Time Traveling Detectives

Location:
South Atlantic Ocean
Latitude/Longitude:
-33.724340000000, -15.996094000000
Journal Entry:

Hi, explorers! It's Dr. Pekar. Tessa has shown you how we get core samples up to the ship from the ocean bottom, but what happens next? Once we get the 30-foot long sediment core, the science technicians jump into action and take the core that is in the plastic liner and place it on a table, when they cut it into 1.5-meter (about five-foot) sections. They then put caps on each end and bring the section to me and my fellow sedimentologists.

When we get a new core section to examine, the sedimentology team instantly transforms into time-traveling detectives. We look at the sediments using our eyes, hand lenses, powerful microscopes, and big remote sensing instruments (machines that can collect data without even touching the sediments!). We then collect this information, so we can figure out the mysteries of our planet that lie within the sediments.

What are these mysteries, you may ask? From the clues and information we gather, we can start to piece together the history of how our planet changed both on the sea bottom and the sea surface. We can also learn how global climate changed from millions to tens of millions of years ago--That is why I say we are time travelers!

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