What a difference a couple of days make: Wednesday, we were wondering what was going so wrong, Thursday, we stopped to breathe and regroup. Friday, we were elated to get a couple of good pressure cores in a row. Saturday, we wondered what on earth we would do with all the pressurized hydrate core we’re […]

“Everyone has a plan ‘till they get punched in the mouth.” -Mike Tyson This past week, we got punched in the mouth. Heading into this expedition, I had expectations somewhere between optimistic and unrealistic. We came out here with the ability to bring back 20 pressure cores. Somewhere along the way I convinced myself that […]

This post is a part of a series from the Genesis of Methane Hydrate in Coarse-Grained Systems: Northern Gulf of Mexico Slope (GOM^2) expedition. By Peter Polito It seems like figuring out the sea floor depth would be pretty easy with the luxury of modern technology: Sonar, seismic, acoustic, etc. However, at the end of the day […]

This post is a part of a series from the Genesis of Methane Hydrate in Coarse-Grained Systems: Northern Gulf of Mexico Slope (GOM^2) expedition. Almost half way there! Last night, after a few minor glitches, we completed a flow test on the Pressure Core Tool with Ball (PCTB). The PCTB is a pretty special tool (only one […]

This post is a part of a series from the Genesis of Methane Hydrate in Coarse-Grained Systems: Northern Gulf of Mexico Slope (GOM^2) expedition.  Scale is a funny thing on this project. On one hand, there are very few projects of this scale that have ever taken place at the Jackson School. On quite another, if we […]