I’m finally getting back to the blog after about a week of frantic magnetometry (we discovered a bug in our magnetometer software, because of which we had to measure lots of stuff all over again!) and report-writing. Here is another in my reverse-color series on magnetic reversals.
Author: Peter Selkin
Basics of Magnetism 4: Reversals Part 1
Earth has a magnetic field, which is what keeps your compass lined up with the North Pole [1]. The Earth’s outer core generates that magnetic field. You may have heard before that Earth’s magnetic field has, in the past, switched its North and South Poles. This is true, and kind of amazing and mysterious, but useful […]
A Bengal Fan Backgrounder
As I’ve been writing these blog posts, I’ve been trying to include footnotes that point you deeper into the scientific literature about paleomagnetism, rock magnetism, and the geology of the Bengal Fan. But if you’re a student planning on working with me this coming quarter, you might want a little more background than what I’ve been putting […]
Lab Equipment on the Drill Ship
I spend about 12 hours in the lab most of the days I’m at sea [1]. So do most of the other scientists on board. Sometimes we get a little silly talking about our lab equipment after (or during) our shifts. Right now the lab is kind of quiet, waiting for cores to come up from our […]
Breakfast of Champions
When you are coring the seafloor, the first piece of the core that the scientists get their hands on is from the core catcher. The core catcher is the little bit at the end of the tube full of sediment that lets stuff in, but not back out. The paleontologists usually get it first, so […]
A map of my typical day
Presented without comment.
How sediments get magnetized
We are currently drilling through a big pile of mud and sand on the seafloor (the biggest such pile of mud and sand in the world), and I’m spending most of my day sitting next to the “silver bullet” in this photo:If you can’t see the sign in the photo, this is the superconducting rock […]
How we get cores
The JOIDES Resolution is a ship made to recover hundreds of meters of rock or mud cores from miles below the ocean. This amazing feat is accomplished by a huge crew and one big drill. To understand what we’re trying to do out here, it helps to know how the drilling works.The tower-like structure on the […]
What I’m doing in the Bay of Bengal, Part 1
[Now with illustrations!]I realized shortly before I left the US that I’d written a few posts on what it is that a paleomagnetist does, but nothing about the purpose of our research cruise. I have a couple of days before Expedition 354 starts (I’m spending a few of those in Japan, filling up on ramen […]
IODP Cruises on Youtube
If you’re wondering what sorts of things scientists do on board the drillship JOIDES Resolution, there are a couple of nice videos available. These are from Expedition 342 back in 2012, led by Dick Norris from Scripps. The production values are quite high. I watched these with my 6-year-old son, and we both enjoyed them.