May 24 - Hazel Schaub

Today was a big day. The 0000-1200 crew started their work at site SW01 which required samples for USGS, NOAA, and AOML. I woke up at 6:45 to help with sample collection and processing. But first, we ate breakfast sandwiches with english muffins which were delicious. We had a team meeting in the long lab and got prepped to receive the CTD. When it came up, we went to work collecting samples and handing them off to the people working in the lab. We collected samples for testing carbonate concentrations, nutrient samples, and eDNA. The rest of the boat transitioned to signaling to and pulling up a sediment trap for USGS. We unscrewed the samples and I learned that there is a sacrificial piece of metal (an anode like zinc) that is put on the sensors to attract ions so that the rest of the metal doesn't corrode. At noon, our shift took over and we processed water for eDNA and embarked on an eight hour transit to our next site. For the rest of the day, we snacked on ice cream, played golf and hearts and fished. We arrived at site BOEM4 at 2100 and dropped the gravity core. Since the depth is 3000m, the process took two hours. Once the core came up we processed it. We got great stratigraphy and the sediment at the bottom of the core is most likely from the Pleistocene era (2.5-0.012 million years ago). Then we sent the multicore down and signed off for the night.