Logged to 5484 feet, microscopic views of secondary minerals

Despite the lack of regular blog updates, we have been steadily logging the deepest core of the project over the last couple weeks.  At the end of today, we have logged to a depth of 5484 ft - only 302 ft to go!  The highly altered rocks contain a host of exotic zeolite minerals, see below for a couple pictures taken with our new microscope camera:

 

Both photos were taken at 40X magnification, and are probably different minerals of the zeolite family commonly formed by weathering of Hawaii basalts.  The upper photo shows a worm-shaped pattern of crystal growth that is unlike anything we've seen before, but there is very little of that material that is easy to extract.  We have gathered enough of the fibrous material in the lower photo that we can analyze in the near future via X-Ray Diffraction (XRD).  

Upcoming work to be done soon: Finishing the logging and editing all the logs for consistency, compiling a graphical log showing the stratigraphy of the hole, and sampling throughout the hole for preliminary analyses that will spur research proposal efforts.   

An important science visit

This past weekend was an eventful one for our project, we hosted a visit from a number of prestigious geologists who would like to study the recovered rocks.  Over the course of the weekend, our visitors reviewed many notable rock depth intervals from the drill hole.  They also discussed what the most urgent scientific questions might be that study of these rocks could answer.  I would like to thank these visitors again for making the trip and braving the dust, wind, and heavy lifting required to get a firsthand look at the rock samples.  Mahalo!

Above is a photo of our visitors and some of our crew posing with the drill rig.  From bottom left to right: Dr. Michael Garcia (UH Manoa), Rock & Data Manager Eric Haskins (UH Manoa), Dr. Nicole Lautze (UH Manoa), Dr. J. Michael Rhodes (UMass), and Principal Investigator Donald Thomas (UH Manoa).  Dr. Donald DePaolo (UC Berkeley) stands halfway up the stairs.  Top row from left to right: Core Processing Technician Brandon Jasper (UH Hilo), Core Processing Technician Meghann Decker (UH Hilo), Dr. Edward Stolper (CalTech), and Core Processing Technician Bryan Patterson (UH Hilo).  Photo courtesy of undergraduate Kaʻo Sutton (Carleton College).  PhDs are listed with their employing institution, graduates with their degree-granting institution.  Below is an image of most of these people reviewing and discussing some of the rock core boxes (Kaʻo Sutton second from right).