A 3-cm-thick, whole-round subsample was trimmed from each 10-cm whole-round section initially obtained at sea for consolidation testing. The consolidation sample had been completely sealed in wax and was stored at a temperature of ~4ºC. The 3-cm subsample was quartered and used for the following analyses: (1) air drying at 23ºC, and then oven drying in 10ºC increments from 30º to 120ºC; (2) oven drying at 60ºC for mineralogy and grain-size analyses; (3) freeze drying; and (4) microwave oven drying. This report focuses on the incrementally dried water content results because the technique used to obtain them was the most similar to the shipboard procedure. Each drying temperature increment lasted at least 24 hr.
Grain-size analyses, for estimating hydraulic equivalents, were performed using methods presented in Poppe (1988a). The coarse fraction was determined by use of a settling tube or sieves, and a Coulter Counter measured the amount of fine fraction present.
Sample mineralogy was determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods (Poppe, 1988b). Unoriented aggregate mounts were used to estimate the relative mineralogic composition using external standards, whereas oriented clay mineral mounts were created by a technique described by Pollastro (1982). Clay estimates were made using Biscaye's (1965) method.