Bear Lake Methods: Piston Core Photographs

Piston Core Photographs

Below are photos of the new corer being tested at Mirror Lake, Mt Evans, Colorado in April 2000.

Richard Niederreiter teaches USGS employees how to use the piston corer

FIGURE 1: Richard Niederreiter (center right) teaches USGS employees how to use the piston corer he developed. The coring platform was set up on the frozen surface of the lake. The lake ice was still surprisingly thick, 67.5cm (26.5in), despite the warm spring weather that year. Gary Skipp (left) attaches the cables to the core head while Jim Yount (far right) stabilizes the bottom of the core barrel.

Setting up cables that will control the ascent and descent of the corer

FIGURE 2: Rich Reynolds climbs to the peak of a coring platform, setting up cables that will control the ascent and descent of the corer.

Corer ready to drop through a hole in the ice

FIGURE 3: Richard Niederreiter (center) holds the barrel of the corer. The corer will drop through a hole in the ice and be suspended by cables under the teepee-shaped frame. Kelly Conrad (far left) and Rich Reynolds (right) stand ready to spool out cable as the corer is lowered.

Richard Niederreiter shows how to rig a special handle for the hammering mechanism on the corer

FIGURE 4: Richard Niederreiter (left) shows Jeff Honke, Gary Skipp, Rich Reynolds and Kelly Conrad (left to right) how to rig a special handle for the hammering mechanism on the corer. The handle raises and lowers a weight on top of the core head, effectively hammering the corer through stiff sediments.

A handle is used to raise and lower a bright yellow weight, hammering the corer into the lake mud

FIGURE 5: Rich Reynolds (center) uses a handle to raise and lower a bright yellow weight, hammering the corer into the lake mud. From left to right around him, Kelly Conrad, Jeff Honke, Gary Skipp and Laura Strickland wait to take their turn at the strenuous job, made harder by the thin air at 3230m (10,600ft) elevation.

Operation of a hand crank used to raise the corer from the lake bottom

FIGURE 6: USGS employees Rich Reynolds (left) and Jim Yount operate a hand crank, which raises the corer from the lake bottom. Mud coats the outside of the core barrel (center).

Examination of the mud captured in the bottom of the core barrel

FIGURE 7: Richard Niederreiter examines the mud captured in the bottom of the core barrel. Large spanner wrenches are used to remove the top and bottom of the corer so that a plastic tube containing the mud can be removed. Inside the core barrel, between the two spanner wrenches, is an inflated balloon, which helps keep the sediment from falling out the bottom as the core is lifted.

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Page Last Modified: Wed 2-May-2001 10:08:19 MDT