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Priority:
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Primary
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Position:
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41°51.4268′S, 153°07.1519′W (WGS 84)
(41.8571°S, 153.1192°W)
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Water depth (m)
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5092
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Target drilling depth (mbsf):
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94–100
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Approved maximum penetration (mbsf):
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Until basement is encountered
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Previous drilling in area:
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Closest drilling:
• ODP Leg 181 Site 1123, 810 nmi away
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Comments:
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International waters; 950 nmi from Rapa, French Polynesia
Preferred weather window: November–December
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Survey coverage
(track map, seismic profile):
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High-resolution seismics:
• Primary line(s): MCS Line 3 - Shotpoint 16524 (Fig. AF28)
• Crossing line(s): MCS Line 1 - Shotpoint 15990 (Fig. AF29)
• Subbottom profile, 3.5 kHz: Line 3 - JDay 017 at 06:08 GMT
• Detailed bathymetry and site location (swath bathymetry: collected with SIMRAD EM120) (Fig. AF30)
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Sediment cores:
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Two trigger cores, one gravity core, and six cores of an eight-barrel multicore
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Objectives
(see text for complete details):
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• Document the habitats, metabolic activities, genetic composition, and biomass of microbial communities in subseafloor sediments with very low total activity.
• Test how oceanographic factors (such as surface ocean productivity) control variation in sedimentary habitats, activities, and communities from gyre center to gyre margin.
• Quantify the extent to which these sedimentary communities may be supplied with electron donors by water radiolysis, a process independent of the surface photosynthetic world.
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Drilling/Coring program:
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• Triple to quadruple APC to basement
• Temperature measurements: APCT-3
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Downhole logging program:
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None specified
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Anticipated lithology:
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Homogeneous brown clay with yellowish brown circular mottles; baseball-sized manganese nodules present at top
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