THE FUTURE OF CONTINENTAL SCIENTIFIC DRILLING U.S. PERSPECTIVE Proceedings of a workshop | June 4-5, 2009 | Denver, Colorado DOSECC WORKSHOP PUBLICATION 1 Front Cover: Basalts and rhyolites of the Snake River Plain at Twin Falls, Idaho. Project Hotspot will explore the interaction of the Yellowstone hotspot with the continental crust by sampling the volcanic rocks underlying the plain. Two 1.5 km holes will penetrate both the surficial basalt and the underlying rhyolite caldera-fill and outflow depos- its. A separate drill hole will explore the paleoclimate record in Pliocene Lake Idaho in the western Snake River Plain. In addition to the understanding of continent-mantle interaction that develops and the paleoclimate data collected, the project will study water-rock interaction, gases emanating from the deeper curst, and the geomicro- biology of the rocks of the plain. Once scientific objectives and set, budgets are developed, and funding is granted, successful implementation of projects requires careful planning, professional on-site staff, appropriate equip- ment, effective logistics, and accurate accounting. Photo by Tony Walton The authors gratefully acknowledge support of the National Science Foundation (NSF EAR 0923056 to The University of Kansas) and DOSECC, Inc. of Salt Lake City, Utah. Anthony W. Walton, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas Kenneth G. Miller, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J. Christian Koeberl, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria John Shervais, Utah State University, Logan, Utah Steve Colman, University of Minnesota, Duluth, Duluth, Minnesota edited by Cathy Evans. Stephen Hickman, US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California covers and design by mitch favrow. Will Clyde, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire document layout by Pam Lerow and Paula Courtney. THE FUTURE OF CONTINENTAL SCIENTIFIC DRILLING, A US Perspective EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Many fundamental and exciting scientific problems can only be solved by drilling. Problems for which drilling is essential encompass a wide range of themes: global environmental and ecological change; geodynamics, including related earthquake and volcano hazards; the geobiosphere; and natural resources and related environmental concerns. Intellectually coherent topics lie within these themes or cross theme boundaries. Themes include geologic records of coupled climate, sea level, and environmental change; history of the magnetosphere; melting processes of mantle plumes and their interaction with continental crust; fault and earthquake source mechanics; evolution of volcanic systems; extraterrestrial impact structures and processes; subsurface ecosystems; ground water; hydrothermal processes, geothermal energy and ore deposition; and CO2 sequestration, to mention a few. Drilling is necessary to access, for example, key structures, rock bodies and active processes that are not exposed, but lie within range of the drill bit; time series where surface outcrops are unavailable or not usable; or fluids and microbes at depth. The future of scientific drilling was considered at a workshop in Denver, Colorado, on June 4 and 5, 2009. The workshop emphasized the future of drilling under US auspices, although it had international participation. The goal of the workshop was to identify key scientific issues that could be addressed by drilling and to foster new scientific drilling projects within the US-based community, in cooperation with the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP). Drilling into continental sediments and rocks complements drilling in ocean basins. The continental record potentially extends our knowledge of deep time to the Archean, while ocean drilling generally provides information only back to the age of the oldest oceanic crust. Continental drilling can elucidate uniquely continental processes and structures, as well as provide alternate but complementary views to observations made in the oceans. However, many problems require drilling in both the continental and oceanic realms, so cooperation and coordination between the continental and marine drilling community is critical. The community interested in continental scientific drilling is large, intellectually engaged, and thematically diverse. It is important to foster this community and to promote intellectual discourse among members with differing but potentially syngergistic interests. It is also important to reach outside the drilling community to groups that use different methods to approach the same problems. For example, most drill holes have the potential for investigating the subsurface microbial community, but this capability is underutilized. Many processes within the Earth’s interior are investigated by geophysics, analog studies, and modeling as well as through samples and data from drilling. The general view of the workshop participants was that collaboration should be encouraged with such parallel groups as well as within the scientific drilling community wherever possible and appropriate As drilling is expensive, it is important to identify objectives carefully and to optimize individual campaigns or holes. Optimization requires planning at two levels. At one level it is necessary for specialists in particular research topics to optimize available technology and research opportunities to develop key projects that have significant potential to advance the science in their particular discipline using as many different tools and experimental approaches as possible. At a different level, individual drilling projects are very expensive and thus require development of a broadly based community of specialists in diverse fields who will make use of the samples and data from the drilling project. Such planning should include efforts to bring forth the maximum involvement of interested parties, including those from disciplines outside the traditional bounds of the geosciences. Both individual drilling projects and general research themes can benefit from technological advances to obtain better samples, downhole measurements and long-term monitoring that enable a wide array THE FUTURE OF CONTINENTAL SCIENTIFIC DRILLING: A U.S. PERSPECTIVE 1 of cutting-edge scientific issues to be addressed in a broader range of environments. Close interactions between scientists, drilling contractors, and designers of tools and equipment are necessary to continuously advance the science that can be addressed through drilling. The workshop came to several recommendations for the community interested in drilling in continental environments. First, the continental drilling community must broaden itself by educating other geoscientists in the advantages of drilling as a means of getting key samples and data for important problems. Second, the community must develop a broadly based science advisory committee that acts to focus the community, provides scientific leadership, and invites participation by all interested parties within the Earth sciences. Third, that science advisory committee must encourage disciplinary planning workshops that have strong participation of parallel groups not traditionally involved in drilling in addition to members of the continental drilling community. Fourth, the community should identify general needs for technological advances in capabilities or facilities and work together to meet those needs. Fifth, the community should develop instrumentation and protocols for use of drill holes in long-term monitoring of active processes at depth. Sixth, there should be well-established routes to carrying out preliminary site characterization studies to facilitate development of scientific and operational plans for drilling projects and to verify that the sites selected for these projects are optimal for achieving their scientific objectives. Seventh, the community must provide open and ready access to all data, cores, and publications that result from drilling after appropriate moratorium periods through public databases, repositories, site reports and publications in the general literature. Cooperation with ocean drilling in these activities is desirable. Finally, a facility is necessary to assist PIs in preparing realistic drilling plans and cost estimates for proposals. This facility should also have the capabilities to carry out successful drilling campaigns, including operational and support staff, logistics, drilling equipment and suitable on-site laboratories. The facility can provide staff support for community activities, and should be managed in coordination with technological, database and other support capabilities currently provided by the ICDP and IODP. The authors gratefully acknowledge support of the National Science Foundation (NSF EAR 0923056 to The University of Kansas) and DOSECC, Inc. of Salt Lake City, Utah. Anthony W. Walton, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas Kenneth G. Miller, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J. Christian Koeberl, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria John Shervais, Utah State University, Logan, Utah Steve Colman, University of Minnesota, Duluth, Duluth, Minnesota Stephen Hickman, US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California Will Clyde, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 2 THE FUTURE OF CONTINENTAL SCIENTIFIC DRILLING: A U.S. PERSPECTIVE THE FUTURE OF CONTINENTAL SCIENTIFIC DRILLING: A U.S. PERSPECTIVE Anthony W. Walton1, Will Clyde2, Steve M. Colman3, Stephen Hickman4, Christian Koeberl5, Kenneth H. Miller6, and John Shervais7 INTRODUCTION: EXCITING SCIENCE THROUGH DRILLING Discovering