Hard Rock Sampling With A Portable, Deepsea Coring Drill

This paper describes a design for a coring system capable of recovering seafloor samples from exposed hard rock, polymetallic sulfide deposits, or stiff sediments. The device is portable and can be deployed from vessels currently used for deep ocean research and exploration. The design incorporates tools and techniques developed for diamond bit core drilling and the remotely operated vehicle industry. The prototype version of the corer will be capable of recovering a single 45 mm diameter, 3.0 m long core, and can be upgraded to permit either continuous coring to a depth of 50 m, or recovering 30 to 40 1.5 m long cores in a single deloyment. The drill will have an operating depth of 3500 m to 5000 m, depending upon the breaking strength of the umbilical cable utilized and the outfitted weight of the device.