JR Expedition 321T - Juan de Fuca Cementing Operations
Filed under: Deep Earth Academy, News & Resources, School of Rock, Understanding
Expedition 321T will cement reentry cones around subseafloor borehole observatories in Holes U1301A and U1301B in order to seal the systems and permit later completion of long-term hydrogeologic, monitoring, and sampling experiments. There is no scientific program during Expedition 321T; only observatory sealing operations will be conducted.
Exp 321T is also the host for the School of Rock 2009 - Deep Earth Academy's signature teacher workshop. During the transit, 15 teachers from the U.S., Japan, Portugal and France will investigate various water related processes, using examples of cores and data mostly from the eastern Pacific Ocean. They will perform the same investigative process that scientists routinely follow during IODP expeditions through a discovery-based methodology, and prepare to replicate this process with their students at home.
The "Rockers" will conduct two investigations on paleoceanography - changes in temperature, circulation, nutrients, etc., in the oceans, and the forces that may cause them. One focuses on modern and late Pleistocene oceanography and the geologic/paleontologic tools used to reconstruct ocean conditions. The other will focus on an abrupt paleoceanographic event from millions of years ago. They will learn to run geochemical, paleontological and sedimentological analyses, as well as to interpret various other data sets to combine into an overall paleoceanographic interpretation.
The teachers will also explore the interactions of ocean water with ocean sediments and crustal rocks in at least three different geologic settings. They will run physical experiments, use various analytical tools on board the JOIDES Resolution, and use data sets collected both on and off the ship to understand the importance of water-rock interactions on large scale geologic processes.
To learn more about this year's School of Rock teachers and staff, click here. And read their blogs on our blog page daily.
