Heave compensation and formation strength evaluation from downhole acceleration measurements while coring

In order to evaluate the efficiency of heave compensation in the Ocean Drilling Program, we developed a device measuring the acceleration of the core barrels. First results show that heave compensation limits bit motion to 10% of the surface heave. We also use the acceleration data to characterize the formation. On rotary corers, acceleration amplitudes decrease with increasing hardness of the formation. Comparison with geophysical logs shows that this relationship can resolve cm-scale features. On piston corers, the maximum acceleration is characteristic of the sediment shear strength. Easy and fast to deploy, this tool allows to characterize formations before any sample analysis.     

Detection of buried targets using a synthetic aperture sonar

This paper presents observations of buried target detections made using a 20-kHz synthetic aperture sonar. At grazing angles below the critical angle, surprisingly high signal-to-noise detections were made of cylindrical targets buried at depths of 15 and 50 cm. During a separate set of measurements, buried spheres were clearly seen at steep grazing angles, but were generally not seen below the critical angle. Since scattering from wave-generated sand ripples may contribute to detections at grazing angles below critical angle, the information available on the ripple fields is discussed and used in acoustic backscatter simulations for the buried spheres. Lack of information on the ripple height precludes a definitive explanation for the absence of buried sphere detections at subcritical grazing angles.     

Tectonics at the intersection of the East Pacific Rise with Tamayo Transform fault

During the Fall of 1979, a manned submersible program, utilizing DSRV ALVIN, was carried out at the intersection of the East Pacific Rise (EPR) with the Tamayo Transform boundary. A total of seven dives were completed in the vicinity of the EPR/Tamayo intersection depression and documented the geologic relationships that characterize the juxtaposition of these types of plate boundaries. The young volcanic terrain of the EPR axis can be traced into and across the Tamayo Transform valley but becomes buried by sedimentary talus that is being shed from sediment scarps along the unstable sediment slope that defines the north side of the intersection depression. Within 4 km of the transform boundary, the dominant trend (000°) of the fissures and faults that disrupt the rise-generated volcanics is markedly oblique to the regional direction of sea floor spreading (120°). Since no evidence was found to suggest that these structures accommodate significant amounts of strike-slip displacement, they are taken to reflect a distortion of the EPR extensional tectonic regime by a transform generated shear couple. The floor of the Tamayo Transform valley in this area is inundated by mass-wasted sediment, and the principal transform displacement zone is characterized at the surface by a narrow (<1.5 km) interval of fault scarps in sediment that trends parallel with the transform valley. Extrapolated to the west, this zone links with zones of transform deformation investigated during earlier submersible studies (CYAMEX and Pastouret, 1981). Evidence of low-level hydrothermal discharge was seen at one locality on the EPR axis and at another 8 km west of the axis at the edge of the zone of transform deformation.     

A hydrodynamic model of a submerged lenticular wave energy device

The wavemaking capability and energy absorbing characteristics of a single submerged body, constrained to move horizontally in a surge mode, are examined. The body possesses both a vertical axis of symmetry and a horizontal plane of symmetry and is ‘thin’ in the sense that the body draft is small compared to the length. The behaviour of a single body subject to a constraint being placed upon the amplitude of its displacement and the properties of an array of interacting identical devices are also discussed.     

Benthic Metabolism and Standing Stock in the Central and Northern Deep Red Sea

Abstract. Benthic metabolism and standing stocks were investigated in the deep Red Sea between 21^o and 27^oN, Activity was assessed by the determination of respiration rates with a shipboard method and by calculating oxygen consumption from the activity in the electron transport system. We attempted to compare results from different latitudes within the warm Red Sea and with data from cold Atlantic environments. Our investigations were part of an environmental risk assessment to evaluate future mining of metalliferous sediments from the Atlantis II Deep.     

Influence of structural flexibility and wave interference on dynamic behavior of idealized offshore platform

An approximate method is presented to estimate the hydrodynamic loading and structural response of an idealized offshore platform subjected to a regular train of linear surface waves. The platform is taken to consist of four bottom-mounted, flexible, circular cylinders supporting a rigid deck and is assumed to be aligned parallel to the incident wave direction. The response of each column is assumed to be one-dimensional and to be governed by linear beam theory. The solution technique for the fluid velocity potential involves replacing scattered waves by equivalent plane waves together with non-planar, first-correction terms, and can be shown to be a large spacing approximation.Numerical results are presented which show the effect of hydrodynamic interference and structural flexibility on the platform response.     

Formation of chemogenic calcite in super-anoxic seawater — Framvaren, southern Norway

Framvaren, a super-anoxic fjord in southern Norway, contains 7–8 mmoll⁻¹ of sulphide and a total carbonate concentration of 18.5 mmol kg⁻¹ in the bottom water. The chemistry of calcium has been studied, considering sources, biogenic and chemical processes and sedimentary sinks. Calcium associated with the bacteria biomass at the redox interface (18m depth) appears to be the primary source of dissolved calcium in the deep, anoxic water. Excess calcium and high total carbonate cause supersaturation of calcite, which is precipitated chemogenically. Calcite (and presumably some aragonite) is identified both in sediment trap material and the bottom sediments below the depth of supersaturation.