Bottom Samplers

Bottom Samplers and sediment sampling devices include a box corer that can drop into the mud and brings back a block of near-surface sediment. A piston corer can return a cylinder of sediment up to 100 feet (33 meters) long that may encompass several million years of sedimentary history. For researchers especially interested in the seawater-seafloor interface, a gravity corer can return cores up to 20 feet (six meters) long with little core-top disturbance. Vibracorers use a motor that produces a high frequency oscillatory vibration to help propel a long core barrel into unconsolidated sediments.

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