This grant provides research equipment that will greatly enhance our ability to analyze sediment core samples in a non-destructive fashion. The multi-sensor core logger is a state-of-the-art system that allows a number of geotechnical and geophysical measurements to be obtained on seabed cores or terrestrial boring samples while they are still in the sampling tubes. The system will initially be configured for acoustic velocity measurements, density profiles (gamma-ray attenuation), magnetic susceptibility for sedimentological studies and natural gamma measurements for correlation with in-situ measurements and determination of sediment composition. As a parallel development a new triaxial compression cells will be equipped with acoustic instrumentation to enable detailed studies of compressional and shear-wave characteristics in controlled laboratory stress-strain tests. The combination of the core logger, which can easily be taken on oceanographic or engineering research expeditions, and the enhanced laboratory testing capabilities will give us a powerful system for conducting sedimentological and geotechnical research.
