Sea-floor drill rig MARUM-MeBo70

High quality sampling of the sea floor is the basis of a variety of research projects at the MARUM. In order to bridge the gap between the use of expensive drill ships and simple sampling tools like gravity corer, the Marum has developed the sea floor drill rig MARUM-MeBo70 (“Meeresboden-Bohrgerät”, German for “sea floor drill rig”). This drill rig is capable of sampling soft sediments and hard rocks down to 80 m at the sea floor with a total core length of more than 70 m. It can be operated in water depths up to 2000 m. The MARUM-MeBo70 can be deployed from standard research vessels like RV METEOR and RV SONNE. The development of the drill was funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research and by the Bremen State Government.

The MARUM-MeBo70 is a portable drill rig which is remotely operated from the vessel. It was designed by MARUM in close cooperation with several companies. MARUM was responsible for system concept, project management, sensor integration, control hard- and software development and overall system integration. A steel armoured umbilical manufactured by the Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke (NSW) is used to lower the MARUM-MeBo70 to the sea bed. Copper wires and fibre optics in the umbilical core are used for energy supply and for communication. The MARUM-MeBo70 uses the Remote Systems Engine from Schilling Robotics as telemetry system. This company also developed the loading arm and the rotating magazines that are used for storage of the required drill tools on the rig. Prakla Bohrtechnik was responsible for the drill technology and the hydraulics.