Open AccessCores of soft lake sediments
Author(s) -
Wright Herbert E.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
boreas
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.95
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1502-3885
pISSN - 0300-9483
DOI - 10.1111/j.1502-3885.1980.tb01032.x
Subject(s) - geology , drilling , sediment , piston (optics) , core (optical fiber) , stratigraphy , paleomagnetism , crust , core sample , geomorphology , petrology , paleontology , tectonics , materials science , metallurgy , physics , wavefront , optics , composite material
Short cores of soft sediment, used in studying the pollution history of lakes, can be obtained with a plastic tube fitted with a piston and piston wire. If the sediments of deep water are annually laminated (and thus difficult to sample without disturbance) or contain excess gas (which can disrupt the stratigraphy during its escape), a short ‘core’ can be acquired by producing a frozen crust on a tube filled with dry ice and butanol. A continuous core of soft lake sediment at least 7 m long can be obtained in a single drive beneath deep water with a hand‐driven piston corer. Such a core assures the complete continuity necessary for counting annual laminations or for making close‐interval analyses without fear of gaps, and it provides the uniform orientation required for measurements of paleomagnetic directions.