where on Earth is Eric?

Just in case you wondered where I have been for the past two weeks, not writing on my blog, I have been at the same place, more or less in the South China Sea, and we have been rather busy with measurements, report writing, presentations and other fun things such as meetings ...
Once in a while we get rewarded by a beautiful sunrise ... enjoy!

tagged companion for lunch

As it rained during my lunch on the deck, I had the pleasant company of a pigeon ... tagged on both legs

Introducing Dumbo ... the squid

Our underwater camera caught a strange neighbor ... a Dumbo squid

https://youtu.be/OFyzII0YG1M

chilled margin ...

The square-shaped piece is a fragment of a basaltic chilled margin, ripped from a previous location and transported in a new batch of magma. This happens when a magma is rapidly cooled and chilled, it becomes "frozen" in a somewhat glassy state.

e la nave va ...

In honor of movie director Federico Fellini, I have named this photo of sunrise on the Joides Resolution .. our expedition sails on, down after "hump day"!!!

May 8, 1945 - 2017 - Victory against facism & hatred

Enough said!

Red of Green

I once heard in a bar fight situation (resulting from a lost game) a young dude say that he wanted "red or green" ... meaning either blood or money. Here were also have a lot at stake with red and green rocks ...

Just a walk on the wild side ...

My colleague Huaichun and I started developing cabin fever while on shift and felt the need to take a walk outside to the helideck!!! It does not smell great because the ship's engines exhausts are just there but at least it's outside!

Bird's eye view of the Joides Resolution

Shuhao Xie, one of our Education Officers, took this amazing photo with a GoPro camera mounted on a drone. Simply spectacular!

Down the rabbit hole ...

This morning, as our cryogenic magnetometer was not particularly cool, I caught a glimpse of Huaichun, my paleomagnetic colleague and friend, chasing the rabbit down the rabbit hole ...

Good morning America!

This is the rising sun over the South China Sea seen from my all-steel residence at 05:45 AM.
Enjoy the view!

Me ... having too much fun with the spinner magnetometer!

Obviously we were having a fire drill on the ship and while waiting for the alarm to ring, I wanted to continue measuring our samples ...

Team of paleomagnetists

This is our team of paleomagnetists from 3 continents on the JR deck.

Core on deck ...

A new core has just been born!

9.5 m long from Mother earth!

The most dangerous mineral at sea is obviously ... Pyrite!

Quiz: What is the most dangerous mineral at sea?

answer in the next post ...

How big is the Ocean?

Big!!!

I love mahi-mahi ...

This mahi-mahi likes to swim around the ship ... they perform their aquatic dance for us and in return they enjoy our food ...

"day time" work space ...

As you can easily imagine, space is precious on a ship, regardless of its size. On the Joides Resolution, the paleomagnetic lab is arranged like a Tetris game with parts and instruments fitting into each other in the tightest volume possible. Yet this arrangement is highly functional and everything is very accessible. The thumping noise of the cryogenic magnetometer is so soothing!!!

my cabin ...

I actually don't spend much time in my cabin but if you are interested this is what it looks like. I share it with Guangfa Zhong, a sedimentologist who is on the opposite shift.
My shift is from midnight to noon. I wake up at 11:00 PM to get ready for the cross-over meeting at 11:45 PM and then we have the second cross-over meeting that usually extends up to 12:45 PM. After that I typically have dinner and go on the decks to meditate and observe wildlife (fish, birds).

Three types of paleomagnetic samples ...

 In the paleomag lab, we measure 3 types of material: above, the cubes for alternating field demagnetization,

 above, the core section for in-line alternating field demagnetization on the superconducting magnetometer (Helium-free)

finally these "cubes"'s destiny is to be baked up to 700ºC for thermal demagnetization

First sunrise ... around 06:00 (i.e., 6 AM)

This was my first sunrise during this new expedition. We had a beautiful rising sun, inspiring, and with clear visibility, taken from the "sun-deck", atop the bridge.

First boat drill ...

Safety is always our number one priority on the Joides Resolution. We just had our first boat drill exercise to review standard evacuation procedures. The blue hat is the ship commander who happened to be our captain for boat #1.

Last tree for 2 months ...

We tend to take trees for granted ... yet for the next two months, chances are that we will not see any so I went to town and found an amazing specimen!

What is this T-shirt all about?

Carbondale, where Southern Illinois University is located, will be the exceptional site of a total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017 http://www.carbondaleeclipse.com ... that's what the shirt is about!
(T-shirt design by Matt Sronkoski)

Pampering the new cryogenic magnetometer ...

All the way from California, Bill Goodman, one of the founders of 2G Enterprises, was visiting the Joides Resolution today to fine-tune the brand new Helium-free superconducting magnetometer. Beth Novak (IODP), on the right, is providing him with the latest results from the instrument.

this will be home for the next two months ...

An aerial view of the Joides Resolution ... scientific drilling research vessel

Getting ready to sail ...

This will be my home for the next two months!