Instrument: Box Corer

General description of a box corer:

A box corer is a marine geological tool that recovers undisturbed soft surface sediments. It is designed for minimum disturbance of the sediment surface by bow wave effects. Traditionally, it consists of a weighted stem fitted to a square sampling box. The corer is lowered vertically until it impacts with the seabed. At this point the instrument is triggered by a trip as the main coring stem passes through its frame. While pulling the corer out of the sediment a spade swings underneath the sample to prevent loss. When hauled back on board, the spade is under the box. (definition from the SeaVox Device Catalog)

Box corers are one of the simplest and most commonly used types of sediment corers. The stainless steel sampling box can contain a surface sediment block as large as 50cm x 50cm x 75cm with negligible disturbance. Once the sediment is recovered onboard, the sediment box can be detached from the frame and taken to a laboratory for subsampling and further analysis. The core sample size is controlled by the speed at which the corer is lowered into the ocean bottom. When the bottom is firm, a higher speed is required to obtain a complete sample. A depth pinger or other depth indicator is generally used to determine when the box is completely filled with sediment. Once the core box is filled with sediment, the sample is secured by moving the spade-closing lever arm to lower the cutting edge of the spade into the sediment, until the spade completely covers the bottom of the sediment box. (definition from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution).