“The core is a unique, irreplaceable, and tangible archive of over 50 years of subsurface investigation,” said Patti Bennett, SRNS Geotechnical Engineer. “The replacement value of the cores is estimated to be well over $60 million.”

Core is used to understand sediment heterogeneity and physical properties; seismic hazard analysis; predict groundwater movement and the behavior of contaminants and mitigants; and add geotechnical rigor to facility siting and foundation design. In the broader scientific community, core can also be used for university research, studies conducted by state and federal geologic surveys, and for museum display.

“Over the years, sunlight and other environmental factors have degraded the cardboard boxes containing sediment cores,” continued Bennett. “It is so important to have a complete and accurate core listing for SRS and the community. The interns have done a fantastic job under difficult conditions to make this possible.”

SRS Design Engineering interns Lilli Walker, a sophomore at Georgia Southern University, and Harrison Powell, a senior at University of Georgia, were hired to work with Structural Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering this summer.

“This was great hands-on fieldwork where I learned about the unique attributes of the core library,” said Walker. “Learning about the processes of drilling and collecting core samples was both interesting and rewarding. This inventory creates better access to geological core.”

“I really enjoyed learning about this hidden resource at SRS,” said Powell. “My favorite part was getting to look inside some of the boxes. It was hard to conceptualize that the core sample I was looking at was sometimes over 200 feet below the surface and millions of years old.”

SRS Geological Core Repository is home to over 1,200 cores stored in 22,000 boxes.

During the inventory process, the student interns worked with Geotechnical Engineer Courtney Green and Construction Laborer James Williams to digitally log each item. Each log included the shelf location, core name, box color, box condition, and core depth. Discrepancies from previous inventories were noted, and some items were too degraded to be verified