The sediment-water interface is a crucial boundary in the environment. It connects modern-day processes with the past. Sediment sampling is a useful tool for scientists to understand the benthic (seabed) environment and therefore the effects of drilling. Seabed sediments offer a snapshot of the here and now and are used by scientists to calibrate the records of long-term past climate change and other environmental processes.

Marine sediments can provide clues to marine organism distribution, both spatially and temporally, ocean floor movements, ocean circulation patterns, climate change and global extinction events.

The Sediment Sampling project involves the use of ROV push cores to collect sediment samples in the areas where we work. ROV push cores are a unique resource to science, as obtaining multiple locality sediment samples across complex seabed settings is the most expensive component of a scientific research project. Unlike most marine coring devices, an ROV core can provide an undisturbed seabed sample. But most importantly the sample comes with context - images, video footage, and other ancillary datasets. Normally, scientists have little context of the surroundings from which a sample has been retrieved. Thus, making ROV cores a highly valuable scientific asset.