Coring methods and tools are in a continuous development, and the years 2014 and 2015 are especially important for the coring community : the coring facilities onboard the R/V Marion Dufresne are being upgraded through the Climcor and Jouvence projects.

The coring winch has been changed last year - from 30 tons pulling strength to 45 tons - and is still under commissioning, equipped with a Ø35mm Dyneema rope extremely stiff.

In the next few months, the coring A-frame and davits will be changed to be stronger and more modern, and the boats structure will be optimized to make the coring operations faster and more secured.

All these improvements will lead to a better coring capacity, with a much better sample quality, and core lengths that will reach 75 metres.

Regarding the corers : a new Calypso is under development, an acoustic interface corer is now ready to core, equipped with a camera to take pictures of the seabed, the "security jaw" (linking the core head and the pipes) have been tested successfully on the R/V Pourquoi Pas ?, as well as the piston-cable in Dyneema.