Monthly climatology of precipitation and sea-surface salinity over the Indian Ocean sector. Here is a gif (click here for full version) of rainfall over the Indian subcontinent and concurrent sea-surface salinity (SSS) in the Indian Ocean with the targeted sites for Expedition 353 (red circles). The precipitation data are in mm of rainfall per day and...

Looking outside the sedimentologists’ window. This was on a particularly rocky day! 09:45 – Alarm rings; Hit snooze. 10:00 – Slowly climb down from bunk bed. 10:10 – Brush/shower/shave. Leave laundry bag outside. 10:30 – Breakfast: All bran cereal and Gossner Whole Milk. Grab a quick cup of Ahmed Tea (‘England’s Finest’) I could really do with some...

It’s been about 15 days since my last blog post and we have already finished drilling five different holes at two different sites, despite downtime. We’ve seen a lot of core! As I may have mentioned, I’m on the PM-to-AM shift, so I get off my shift at midnight. Though we (lightly) listen to music during our shift, most of my music listening happens...

The main job of the JOIDES Resolution (or JR for short) is to drill beneath the seafloor and to collect intact sediment cores. Once it gets started, the JR does a really, really efficient job of retrieving core. Every fifteen minutes or so (depending on the water depth at a location, the type of drill bit used, and the characteristics of the material...

Ahoy! I am typing this blogpost aboard the JOIDES Resolution, the flagship of the International Ocean Discovery Program, in the middle of the Indian Ocean! Last night, we reached Ninetyeast Ridge (most-creatively named!), the first drilling site of our research expedition. Currently we are waiting for the drillers to make sure all the equipment is...

As promised, this is the tl;dr version of my previous post, where I have tried to reduce our paper into four tweet-length snippets per sub-heading. Here goes: The History: A particular plankton shell used to reconstruct climate is purported to have 2 morphs that live in different depths of the ocean. The Importance: If true, previous studies that attempt...