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23 October 2003

TDI-Brooks Conducts Gulf of Mexico Geotechnical Survey

When hurricane Claudette blew through the Gulf of Mexico in mid July 2003 she shook up more than just the boats in her path.

Survey crews completing the geophysical and geotechnical surveys along the pipeline corridor for the proposed Raptor/Tomahawk pipeline route in the East Breaks area of the Gulf of Mexico were sent packing with little but critical work remaining undone.  TDI-Brooks was contracted for the field data acquisition of  6 20-ft piston cores and 6 50-cm x 50-cm x 50-cm box cores and on-board geotechnical testing.  New to the project was the concept of in situ mini-vane testing through the entire box core sediment column (> 18 inches deep).  Routine on-board testing included torvane and minivane measurments through the length of the piston cores at 3 foot intervals.

Dr. Neil Summer operating custom minivane device (designed by TDI-Brooks) mounted directly to the box core.

To accomplish the in situ minivane measurements, TDI-Brooks designed and built a modification to the minivane to allow the device to mount directly on the box corer.  A new vane extension shaft and collar allowed penetration and rotation of the vane through the entire box core without disturbing overlying sediment nor affecting rotational friction of the mud on the shaft with increasing depth in the sediment column.

Developing and implementing new tools was not the only challenge presented on the very short lead time project.  Both TDI-Brooks vessels were at work elsewhere (R/V Geoexplorer in Africa and R/V JW Powell in Trinidad) on coring cruises.  With personnel and equipment fully deployed elsewhere, TDI-Brooks contracted with Texas A&M’s research vessel Gyre (http://www-ocean.tamu.edu/Nav/gyre.html).  Gyre is a long time ally as Dr. Brooks spent many months on Gyre in his 26 years at A&M and as founding Director of the Geochemical and Environmental Research Group developing the piston coring techniques that have become the cornerstone for surface geochemical exploration.  As a historical fact, Drs Brooks and Fay were on board for the first oceanographic cruise on the Gyre when she was delivered in January 1974.  For additional information on TDI-Brooks geotechnical capabilities contact Dr. Jim Brooks (drjmbrooks@aol.com) or Dr. Neil Summer (neilsummer@aol.com).