The vibro corer is going down into the water.

8.30: We started our day with breakfast around 7.30. After a short discussion at the breakfast table, we decided to go back to the position we went to last evening and finish the coring. At this site, we found fibrous sediment last night. However, the sediments were so hard (probably due to a thick layer of fibrous sediments just below the sediment surface) that we could only penetrate c. 30 cm into the sediments with the 1 m long gravity corer. So today, we will try the vibro corer instead. The vibro corer is our heaviest coring equipment. It is a 6 m long coring device with a rig that is placed on the sea floor. The corer vibrates as it cuts down through the sediments to a maximum depth of 6 m. Hope we get lucky today!

10.00. At 10 o´clock, the vibro corer is going down into the water. The coring is quick. After c. 10 minutes, the coring is finished and we have retrieved a 6 m long sediment core. The long sediment core is placed on deck and cut into 1m long sections. These sections are split into halves, and for the first time, we can see the sediments that are in them! In the top of the uppermost core, we observe a black sticky layer. This is probably the fibrous sediments we are looking for!

Lovisa and Anna are cutting the 6 m long core into 1 m sections.

10.30. The 1 m long sediment cores are now in the sediment laboratory. We take photos and describe them according to the sediment structure, composition, colour etc. All the data goes into a database. In the lab we also take the samples for chemical analyses that will reveal if the sediments contains pollutants or not. The individual samples are weighted and put in a freezer for storage.

Anna is sub-sampling in the sediment laboratory.

12.00. Helen calls out that lunch is ready. Helen is our chef, and today she has made a lovely fish grating with potatoes. The rumour is that there will be cake in the afternoon...