hot conditions the last two month. Nevertheless, they often seemed quite satisfied coming back from the barge and were ready to go on the next morning.
Sometimes the day and night shift compete between one another to see who get the greatest core catch during their shift; but actually it is one big happy team!
As the conditions on the lake change from day to day, the supply and shift change are carried out by different boats. We take the speed boat from DOSECC for the calm conditions; the University boat driven by Mete and Münip for intermediate conditions and material supply; and Zafer´s private boat for the rough ones. If the waves are too high the shift change just gets delayed by a couple of hours and everybody on-land takes another “cay” (Turkish black tea). On-land the captains, drillers and scientists remain on stand-by then, while on the barge the crew rolls out the mattresses…So, after the kitchen, we have a dorm on the barge now.
The PALEOVAN crew gets continuously new members. On the first day the entire workflow is anything but easy and requires full concentration; after a couple of days working in the lab you can do it blindfolded.
After the drilling on the first three holes only reached 140 m everybody was happy to pass the 200 m mark in hole D now. Therefore the night shift came over with Bakalva to congratulate the day shift and to get the batteries recharged for the next 12 hours.
As all PALEOVAN scientists are declared 'archeologists' in their research-visas , newly collected prehistoric bone-samples were added to the DIS database. They were collected on Nemrut volcano, overlooking Lake Van, the city of Ahlat and in the background Süphan volcano. Both volcanos are source of numerous tephra layers, which were encountered in the drill cores.
Tonight Lake Van was (again) shaky and the waves partly hampered the drilling operations. However, some entertainment was provided by mother nature: the crew had the chance to enjoy some bird watching.
The stuffed cooler stands for the smoothly running operation on the Ahlat Ridge. After 36 hours drilling we are in 75 m depth with a core recovery of 92 % - keep going!
Drilling is well underway at the ‘Ahlat Ridge’ site reaching already over 70 m sediment depth. The cores degass intensely, as shown by gas-filled gaps in the freshly recovered cores.
Food is catered to the drilling platform today by Fatih, our Hotel manager. He obviously enjoys visiting the platform from time to time to check on the whereabouts of his hotel guests.
The platform is now anchored on the Ahlat Ridge in 360 m water depth, where the main drilling target is located. Anchoring in such deep water was challenging due to wind and weather as well as handling of the up to 2 km long anchor cables.
Lake Van is the greatest soda lake worldwide. Therefore the drill mud can not be mixed with the lake water and every day max. 50.000 liters of fresh water will be transported from the hotel to the barge. Today DOSECC installed the tubes and filled up the tanks on the boot.
The components for the new barge arrived the day before. The DLDS (DAMEN Lake Drilling System) Barge is fully assembled and sits tall in the water. The drill rig and the mud tank have been loaded today.
Chris Delahunty from DOSECC is coordinating the rig up operations on the shorebase of Lake Van. The trucks with the components for the new barge are expected to arrive within the next days.
