October 21, 2011

Google Logo Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm

North Pond: New day, new challenges

By Katrina Edwards

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

Follow Dr. Katrina Edwards, as she explores the microbial life at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean

10-21-2011

Perhaps laying casing is not as dull as I was saying in an earlier post when I was noting that this particular stage of our operations here on the Joides Resolution drilling ship was rather slow, as we have been laying casing into sediments and rock in order to create a stable borehole for deep penetration.

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

Boy did things come to a screeching halt last night! We were having difficulty advancing the bit yesterday – essentially we were not advancing at all, and after about 5 hours of failure to advance the drilling engineers decided that we may have trouble with the drill bit itself, so they recommended pulling the bit out for inspection. When this tri-comb drill bit – a massive tool – returned to deck we could see there was big trouble for us in that hole. The drill bit was completely destroyed – two of the three rotary combs were gone and various other pieces were MIA as well (see picture where the remains of this one, and what it is supposed to look like, are shown).

The missing pieces remain in the hole. Which made for an interesting quandary as to what to do next – fish out the pieces in the hole or go start a new hole? We decided on the latter, and are presently setting up to start this hole again at a slightly offset location. We also will not be able to install as many layers of casing or as deep of casing as we had planned, in the interest of time. But we all think the plan is sound and we learned a lot about what the crust is like in this region, which will help guide this next operation.

We are back on the roller coaster ride! Not to misconstrue and make it sound like we are having unusually bad luck; it turns out that CORKing legs are just like this – the highs are pretty darn high and the lows can be… quite low. And everything is happening in rapid succession, we have to remain on our feet at all times to meet the next set of challenges. As there will surely be more. CORKing research is not for the faint of heart. On an earlier blog I likened our research to that which is conducted in space – true science and technology engineering missions. Perhaps now you are getting some flavor for where this analogy derives.

Katrina Edwards is a geomicrobiologist who studies the microbiology of hydrothermal sulfides and the igneous ocean crust. She has particular fascination with one common, yet elusive microbial group associated with these deep habitats, the iron oxidizing bacteria. These are the bacteria that make rust. She received her Ph.D. in geomicrobiology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1999 and spent the following 7 years as a researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts, USA. This is where she "sunk to the bottom of the ocean" and never came back up. She is now a Professor of Biology and Earth Sciences at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and is the Director of the Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI), an NSF sponsored program created at USC expressly for the study of the deep marine biosphere. Katrina has a husband and three children waiting at home for her during this long expedition.

More by Katrina Edwards

Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism

Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.

When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.

Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber

Thank you,

Jeanna Bryner, Editor in Chief, Scientific American

Subscribe