Collaborative Research on the Iceland Deep Drilling Project: An Investigation of a High-Temperature Mid-Ocean Ridge Hydrothermal System in a 5 km Deep Borehole

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0507625EldersThe Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) will study the interaction of high-temperature (~ 450oC) hydrothermal fluids with oceanic crust on the Reykjanes Peninsula, at the southwestern tip of Iceland, where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge emerges from the ocean. The requested funds would be highly leveraged because most of the cost of drilling a 5km deep borehole will be borne by industry and the Icelandic government, with participation from the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program. An Icelandic geothermal power company is providing an existing ~ 3 km deep well for deepening to 5 km depth. This project will provide the first opportunity worldwide to investigate the deep, high temperature reaction zone of a mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal system, which has been a long-standing goal of the Ocean Drilling Program. This drill site is ideally situated for a broad array of scientific studies involving reactions between basalt and seawater at high temperatures, reaching supercritical conditions. Such active processes in the deep, high temperature reaction zones that control fluid compositions of black smokers have never before been available for comprehensive direct study and sampling. Ocean drilling has penetrated only 2 km into 5 Ma old ocean crust. where temperatures were ~ 180 oC. In contrast, the IDDP collaboration with industry in Iceland will produce fluid samples from the flow tests at 3, 4, and 5 km, drill cuttings and spot cores down to 4.0 km depth, and 1.0 km of continuous drill core from 4.0 to 5.0 km depth. These samples will reveal the integrated record of basalt-seawater interactions at 400oC. The study of these materials will permit a quantum leap in our understanding of active hydrothermal processes that are important on a global scale, The funds provided will be used for: (1) coring for scientific purposes; (2) support for the scientific program at the well site, for fluid sampling, for core handling, and for basic petrologic characterization of the cores, and distribution of sub-samples and data to an approved list of international scientists; and (3) support for a coordinated group of US Co-PI's investigating hydrothermal water/rock interactions and geochemical modeling. The core and fluids that will be retrieved may characterize the lower boundary of a major hydrothermal system and thus provide important evidence about what controls the upper temperature limits of hydrothermal systems.