Daily Report for IODP Expedition 311, October 24, 2005

 

LOCATION: Sites U1326 (CAS-03C)

 

SCIENCE UPDATE: HoleU1326C was advanced to a depth of 82.7 mbsf with the deployment of two XCB cores, which was followed by three

consecutive pressure core deployments within a high electrical resistivity zone identified on the pre-core LWD/MWD downhole logs taken

more than a month ago in Hole U1326A. The first pressure core system deployed was the FPC, which did not recover a core under pressure. The next system to be deployed was the PCS, which appears to have recovered a partial core under pressure. The PCS core (Core U1326-12P) was moved to the degassing van for processing. The next pressure core system deployed was the HRC, which was apparently damaged at the bottom of the hole because of excessive ship heave (greater than 4 m) and formation sands packing around the outer barrel. The HRC cutting shoe and a spacer section was missing when the tool was recovered to the ship, which resulted in the termination of Hole U1326C at a total depth of 86.7 mbsf. After tripping the BHA back to the seafloor, the ship was moved 30 m to the southwest (15 m southwest of Hole U1326A) and Hole U1326D was drilled to a depth of 78.8 mbsf in preparation for continued coring operations. By midnight we had advanced the hole to 98.1 mbsf with two XCB cores. Because of problems associated with the heave state, which continued to grow through the day, and because of end of cruise schedule issues, it was decided to suspend all pressure coring operations for the remainder of the expedition. If the conditions improve we still hope to make additional DVTP deployments and possibly wireline log this hole. The last several days has seen the start up of several new special gas hydrate core experiments with a focus on time series measurements of cores that contain varying amounts of gas hydrate. The experiments have ranged from time series thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity measurements, and linked IR and conventional core imaging comparison studies.