by Core Tech Chris ‘Core Cutter’ Moser
This is Chris Moser, he currently serves as the Senior Faculty Research Assistant in Marine Geology at Oregon State University and the STEMSEAS crew had the pleasure of sailing with him in our core drilling expedition in May 2016.
Chris grew up in a small town in West Virginia and the thought of working a corporate job in a big city never appealed to him. He knew since he was a young boy that he wanted to do work in the outdoors. He just never imagined it would be on the ocean! So after obtaining his B.S in Geology from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania he grew an interest in sedimentary rocks and based off of a recommendation from a professor he began to pursue his Masters in Oceanography at Oregon State University. He ended up doing well enough that the University offered him a job after the completion of his Master’s program. He has been sailing on expeditions ever since his graduate years at OSU in 1972 (44 years)!
The first 10 times Chris went to sea he ended up getting sea sick during the first day or so of each expedition, but that was not enough to push him away from the job. After he overcame that aspect he was a pro and there was no turning back. Chris remembers his scariest moment at sea was an expedition in the Southern Ocean where he was in between the southern tip of South America and Antarctica and two low pressure storms came together over the ship he was on. He recalls 50-60ft waves and it lasted for about a day and a half where none of the crew was able to be productive because the ship was too turbulent.
What Chris loves most about his job is that it is always a little different every time he goes out to sea. Sometimes he is coring to understand more about earth quakes, climate change, productivity patterns in the ocean, and any other number of things someone would like to gather data for. He likes that his job never gets mundane and he is always faced with new challenges on the job.
Thanks Chris for your help with the STEMSEAS program!
-Matthew Mullens
