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Instrument: Piston Corer

Acronym:
 Piston Corer
External Identifier:
» skos:broadMatch http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/L05/current/51/
Description

The piston corer is a type of bottom sediment sampling device. A long, heavy tube is plunged into the seafloor to extract samples of mud sediment. A piston corer uses a "free fall" of the coring rig to achieve a greater initial force on impact than gravity coring. A sliding piston inside the core barrel reduces inside wall friction with the sediment and helps to evacuate displaced water from the top of the corer. A piston corer is capable of extracting core samples up to 90 feet in length.