We are back in port (San Diego). We did pretty well although the older sedimentary rocks were more difficult to core (as discussed on other posts on this thread) and we did not get long core older than about 750,000 years. We did get short cores and these are enough to show that a climate record is preserved for times around 1 million years and older. But, some of the studies may have to wait for a different coring system, probably through the International Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). A project to do just this is working its way through the system. It could be 5 years for the coring to be done, assuming the proposal is successful (and it is highly rated).

Our site survey of the proposed IODP sites was very successful. We had several days of calm and nearly calm conditions, and that is not always the case in mid November. The site survey includes 3 resolutions of seismic reflection data. IODP has to be very cautious about drilling hazards such as natural gas. Gas has a slow acoustic velocity and shows (usually) as a strong negative reflection.

The last 2 days of surveying we had fog in the morning. We could not survey the first of those days because we were stuck (core). The reason we can not used the stronger acoustic source is that the marine mammal observers need to have visibility. We surveyed during the day and cored at night.
Chris