Bear Lake Methods: Piston Core

Piston Core

The first cores collected at Bear Lake were taken in 1996, using the University of Minnesota's Kullenberg Rig designed by Kerry Kelts. The rig is a piston corer that uses metal weights to push the corer into the sediment.

Bear Lake Coring

Coring at Bear Lake

Piston corers are hollow tubes with an internal sliding seal (the piston) that produces a weak vacuum in the tube. This vacuum causes the sediment being cored to enter and move up the tube without disturbing the sediment layers.

Illustration of Piston Corer

Illustration of the Piston Corer

In August 2000, the USGS will take more piston cores from Bear Lake using a WITEC corer designed by Richard Niederreiter of Austria. See Photos of the Piston Corer being tested at Mirror Lake, Mt Evans, Colorado in April 2000.

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