Core sample
cylindrical section of a naturally occurring substance, usually obtained by drilling into it with special drills
A core sample is a cylindrical section of (usually) a naturally occurring substance. Most core samples are obtained by drilling with special drills into the substance, such as sediment or rock, with a hollow steel tube, called a core drill. The hole made for the core sample is called the "core hole". A variety of core samplers exist to sample different media under different conditions; there is continuing development in the technology. In the coring process, the sample is pushed more or less intact into the tube. Removed from the tube in the laboratory, it is inspected and analyzed by different techniques and equipment depending on the type of data desired.
Core samples can be taken to test the properties of manmade materials, such as concrete, ceramics, some metals and alloys, especially the softer ones. Core samples can also be taken of living things, including human beings, especially of a person's bones for microscopic examination to help diagnose diseases.
Methods
The composition of the subject materials can vary from almost liquid to the strongest materials found in nature or technology, and the location of the subject materials can vary from on the laboratory bench to over 10 km from the surface of the Earth in a borehole. The range of equipment and techniques applied to the task is correspondingly great.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Core sample” is cylindrical section of a naturally occurring substance, usually obtained by drilling into it with special drills. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Core, sample and cylindrical, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “cylindrical section of a naturally occurring substance, usually obtained by drilling into it with special drills” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1942237. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Core sample” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.