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doi:10.2204/iodp.proc.327.107.2011

Plans for ongoing and future experiments

Planning is under way for summer 2011 and 2012 dive operations (with the ROV Jason operated from the Atlantis) to service all of the CORK systems discussed above and to conduct additional sampling and experimental operations. CORKs installed before Expedition 327 were monitoring during Expedition 327 operations, including a 24 h pumping and tracer injection experiment, and data and samples collected in summer 2011 will be examined for evidence of cross-hole and vertical hydrogeologic communication.

In addition, the dust-cap will be removed from the large-diameter ball valve on the wellhead of the CORK in Hole U1362B, an autonomous flowmeter will be installed, and the ball valve will be opened. This CORK system, which is installed where basement fluids are known to be overpressured, will be allowed to flow freely for at least 1 y, providing a long-term perturbation for pressure conditions in basement in surrounding CORK systems and permitting access to a large volume of borehole and formation fluid over time. The ball valve will be closed in summer 2012, allowing recovery after a year of discharge of warm, altered formation fluids. This will result in another pressure response in surrounding holes, comprising an additional large-scale experiment. The flow experiment could be extended by installing the flowmeter on the ball valve on the CORK wellhead in Hole U1362A and allowing fluids from this location to flow freely, providing access to additional formation material from a greater depth in the crust.

Wellhead OsmoSampler systems will be deployed and replaced as needed in 2011 and 2012, respectively, but recovery and analysis of downhole temperature loggers, fluid samplers, and microbial experimental systems will most likely occur during subsequent CORK visits, as these systems were designed for deployment of 5–6 y. Samples from these systems will allow researchers to assess the return of conditions at depth below the CORKs to a predrilling state and to determine if there is evidence for arrival of one or more of the tracers injected during Expedition 327.

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