Dirty Ice Options

[Cathy McConaugha]

Steve -

Do you have a description of the sediment that was in the dirty ice you all sampled?

[Steve_Marshall]

Hi Cathy,

Sorry for the delay, but things have been pretty busy here, and I've also been trying to get a detailed answer for you. As for the flight I was on, we didn't really see anything large, if anything at all. We mainly just scooped up some ice and water just in case there turned out to be something in it.

For those missions where sediment was definitely obtained, I think it was mostly really fine silt or clay because I saw the filter paper that the melted ice was filtered through using a vacuum, and the sediment on the filters ranged from a rust color on some to a gray color on others; Something very similar to what we've seen in the cores from the seafloor. I think there may have been some larger, sand-sized particles, but I still need to confirm that.

Steve