Team on the research vessel Neil Armstrong extracts core from the bottom of the Puerto Rico Trench
Woods Hole, MA – A team of scientists, engineers, and ship’s crew on the research vessel Neil Armstrong operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) recently collected a 38-foot-long cylindrical sediment sample from the deepest part of the Puerto Rico Trench, nearly 5 miles below the surface. The sample core is breaking records as the deepest ever collected in the Atlantic Ocean, and possibly the deepest core collected in any ocean.
The event took place aboard a collaborative cruise in Puerto Rico between February and March, 2022. The group responsible for the core collection was led by Prof. Steven D’Hondt and Dr. Robert Pockalny from the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography and included researchers and technicians from WHOI, University of Rhode Island, University of California San Diego, Oregon State University, University of Washington, University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez, and University of Munich.
Long sediment cores are generally collected by allowing a core pipe with a lead weight on top to fall through the water and into soft sediment that collects on the seafloor over long periods of time. When the pipe is pulled out of the seafloor and back up to the ship, the recovered sediment inside can be used to study Earth’s environmental conditions and climate dating back tens or hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of years ago.
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