Piston Core

Coring DeviceSample DiameterMax Length*Approximate Coring Device Weight
MARSSAM Jumbo Piston Core10.16 cm24 m3500 – 6000 lbs
*Recovery is widely variable depending on sediment type, overboarding equipment limitations and ocean/weather conditions. Technically we can reach lengths up to ~30m but this is not readily feasible on current ARF vessels.
MARSSAM maintains three sets of piston cores to handle overlapping expeditions.

Piston cores recover the longest soft sediment cores of any of the equipment MARSSAM provides. The piston core drops at a free fall around a stationary piston that reduces internal friction allowing for longer cores. Jumbo piston cores (JPC) recover samples of 10.16 cm diameter and up to 24m in length in ideal conditions on ARF vessels. The free-fall is triggered by a ~3 m gravity core (“trigger core”) which also provides a 10.16 cm diameter sample of the upper sediment layers.

MARSSAM also has a smaller piston corer that provides 6.35 cm diameter samples up to 25 m long.

JPC operations requires two technicians per shift to rig, launch and recover the apparatus. We handle JPC launch and recovery differently on each ship in the fleet and therefore we recommend reaching out to us about operation time and methods prior to planning your expedition.

An animation showing the basics of a piston coring system.
Piston core rigged on the R/V Oceanus
Coring techs rig jumbo piston core and trigger core on R/V Thompson. C. Fanshier 2019
A 80ft (24.4m) piston core being recovered on the RV Sikuliaq. Note that this length was achieved due to ideal substrate and multiple cores of increasing length were taking prior to ensure the wire tension limits were not breached. B. Freiberg 2025
A gravity ‘trigger’ core (vertical) being attached to its weight stand before being attached to the trigger arm of the JPC (horizontal) system on the RV Melville. N. Pisias
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