Benthic Coring

Ocean Ecology carries out benthic core sampling using a K-B corer which can sample to depths greater than 100 m and and extract a core sample 50 cm long and 5 cm in diameter (see photo below).

Additional weights can be added to the corer to increase sediment penetration.

Core-catchers are frequently lost or destroyed when trying to take cores from hard clayey sediments. This can create serious problems when working in remote locations where obtaining a replacement core-catcher may be impossible. As a result of these issues, Ocean Ecology designed a quick (takes less than 10 minutes) and inexpensive (uses yogurt containers) method to create new core-catchers. The finished product is shown below.

Different materials can be used (e.g., plastic, thin sheet metal) to create catchers with different degrees of springiness. A template for creating the core-catcher is given in this pdf file.