Table T5. Level of seawater contamination expected in cores based on the concentration of PFT observed in sediment and parallel bead counts, Holes 1229A and 1229D.
Core,
section
Sample details
ng PFT/
g sediment
Potential µL
seawater/
g sediment
Beads
counted
Beads/g
201-1229A-



2H-2 Center 0.03 0.03

2H-2 Outside 18.41 18.41 215 in 21 fields 8,851
3H-2 Center 0.02 0.02

3H-2 Outside 15.33 15.33 209 in 20 fields 578,784
4H-5 Center 0.05 0.05

4H-5 Outside 0.54 0.54

6H-2 Center 0.09 0.09

6H-2 Outside 0.52 0.52

9H-5 Center BD BD

9H-5 Outside 0.03 0.03

11H-5 Center 0.03 0.03

11H-5 Outside 0.02 0.02

14H-3 Center 0.05 0.05

14H-3 Outside 0.11 0.11

18H-2 Center 0.01 0.01

18H-2 Outside 0.13 0.13

22H-2 HTEW section BD BD

201-1229D-



1H-1 Center 0.01 0.01

1H-1 Outside 0.02 0.02

1H-1 Outside (bead sample) 0.14 0.14

1H-3 Center 0.01 0.01

1H-3 Outside 2.32 2.32

12H-2 Center 0.03 0.03

12H-2 Outside 0.16 0.16

15H-3 Center 0.03 0.03

15H-3 Outside 0.89 0.89

Notes: Detection limit = 0.01 µL seawater/g sediment, BD = below detection. The potential for microbial contamination is based on 5 x 108 cells/L surface seawater. This may be viewed as an upper limit for microbial contamination because it requires the sediment be porous enough to allow all of the contaminating cells to travel with the PFT. HTEW = high temperature (thermophile) enrichments whole-round core.