Poor ice conditions in August 1998 prevented us from accessing our original drilling targets landward of Site 988. Instead, we selected alternate sites along the outer part of seismic Line DLC9713, 55 km northeast of Site 988 (Fig. F1). The deep crustal seismic profile SIGMA II (Holbrook et al., 2001) runs midway between these two locations. According to the interpretation of seafloor magnetic anomalies, the new drill sites were located in igneous crust similar in age to that for Site 988 (later stage of Chron C24r; 54–53 Ma). The two sites are on relatively flat, smooth basement with little glacial cover based on seismic data (Fig. F2). The second site, Site SEG02, had to be relocated at the very last moment because of approaching ice and later proved to be ~200 m off the seismic line. Therefore, no detailed seismic image exists of Site SEG02.