Now Sailing: T-Limit of the Deep Biosphere off Muroto

Pushing the limits of knowledge about life on Earth, scientists aboard Chikyu and at the Kochi Core Center are exploring the complex response to temperature of microbial communities living in the seafloor near the Muroto Transect, a high-heat flow area of the Nankai Trough. The expedition will drill the entire sedimentary depth and into ~50 m of basaltic basement for a total target depth of 1210 m beneath seafloor, retrieving core samples at various temperature intervals and logging the temperature depth profile in detail. The team will also install a Temporary Temperature Observatory (TTO), a complex string of about 50 sensors whose exact design will be guided the detailed formation structure revealed by preliminary analysis of the cores taken during drilling. daily reports  *  science FAQs  *  scientist blogs    

Now Sailing: Sumatra Seismogenic Zone

The December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami caused by a Mw 9.2 earthquake devastated coastal communities, killing over 250,000. IODP Expedition 362 aims to examine the role of seafloor sediments and their potential effect on seismogenesis and tsunamogenesis in this part of the North Sumatra seismogenic zone. The rupture area of the 2004 earthquake was focused beneath a distinctive plateau of the accretionary prism, where input materials are primarily a thick sequence of sediments related to the Bengal-Nicobar fan. Expedition 362 will sample these input materials at two drill sites, analyze their properties, and log downhole temperature and pressure conditions to study sediment deposition rates, diagenesis, physical properties, and fluid composition, leading to a clearer picture of how input sedimentary rocks affect the plate boundary slip system and implications for seismic slip here and in similar subduction margins. facebook  * Twitter  *  ship reports   *  press release

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JOIDES Resolution Ship Track

As approved by JRFB May 18, 2016. "The JRFB affirms that, based on current and anticipated proposal pressure, the JOIDES Resolution will follow a path from the southwestern Pacific Ocean, through the Southern Ocean, and into the Gulf of Mexico and the Equatorial and South Atlantic, for opportunities for drilling there in FY19 and continuing into FY20. The JRFB expects that the JR will then continue to operate in the general area of the Atlantic and adjacent seas in FY21."