Processed to 5046 feet, logged to 2444.3 feet, sandstone unit

Today we processed rock core to a depth of 5046 ft, 160 ft deeper than two days ago.  The drilling is in the home stretch of this first hole now, as we're fast approaching the 6000-6500 ft target depth.  At this rate, we could complete the first hole in 2-3 more weeks.  Each afternoon we continue to log the rocks, and by the end of today we've logged some interesting units to a depth of 2444.3 ft.  Below is a picture of the first sandstone unit we just recently logged (field of view is ~3 cm across)

This sandstone is made up of olivine grains (green), lithic fragments of basalt (black or gray), hematite (rusty orange), and a variety of other white to clear secondary minerals like calcite and zeolites produced by physical and chemical weathering of the original rock.  The sand has been compacted by the weight of over 2000 ft of rock resting on top of it, and weakly cemented together by secondary mineral growth.  The average grain size and degree of sorting indicate that this sand is fluvial in origin (deposited by a stream).  However, the angularity of the grains and lack of bedding indicate such a stream was probably ephemeral and may have washed the sand downslope to its final resting point in as little as one heavy rain event.