the conversion takes place in the Gulf or East Coast, active margin drilling would probably wait until after extensive drilling in the passive margins. A third objective given in the FUSOD report is drilling into the oceanic crust. Crustal drilling by the GLOMAR CHALLENGER has been fraught with unexpected problems. We had thought that drilling into basalt would be a relatively simple matter, only to discover that in some areas the rock layers are inbedded with a form of basalt gravel which can slump into the hole and prevent the drill from making progress. Consequently, we know about the nature of only the upper few hundred meters of basalt. We have not been able to drill deep enough to find the cause of the magnetic anomalies on which so much of the theory of seafloor spreading and plate tectonics is based. To achieve the deep penetrations into the ocean crust necessary to promote our understanding of the way the ocean floor is formed will require the use of a riser to obtain return circulation in the well and to flush the well of the rock chips which impede drilling. Although the deep seafloor may have little direct resource implication, investigating the nature of the ocean crust is very important for understanding the history of heat flow from the interior of the earth and for understanding the formation the ore deposits in more accessible regions. The fourth objective of the FUSOD report is to continue the investigations of the paleooceanography and paleoclimatology based on the significant results produced by the Deep Sea Drilling Program. We know very little about what the oceans were like in the earlier Mesozoic when the source beds for our modern petroleum reservoirs were being deposited. We are very limited in our ability to relate the geology of the coastal plains and shelves to that of the deep sea. Only recently have we become aware that the earth as we see it today, with its deep ocean circulation driven by cold plumes of water descending in the polar regions, may be unlike the earth of most of geologic times. During the Mesozoic, the deep water circulation was probably driven by brines formed in marginal seas such as the modern Mediterranean. The ocean as it exists today cannot become extensively anerobic because the deep areas are fed by oxygen rich cold water from the polar regions. However, the saltier Mesozoic deep water, which was generated in warm marginal seas, would contain no oxygen and the sediments deposited beneath them would be rich in organic carbon. Like the modern Mediterranean outflow, the warm brines might mix with other water and spread out at midlevels in the ocean, producing anerobic conditions that would concentrate organic carbon sedimentation on the continental margins. The climatic implications of this alternate state of oceanic circulation are immense. The evidence to test these new hypotheses will among many others, be gleaned from the drilling on the passive margins. The FUSOD report proposed not only riser drilling but also drilling with the CHALLENGER whenever possible to achieve the objectives on a more cost-effective basis. This would include some drilling in the ocean crust and in oceanic sediments for particular paleoenvironmental objectives, and shallow riserless drilling on the margins to aid in selection of the sites for drilling with full well control. Continued interest in CHALLENGER capabilities from non-U.S. members of IPOD, as well as expression of interest in the OMDP, offer prospects for financial support in addition to scientific participation in future years. The FUSOD report emphasizes the need for adequate scientific programs to precede, accompany and follow drilling. A significant portion of the proposed budget for the Ocean Margin Drilling Program is for geophysical surveying, particularly in the passive and active margin areas to assist in problem definition and site selection. The sites ultimately chosen for riser drilling must answer a number of scientific objectives and their selection will be a careful process derived from the geophysical and geological studies undertaken as the initial phase of this program. The Ocean Margin Drilling Program which we have proposed is an integrated program which starts with extensive geophysical investigations and ends with geological analysis of the samples recovered through drilling. We believe that drilling to test the hypotheses resulting from geophysical investigations must proceed in parallel with continuing further geophysical investigation and that the results of geological analysis must feed back to refine the geophysical interpretations. The process is coherent, integral and continuous. Much has been said about this program and its implications for resource assessment. It is not a resource assessment program in the sense that the term is used in industry. What we will It We welcome the opportunity to cooperate with industry in this program. The FUSOD report assumed that during the 1980's drilling on the shelf and upper slope would be carried out by industry and would define the geological framework of the landward portion of the continental margin. We also assumed that the academic marine geological community, which has extensive experience in the deep sea, would meet with the industrial geological community and that we would solve the complex problems of the outer continental slope and rise together. We applaud the efforts of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to make this dream a practical reality. I believe that the cross-fertilization resulting from the scientific cooperation in this academic-industry joint venture will have a great impact on the science of geology and |