Samples and sample preparation

5-4a-samples-w660

5-4b-sample-preparation-w660

The other scientific task that is consuming my time is sample preparation.  I ordered samples from nearly a dozen deep sea drilling sites.  The four samples on the left, for example, are of Paleocene age (~60 million years old) from a core drilled in the early 1970s in the Eastern Indian Ocean.  I will break this samples down through a many-step process that includes treatment by hydrochloric acid (my geology know all about this!) and hydrogen peroxide.  The result will hopefully be isolated fossils that I can view in the light and electron microscopes.  I will show pictures of these fossils later, but it will be a while.