Marine Core Repository and Laboratory - Taiwan Ocean Research Institute
Original (non-English) name
Acronym
MCRL - TORI
Citation
Abstract
By participating IMAGES (International Marine Past Global Change Study) program, Taiwanese scientists have used successfully the great capabilities of long coring system such as that on French R/V Marion Dufresne in the last decade by collecting very long cores (>40 m) in many important locations in the seas around Taiwan and the western Pacific. For the needs of marine geology and geophysics studies, a 2000-ton Research Vessel Legend of TORI equips with a giant CALYPSO coring system and deep-sea winch system, which is as well as R/V Marion Dufresne coring facilities. The sea trial of giant piston/gravity coring system onboard the R/V Legend (LGD-T31: 2019.12.10-12; LGD-T32: 2020.01.14-16) provides a good opportunity to examine the core quality on the recovered sediment. To perform continuous sequences of undisturbed sediments taken with the 8-m giant piston/gravity coring system, we compared several marine cores in the Kaoping shelf/slope offshore southwestern Taiwan. Overall, the recovery for these cores is ~25-28%. Based on AMS radiocarbon dating with mixed planktic foraminifera, we find the ages of 0-1 cm sediment sample at Core LGD-T31-B-PC1 and LGD-T31-B-PC2 are ~ 1 ka. It implies some coretop sediments are lack during coring. We further observe that LGD-T32 cores are severe stretched than others. The upper section of core LGD-T32-A-PC is stretched by up to 30 cm. Though sediment stretching and disturbances are existed at these giant piston cores, we consider the similarity of non-destructive measurements at downcore sediments confirmed that both cores record the same climatic and environmental changes. For having indispensable high-resolution records to unravel past ocean and climate dynamics, further sea trail and technology development are needed to improve recovery.