Continental Scientific Drilling Workshop Series
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Continental Scientific Drilling Workshop Series Report 2013 Continental Scientific Drilling Workshop Series Report 2013 A compilation of five individual workshop reports outlining the needs of the continental scientific drilling community. Editors: Andrew S. Cohen David M. Zur Design and layout: David M. Zur Cover photo: Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP) drill site (June 2013) in the central Kenya Rift Valley (Tugen Hills). Drilling at this site retrieved a core record spanning the time period from ~3.45-2.5 Ma. Photo Credit: Andrew Hill. Cover background photo: basalt core, Twin Falls, Idaho. Photo Credit: David Zur Purpose of the Continental Scientific Drilling Workshop Series Continental Scientific Drilling (CSD) is at a critical stage of growth in the United States. Opportunities to apply CSD technologies are rapidly expanding into disciplines and initiatives (e.g. Critical Zone Ob- servatories) where there was little or no interest in drilling as recently as a decade ago. The need for CSD to address a wide array of earth and environmental science questions has been well documented through several recent workshop and NRC reports (Walton et al, 2009, 2010; Brigham-Grette et al., 2011; NRC, 2011). As a result of recent meetings (2011, 2012) of the Science Planning and Education and Outreach Committees of DOSECC a plan was put into place to provide NSF with broad community input concerning specific CSD science objectives in five broad areas: Scientific Drilling and the Evolution of the Earth System: Climate, Biota, Biogeochemistry, and Extreme Systems (Conveners: Lynn Soreghan and Andrew Cohen) Drilling active tectonics and magmatism (Volcanics, Geoprisms, and Fault Zones Post-SAFOD). (Conveners: John Shervais, Jim Evans, Virginia Toy, James Kirkpatrick, John C. Eichelberger and Amanda Clarke) Drilling into High-enthalpy Geothermal Systems: A Collaborative Initiative to Promote Scientific Opportunities. (Conveners: Wilfred Elders, Joseph Moore, Alex Schriener, and Lucien Bartnicki) Cyberinformatics for Paleogeoscience (Conveners: Anders Noren, Jack Williams, Kerstin Lehnert, Shanan Peters, Eric Grimm, Julie Brigham-Grette, Emi Ito, Dave Anderson, Lisa Boush) Drilling, sampling, and imaging the depths of the critical zone. (Conveners: Clifford Riebe, Jon Chorover) In a circular to the US Earth Science community (NSF “Dear Colleague” Letter 12-111), the National Science Foundation indicated its desire to “facilitate planning activities that are necessary to support earth science proposals requiring continental scientific drilling” and that such activities might include both workshop support and community planning activities. The workshops were held throughout 2013 at various U.S. locations. The “community planning” element which NSF identified was greatly en- hanced by a concerted effort to coordinate both the execution and outcomes of those workshops. This summary document compiles the five individual workshop reports and synthesizes the findings of all of these meetings vis-à-vis the needs of the continental scientific drilling community. Collectively, these five reports illustrate the vibrancy of CSD in the US community today, the wealth of new ideas and new directions where CSD could move in the coming decade, and the need for enhanced NSF invest- ment in supporting the innovative use of drilling technologies to address important new questions in the earth sciences. Coordination of these workshops and the preparation of this final, comprehensive report was supported by NSF-EAR 1265197. References Brigham-Grette, J., Walton, A.W., Cohen, A.S., and Rack, F. 2011, Toward a Strategic Plan for U.S. Continental Scientific Drilling: Into the New Decade. DOSECC Workshop Publication 3, 28pp. National Research Council, 2012, New Research Opportunities in the Earth Sciences: National Academy Press, 174pp. Walton, A.W., Miller, K.G., Koeberl, C., Shervais, J., Colman, S., Hickman, S. and Clyde, W., 2009, The Future of Conti- nental Scientific Drilling-U.S. Perspective. DOSECC Workshop Publication 1, 60pp. Walton, A.W., Brigham-Grette, J., Shervais, J. and Snyder, W., 2010, Developing the U.S. Initiative in Continental Scientif- ic Drilling. DOSECC Workshop Publication 2, 45pp. Continental Scientific Drilling Workshop Series i Contents Scientific Drilling and the Evolution of the Earth System: Climate, Biota, Biogeochemistry and Extreme Systems 1 Gerilyn S. Soreghan and Andrew S. Cohen Drilling active tectonics and magmatism: Volcanics, Geoprisms, and Fault Zones Post-SAFOD 12 John Shervais, James Evans, Virginia Toy, John Eichelberger, Amanda Clarke, James Kirkpatrick Investigating ultra high-enthalpy geothermal systems: a collaborative initiative to Promote Scientific Opportunities 38 W. A. Elders, D. Nielson, P. Schiffman, and A. Schriener Jr Cyberinfrastructure for Paleogeoscience 50 Anders Noren, Julie Brigham-Grette, Kerstin Lehnert, Shanan Peters, Jack Williams, Emi Ito, Dave Anderson, Eric Grimm Drilling, Sampling, and Imaging the Depths of the Critical Zone 56 Clifford S. Riebe and Jon Chorover Appendices - PreProposal Documents (White Papers) and Notes 75 Appendix A: White Papers - Scientific Drilling and the Evolution of the Earth System Appendix B: White Papers - Drilling active tectonics and magmatism Appendix C: White Papers - Investigating ultra high-enthalpy geothermal systems Appendix D Workshop Notes - Cyberinfrastructure for Paleogeoscience (including workshop breakout sessions, an inventory of current community cyberinfrastructure resources and the results from the online community survey) Appendix E: White Papers - Drilling, Sampling, and Imaging the Depths of the Critical Zone Continental Scientific Drilling Workshop Series ii Scientific Drilling and the Evolution of the Earth System: Climate, Biota, Biogeochemistry and Extreme Systems Report of an NSF-Sponsored Workshop held May 17-19, 2013, Norman, Oklahoma Gerilyn S. Soreghan1 and Andrew S. Cohen2 Scientific Rationale Over the past decade, numerous workshops and study groups within sedimentary geology, pa- leoclimatology, and paleobiology have repeatedly highlighted the importance of continental scien- tific drilling to address important science questions in climate and linked Earth systems (e.g., the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported GeoSystems, DETELON, and Transitions workshops, and the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) reports on Deep-Time Climate and Climate and Human Evolution (Soreghan et al., 2003, 2005; Montañez and Soreghan, 2006; Bottjer and Erwin, 2010; NRC, 2010, 2011; Parrish, 2012). In recognition of this sustained surge of interest, a workshop was held on May 17-19, 2013 at the University of Oklahoma to identify high-priority targets for scientific drilling aimed at assessing critical questions related to paleoclimate, paleobiology, and extreme events in Earth’s history. The objectives of the workshop were to: 1. develop a community of researchers interested in using scientific drilling for stratigraphic targets to answer questions about Earth System evolution, 2. identify topics and drilling targets of broad scientific interest, and 3. offer researchers direction on how to develop compelling drilling proposals, how to evaluate and plan logistical issues related to drilling, and how to strategically develop a funding plan for drilling. The ultimate intent is to galvanize research teams to move forward with future proposals involving continental drilling. Workshop Format and Proceedings (White Papers; Appendix A) that articulated sci- entific themes in earth, evolutionary and ecolog- All interested researchers were invited to submit ical history spanning geologic time. Participants a brief pre-proposal identifying a viable continen- discussed the role of drill core studies in Earth/ tal scientific drilling target to examine questions of life history and identified locations where critical scientific importance in the areas of paleoclimate, questions can best be approached. earth history, stratigraphy, paleoecology and/or paleobiology from any interval of Earth History. The workshop included plenary sessions in which The 41 participants submitted 30 pre-proposals invited speakers addressed topics of overarching interest in scientific drilling. Additionally, principal 1 School of Geology and Geophysics, University of Oklahoma, investigators for each submitted pre-proposal pre- 100 E. Boyd Street, Norman, OK 73019, U.S.A., 2Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, sented a 5-minute talk outlining the science driv- U.S.A. ers, significance, and rationale to enable all par- Continental Scientific Drilling Workshop Series Scientific Drilling and the Evolution of the Earth System: 1 however, to understand the potential diversity of glacial-interglacial behavior throughout Earth’s Breakout groups identified critical science record. What insights can we gain about climate behavior by examining Paleozoic and Neoprotero- questions in Earth History that can be zoic glacial-interglacial and --at a broader scale-- assessed with drill core data. so-called “icehouse- greenhouse” transitions (e.g., Bao et al., 2008; Fike et al., 2006; Kennedy et al., 2008; Mills et al., 2011; Barham et al., 2012). ticipants to grasp the vast breadth of proposed Research over the past decade has highlighted the projects, which span the geological record from occurrence of major biological turnovers in Earth the oldest sedimentary rocks to modern lakes, and history accompanied by changes in greenhouse range geographically