Abstract
Sediment cores are important archives for paleolimnological, paleooceanographic and paleoecological research. Rigs for splitting lake sediment cores that have been collected in PVC or polycarbonate tubes are often large, bulky, and require a permanent setup that takes up valuable laboratory space. Here we describe a new, compact, cost-effective apparatus for splitting sediment cores collected in PVC or polycarbonate tubing. This portable setup is relatively simple to construct and use, and is ideal for use in the laboratory, in the field, or on board research vessels at sea.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cumming BF, Glew JR, Smol JP, Davis R, Norton SA (1993) Comments on “core compression and surficial sediment loss of lake sediments of high porosity caused by gravity coring” (Crusius and Anderson). Limnol Oceanogr 38:695–699
De Vleeschouwer F, Chambers FM, Swindles GT (2010) Coring and sub-sampling of peatlands for palaeoenvironmental research. Mires and Peat 7:article 1
Glew JR, Smol JP, Last WM (2001) Sediment core collection and extrusion. In: Last WM, Smol JP (eds) Tracking environmental change using lake sediment, vol 1., Basin AnalysisCoring and Chronological Techniques. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 73–105
Huttunen P, Meriläinen J (1978) New freezing device providing large, unmixed sediment samples from lakes. Ann Bot Fenni 15:128–130
Verschuren D (1993) A lightweight extruder for accurate sectioning of soft bottom lake sediment cores in the field. Limnol Oceanogr 38:1796–1802
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rogers, G.N.D., Bonner, K.I., Wood, J.R. et al. The rail-cutter: a simple, cheap and compact system for opening sediment cores in the lab and field. J Paleolimnol 53, 433–436 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-015-9830-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-015-9830-x