Ocean Drilling

Question 1

When and how did knowledge about our ocean begin?

Answer 1

1800 early 1900

Question 2

When were major advances in marine geology taking place?

Answer 2

WWII

Question 3

What differences are there between coring without drilling and coring with drilling?

Answer 3

Without drilling - gravity is used, trigger weight, piston corer, used for smaller scale. Coring with drilling - the drilling tool goes up and down a pipe which allows for deeper drilling (multiple cores in one hole), used for large scale and requires a drill ship with a drilling derrick.

Question 4

Give an example of one of the drilling vessels… and sizeish

Answer 4

JOIDES resolution 143 m long

Question 5

What are three different drilling platforms (also vessels then used)?

Answer 5

Riserless Drilling (JOIDES Resolution), Riser Drilling (Chikyu), Mission-specific

Question 6

What coring tools is used in medium to hard crystalline rocks and sediments?

Answer 6

Rotary Core Barrel (RCB)

Question 7

What coring tools are used in medium to hard crystalline rocks and sediments? Explain a bit what it looks like

Answer 7

Rotary Core Barrel (RCB), four round taggy bits

Question 8

What coring tools are used in soft ooze and sediments? Explain what it looks like and is crucial for

Answer 8

Advanced Piston Corer (APC) Same as the rotary but with a cylindric corer added between the taggy round bits. It’s crucial for high-resolution climate and paleoceanographic studies

Question 9

What coring tools are used in firm sediments with alternating lithologies? Explain what it looks like and is beneficial for

Answer 9

Extended Core Barrel (XCB), the rotary coring combined with a so-called cutting shoe shorter cylindric pipe. Beneficial for core recovery and reduces core disturbance in soft to moderately hard formations as well as deeply buried palaeoceanography targets and variable lithologies. Has the flexibility of retracting the cutting shoe to reduce failures when encountering harder formations.

Question 10

What is “biscuting” and in what type of cores is it often seen and why?

Answer 10

Often seen in XCB cores, contains firm semilithified sediment broken up while drilling/coring - a type of core disturbance caused by transferring rotary torque to the core

Question 11

What is triple APC?

Answer 11

it is used to ensure a complete sequence is recovered, by combining different holes.

Question 12

How do you read the Legacy? ex. 206 1236A-6H-4, 20-22 cm

Answer 12

Leg (expedition) - Site- Hole- Core - Type - Section- Interval