After completing drilling at Site 900, we moved the ship to 40°40.48'N, 11°3.59'W for Site 901 and deployed a Datasonics beacon. The precision depth recorder indicated a water depth of 4726.4 mbsl. A rotary core barrel (RCB) bottom-hole assembly (BHA) was assembled and run to the seafloor. The seafloor was encountered at 4730.0 mbrf, and Hole 901A was spudded at 0325UTC, 23 May 1993. We washed the hole from the seafloor to 4912.0 mbrf (0-182.0 mbsf; Core 149-901A-1W), cored from 4912.0 to 4930.8 mbrf (182.0 200.8 mbsf; Cores 149-901A-2R to -3R), washed from 4930.8 to 4949.8 mbrf (200.8-219.8 mbsf; Core 149-901A-4W), and cored from 4949.8 to 4968.1 mbrf (219.8-247.8 mbsf; Cores 149-901A-5R to -7R; Table 1). We stopped coring after Core 149-901A-7R to re trieve the drill string so that we could return on time to Lisbon for the end of Leg 149.