A very important aspect of marine research is the coring of sediments. There are many ways in which sediments can be brought on board on a research vessel - through the help of a Gravity corer, a Piston corer or a Box corer. All three work with different principles of weight and pressure and provide the scientists with different amounts of sediments to work on. To proffer an example from this research cruise, the Gravity corer was used when we had bad weather and heavy waves, as it falls through the water column under the principle of gravity with a heavy weight on top of the core which helps the core to immerse into the deep ocean sediments. A piston core on the other hand works with a more stable winch system and is used in calmer weather as heavy machinery is used to precisely lower the coring device through the water column and into the sediments. The length of these cores can be anything between 10 to 30 m long.

Photo credit: Oliver Esper