My first week aboard the R/V Langseth was definitely an adventure. After the initial seasickness ebbed, I was able to dive right in. I learned that science at-sea is best decribed as a scramble: things rarely go according to plan, and often 10 things have to go wrong before anything goes right. That being said, I’ve learned so much from the technicians, students, and scientists; they really amaze me every day with their resourcefulness and ability to think on their feet.
We’ve been able to collect 9 deep-sea sediment cores: 4 gravity cores and 5 piston cores. The crew has been working around the clock to extract the cores, sort them, and process them. Students from OSU even have a CT scan machine aboard to take a profile of all the cores. Once docked, the cores will be sent to OSU (Oregon State University), the Univerity of Texas at Austin, and La Rochelle University, for further sampling.
Unforunatley, the first leg of the cruise is soon over and so many of the amazing people I’ve met will disembark (except Todd). Shout out to the coring team for letting me follow them around all week. I’m looking forward to meeting my new crew for the next cruise!
