Development of a deep-sea sediment long coring system based on a Jackhammer for R/V Kexue

A long coring system for deep-sea sediment cores has been developed by the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS). This novel device is a hybrid of Jackhammer (pneumatic drill) and gravity sampler. The originally designed recovered length is up to 30 m in water depths of 3500 m. The hybrid corer has variable weight around 2 tons, determined by the core length. So it can be deployed as a gravity sampler for the first 0-10 m clays sample. After it been plugged by the mud, a homemade deep-sea “Jackhammer” will start to drive the system go deeper and deeper. This homemade deep-sea “Jackhammer” can drive an internal hammer up and down with 0-28kN force at 1 cycle/min by a 2.5kw/100V 1500rpm deep-water motor. It has been tested on the ground. This hybrid corer is designed for the R/V Kexue, which is a new designed 4000 tons research vessel and will be delivered to IOCAS at September, 2012. This hybrid corer is the main sediment core system for this new ship.