by Today was a great day! The weather is beautiful and the sun is shining. A couple days ago we took a sediment core sample off the coast of Oregon, and today we analyzed it.
The instrument we used was a pvc pipe weighted down to get to the bottom of the ocean floor, and there is a claw at the end of the pipe which catches the sediment. It took about two hours to collect the sample, and it was so cool to watch the process! We let the sediment core settle for a couple of days before we split it. We cracked it open yesterday by first drilling a hole in the pvc to let the water out. Then we cut off the excess pvc pipe and capped the end of it. We then took it into the lab and cut it in half. We kept one half as a working half and the other will be archived.
Today we got to analyze the core, and look at it under a microscope. We recorded how the sample looked, if it was grainy or not, if it was disturbed, what color it was, and more! The sample was a green/grey color and felt like a mixture of mud and clay. There were shiny specks in it, and it was classified as homogeneous, meaning it is the same throughout. Our sample was 147cm long with only 13cm of it being disturbed by it being cut or not settled all the way.
Then we made a smear slide with a very small sample of the core. We added water to it to make it transparent, then dried it on a hot plate, added a little more water and observed it under the microscope. It was a bit blurry but we could still see small particles and it was amazing to see!
We ended the day with an amazing dinner and a movie! Today was very successful and I really enjoyed it!
– Desiree
