Core Sample - History of Coring

History of Coring

The technique of coring long predates attempts to drill into the Earth’s mantle by the Deep Sea Drilling Program. The value to oceanic and other geologic history of obtaining cores over a wide area of sea floors soon became apparent. Core sampling by many scientific and exploratory organizations expanded rapidly. To date hundreds of thousands of core samples have been collected from floors of all the planet’s oceans and many of its inland waters. Access to many of these samples is facilitated by the Index to Marine & Lacustrine Geological Samples,

"A collaboration between twenty institutions and agencies that operate geological repositories."

The above agency keeps a record of the samples held in the repositories of its member organizations. Data includes

"Lithography, texture, age, principal investigator, province, weathering/metamorphism, glass remarks and descriptive comments"