ODP Final Technical Report - Ocean Drilling Program - Texas A&M ...

ODP Final Technical Reportsediments in subduction zones and elucidatingthe role of water in subduction zone earthquakes,determining the significance of mudvolcanoes in subduction zone dehydration andthe connection of dehydration to earthquakesand explosive volcanoes, and discoveringthe existence and cause of major undersealandslides of sufficient size to generate largetsunamis. With an eye toward the future, ODPestablished seafloor observatories to monitorearthquakes, tsunamis, and fluid flow in oceansediments and crust.Results from scientific ocean drilling researchhave confirmed that large volumes of naturalgas (methane) are frozen within deep-seamarine sediments as gas hydrates and haveproduced quantitative measurements of theamount of inert gas hydrate and gas offshoreSouth Carolina. ODP has determinedthe nature of chemosynthetic communitiesassociated with methane hydrates in oceansediments, documented the vertical andhorizontal distribution of methane hydrates inocean sediments, and acquired the necessarycore and downhole data at key sites to quantifythe volume of gas (and carbon) and infer thesize of the global methane hydrate reservoir inocean sediments.Scientific ocean drilling research confirmedthe catastrophic impact of a meteorite withEarth 65 million years ago that led to theextinction of dinosaurs and other plants andanimals at the end of the Cretaceous Period.Drilling research also determined that the oceaniccrust is home to an unforeseen microbialcommunity called the deep biosphere, whose34