We wish to thank Guy Marolleau at École Normale Supérieure (ENS) for maintaining our suffering triaxial cell, Jean Philippe Avouac and Frederic Perrier at the Commissariat à l'Ènergie Atomique/Direction des Applications Militaires (CEA/DAM) who provided us with three GDS cell controllers. This study was partly funded by Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and by the Geosciences "ad hoc" committee of Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers (INSU). This research used samples and data provided by the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP). The ODP is sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and participating countries under management of Joint Oceanographic Institutions (JOI), Inc.