UCMP's Cindy Looy is leading a project to collect 130,000 years worth of sediment data from Clear Lake in order to better understand how life has adapted to climate change. Along the way, members of her team reported back to us with all the progress and drama from the field. Read part 1 here.
From UCB undergrad research assistant Robert Stevenson:
Robert documenting a core section.
Fri 4/27-Sat 4/28 Night Shift
First night shift was tough. Even with the nap I took to prep for the difference in sleeping schedule, staying awake was still pretty hard. We took the first core around ~2300 and new cores came up slower and slower as the night progressed and the deeper we went. Other than the desire to sleep, the worst experience of the night was the bitterly cold winds. Thankfully, I brought my phone out so I could listen to podcasts and audiobooks or browse the internet when I got really bored. When shift change finally happened at 0700, I fell asleep on the boat ride back. After unloading the cores from the boat and getting out of my coveralls and boots, I ate what I could and crashed within minutes of lying down in bed.
Sat 4/28-Sun 4/29 Night Shift
The second night out went much smoother. Temperatures were up and winds and waves were down. The weather change and bright lights on the barge sparked a torrent of midges to engulf the barge. Other than trying not to swallow the occasional bug, most of my time is spent listening to podcasts and audiobooks as I did the night before. Cores came up as slowly as the night before (1-1.5 hrs) but the waiting and sleep deprivation haven't been as bad. Shift change and everything else happened the same as the day before. However, after waking up from my sleep, Katherine and I decided to go fishing for bass with the kayak. The only thing we caught were the many plants in the shallow areas we ventured...
Mon 4/30
Media day. Katherine and I got up at 0500 to prep the breakfast for the scientists, drillers, and journalists. No sooner had most of the day crew finished their breakfast, the first journalists arrived sooner than Cindy hoped. She had been practicing her answers at the table while still in her pajamas. About an hour after the day shift left, the other journalists began to trickle in. While being on the news seemed like fun, my body told me sleep was far more interesting and I fell back asleep until about 1400.
Thu 5/3-Fri 5/4 Night Shift
Cores were coming up relatively quickly for most of the night; every ~30min in comparison to the 1+hr waits from my first first two night shifts. I worked on removing material from the core catcher, a small nozzle shaped piece at the front of the tool with teeth that love to grab fingers. Things went relatively smoothly until what seemed like a relatively calm night after a day of rain changed for the worse around 0100. A light drizzle of rain and increased wind speeds meant the barge began to roll and yaw quite profusely. By ~0330, drilling had to be stopped due to the amount of wind and the possibility of damaging the drilling equipment. For the rest of the night, we all huddled up in the 10' x 6' science shack to wait out the poor weather until the day shift relieved us at 0700.
Fri 5/4-Sat 5/5 Night Shift
Wind conditions were as bad as the night before. For the first several hours, everyone stayed in the science shack and watched movies until the winds and waves finally subsided around 2000. Drilling started up again around 2030 and we got back to the dirty work of handling the cores. We got about another 15m before we hit the gravel layer again. Around 0300 and one failed attempt to drill through the gravel layer, it was decided that the drilling was done and the drill string should be brought up before the forecasted bad weather struck us again. While the drillers worked, Katherine and I tried to get what little sleep we could in the science shack. At 0700, the day shift drillers arrived and we headed out from our last day on the barge. About ⅔rd the way back from the barge, the engine on the fire boat gave out on us and we drifted aimlessly. Jokes and curses were abounded and we pulled out the two paddles on the boat as well as made a couple more paddles from core liners and duct tape. By the time we had almost agreed on who to eat first, a boat finally reached us and towed us back to the rental house. A 2 hour ordeal but not the longest time I have waited for a tow by AAA.
From grad student Tripti Bhattacharya:
Friday, May 4th
Today was a reminder that, despite the best laid plans, successful fieldwork often hinges on forces beyond any PI’s control. In short, it requires the weather to cooperate. The day started out windy, with choppy waves, which made it too risky to operate the coring system. We spent the day hoping for conditions to improve, which left a lot of time for staring off into the distance, sleeping, and being frustrated. Despite the lack of core recovery, the day did offer a chance to observe the aquatic birds of Clear Lake, which seemed drawn by the film of dead midges perpetually on the water’s surface around the barge. Among others, we saw a pair of mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos), as well as several western grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) and eared grebes (Podiceps nigricollis). The day ended with a relatively wild boat ride home, and the hope that conditions would improve during the night shift.
From project lead Cindy Looy:
On Tuesday May 1 we started drilling the second core. It went extremely well the first shifts at the new hole, but unfortunately the weather started to change on Thursday. We had to stop coring 2:30 pm that night because of the wave action. The weather predictions for the weekend were even more wind, with a short window during the night of Friday-Saturday. During that interval the night shift managed to get to the gravel layer 140 meters deep. Because we knew our towboat could not operate under the high wind speeds that were predicted, and we had to get off the lake by the end of Sunday, we decided to play it safe and quit operations the end of that night. The barge was towed back to Lakeport Saturday morning.
This may not sound like a happy ending, but we had a great time at Clear Lake and ended up with two perfect 140 meters of clays plus 12 meter of gravel-rich layers (that might be volcanic). The cores have been boxed up and on their way to their megafridge at LacCore in Minnesota...
