This work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) with the research grant Re 873/3. Travel between Germany and France during cooperative work was financed through the PRO-COPE program, and additional travel expenses had been covered by the German ODP division.
We thank IFREMER for providing ship time and the technical team for data acquisition, the captain and crew of Le Suroit and CNRS-INSU for pre- and post-cruise financial support.
We are indebted to the ODP shipboard staff for assistance during Leg 149 and finally to Dale Sawyer and Bob Whitmarsh for encouragement and advice.