Daily Report for IODP Expedition 311, October 3, 2005

LOCATION: Site U1327 (CAS-01B)

SCIENCE UPDATE: Coring operations continued in Hole U1327C, which was advanced to depth of 228 mbsf by midnight. Numerous recovered cores exhibited notable IR thermal anomalies (inferred gas hydrate), including Cores U1327C 13X, 14X, 16X19X, 22X, 23X, and 25X within the approximate depth interval 105-210 mbsf. One of the most notable IR anomalies was observed at the top of Core 17X, which had a 2.5-m-long very cold continuous thermal anomaly. The IR inferred gas hydrate occurrences in Cores 13X17X appear to correlate with a thick high electrical resistivity interval observed in the LWD/MWD log data from Hole U1327A. In additional to standard sampling protocol, most of the IR inferred gas hydrate occurrences were subsampled for special pore water and microbiological analyses. Samples believed to contain gas hydrate were preserved in liquid nitrogen. Visible evidence of gas hydrate was seen in Core 19X (small flakes) and as well as in Core 22X, where larger nodules several mm in diameter were observed. The PCS was deployed twice, both Cores U1327C-15P and 24P were returned with pressure and full cores. The PCS core degassing process was started after initial X-Ray and density imaging of the sealed pressure corer inner barrel. Additional formation temperature measurements were made with one deployment of the DVTP tool.