Primary Drilling Strategy | Table of Contents

OPERATION PLAN

Will Sager and Adam Klaus (Texas A&M University) have kindly made available digital six channel seismic reflection data collected during their 1994 site survey cruise of Shatsky Rise. Five primary sites and nine alternate sites have been identified (Fig. 9; Table 1, Table 2). The current Leg 198 drilling plan calls for coring at the five primary sites. As explained below, we have designed an alternate strategy to be employed if recovery of soft sediment at the first drilling site is seriously impaired by chert; the alternate strategy calls for coring to a shallower total depth (TD) at the five primary sites and three alternate sites. Sites were selected based on the following criteria: (1) thick sediment packages that include the intervals of interest, (2) weaker seismic reflectors in Paleogene and Lower mid-Cretaceous intervals that are thought to indicate the presence of less significant unconformities and chert horizons, and (3) a range of paleodepths to provide depth transects for the mid-Cretaceous to Paleogene section. The anticipated section in each site is shown in Figure 10 and Table 3.

Primary Drilling Strategy | Table of Contents