Week 9 -- Sunday 13 February 2011 -- Weekly Report
OPERATIONS
After Hole U1377A on Hadar Guyot (Prospectus Site LOUI-4B) needed to be abandoned the vessel was slightly offset and Hole 1377B was spudded on 6 February. Rotary coring advanced the hole to a final depth of 37.0 mbsf with an average recovery of 39% when time on site expired. After the drillstring was recovered, and the beacon retrieved, the vessel departed Site U1377 for Auckland at 0730 hr on 8 February. The time on Hole U1377B was 57.5 hours and the total time on site was 70.0...
Week 8 -- Sunday 06 February 2011 -- Weekly Report
OPERATIONS
This week started with the successful re-entry into Hole U1376A on Burton Guyot without the aid of a free fall funnel (which could not be deployed because of the lack of soft sediment) at 0435 hr on 31 January. Coring continued without incident until the allocated coring time for this site expired at 1630 hr on 2 February leaving the hole at a final depth of 182.8 mbsf. The total average recovery for the hole was 74.5% with an excellent average recovery in basement of 75.6%....
Week 7 -- Sunday 30 January 2011 -- Weekly Report
OPERATIONS
At the beginning of this week the vessel was in transit to Site U1375 (Prospectus Site LOUI-2B) on Achernar Guyot (working name) where the ship arrived at 0330 hr on 25 January. In accordance with the established routine of the expedition, the vibration-isolated television (VIT) camera was deployed prior to spudding the hole. The bit tagged seafloor at a depth of 1258.0 mbsl. Hole U1375A was spudded with the rotary core barrel (RCB) coring assembly at 1345 hr on 25 January. Almost...
Week 6 -- Sunday 23 January 2011 -- Weekly Report
OPERATIONS
Rotary coring on Rigil Guyot continued in Hole U1374A until 0545 hr on 18 January when erratic pump pressure indicated that there was a problem at the bottom of the drillstring. Instead of continuing to core with a bit that far outlasted its expected life with 133.4 rotating hours, we decided to end coring at a final depth of 522.0 mbsf. The penetration into basement was 505.3 m with an average recovery of 88.0% and an average rate of penetration of 2.5 m/hr. The average...
Week 5 -- Sunday 16 January 2011 -- Weekly Report
OPERATIONS
Rotary coring in Hole U1374A advanced to a depth of 130.4 mbsf with an average recovery of 84% by 0345 hr on 10 January. At this time, the bit had acquired 81.3 rotating hours and preparations were made to recover the drillstring and replace the bit with a fresh unit.
A free fall funnel (FFF) was made up and deployed at 0550 hr on 10 January. The vibration-isolated television (VIT) was launched and the bit extraction from the hole was monitored by the VIT system to ensure that the...
Week 4 -- Sunday 09 January 2011 -- Weekly Report
OPERATIONS
Hole U1373A was spudded at 0700 hr on 1 January. The hole was routinely advanced to a depth of 64.0 mbsf at which point the bit had accumulated 69.7 rotating hours and required bit replacement. Basaltic basement was encountered at a depth of 33.9 mbsf. At this juncture, the penetration into basement was 30.1 m with an average penetration rate of 0.9 m/hr. The strategy of pulling half-cores helped to increase the average basement recovery to 91%. The average recovery for...
Week 3 -- Monday 03 January 2011 -- Weekly Report
OPERATIONS
This week begun with the scheduled drill bit change at Hole U1372A after the bit had accumulated 64.4 hours of rotation. Once a new bit and a rebuilt mechanical bit release were made up, the Bottom Hole Assembly (BHA) was deployed with an extra stand of drill collars. The Free Fall Funnel (FFF) was reentered at 0100 hr on 27 December and by 0430 hr rotary coring was resumed at a depth of 145.0 mbsf.
Coring advanced to 175.4 mbsf at which depth approximately 3 hours was expended...
Week 2 -- Sunday 26 December 2010 -- Weekly Report
OPERATIONS
The 824 nmi transit from Auckland to the first site of Expedition 330 was accomplished at an average speed of 10.3 knots and was without incident. The vessel was positioning on Site U1372 (Prospectus Site LOUI-1C) by 1700 hr on 21 December. The corrected PDR water depth referenced to the dual elevator stool on the rig floor was 1960.3 mbrf.
The drill string was deployed in routine fashion to 1885 mbrf at which point the operations were suspended in order to perform a pressure test on...
Week 1 -- Sunday 19 December 2010 -- Weekly Report
OPERATIONS
Expedition 329 ended on schedule when the first line was passed ashore at Wynard Wharf in Auckland, New Zealand at 0636 hr on 13 December. This also marked the beginning of Expedition 330 (Louisville Seamount Trail). Both ODL and IODP crews were changed subsequent to the conclusion of immigration and custom formalities.
In addition to the usual routine of loading and unloading supplies, there were extensive tours of the vessel for visiting dignitaries and VIPs, scientist...