Gravity cores are lowered directly into the seafloor, relying on their own momentum to penetrate the sediments. A one way valve attached to the top of core liner acts as the proverbial “finger on the straw”, allowing water to pass through as the corer penetrates the seafloor, and providing suction to hold the sediments in on the way back to surface. We have a variety of large (10.16cm diameter) and small (6.68 cm diameter) gravity cores. We employ the Benthos gravity cores as triggers for our jumbo piston core.

Kasten cores function in the same manner as a gravity core, except that they are rectangular in profile. One side of the coring box is detachable, providing instant access to the sediments. MARSSAM has a 20×20 cm Kasten cores, that uses the same core weight as the jumbo piston core and giant gravity core and has a stainless-steel liner inside of a galvanized sampling box.