[1] The February 2005 swarm at the overlapping spreading center (OSC) on the northern end of the Endeavour segment is the first swarm on the Juan de Fuca Ridge recorded on a local seafloor seismic network. The swarm included several larger earthquakes and caused triggered seismicity and a hydrothermal response in the Endeavour vent fields as well as regional-scale hydrologic pressure perturbations. The spatial and temporal pattern of over 6000 earthquakes recorded during this seismic sequence is complex. Small-magnitude events dominate, and seismicity rates wax and wane, indicating a magmatic process. The main swarm initiates at the northern end of the Endeavour ridge. However, most of the moment release, including six strike-slip events, occurs in the southwest Endeavour Valley, where the swarm epicenters generally migrate south. The main swarm is contemporaneous with a hydrologic pressure response at four sealed seafloor boreholes, ∼25-105 km away. We infer that the seismic sequence is driven by a largely aseismic magma intrusion at the northern Endeavour axis. Resulting stress changes trigger slip on tectonic faults and possibly dike propagation at the opposing limb of the Endeavour OSC in the southwest Endeavour Valley, consistent with the eventual decapitation of the Endeavour by the West Valley segment. Furthermore, 2.5 days after the start of the main swarm, seismicity is triggered beneath the Endeavour vent fields, and temperature increases at a diffuse vent in the Mothra field. We infer that this delayed response is due to a hydrologic pressure pulse that diffuses away from the main magma intrusion.
Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 327 installed two new subseafloor borehole observatory systems ("CORKs") in 3.5 m.y. old upper ocean crust on the eastern flank of Juan de Fuca Ridge in Holes U1362A and U1362B. Expedition 327 participants also recovered part of an instrument string previously deployed in a CORK in Hole U1301B and deployed a short replacement string. These observatories are part of a network of six CORKs that was designed to monitor, sample, and complete multidisciplinary cross-hole experiments. We present an overview of project goals and describe the design, construction, and deployment of new CORK systems. We also provide an update on the status of preexisting CORK systems as of the start of Expedition 327. Additional CORK servicing and sampling are scheduled for summer 2011 and 2012, including a long-term free-flow perturbation experiment that will test the large-scale directional properties of the upper ocean crust around the observatories.
Motivation, background, and overview of experimental design Long-term borehole observatory systemsSubseafloor borehole observatory systems ("CORKs") are designed to (1) seal one or more depth intervals of a borehole so that thermal, pressure, chemical, and microbiological conditions can equilibrate following the dissipation of drilling and other operational disturbances; (2) facilitate collection of fluid and microbiological samples and temperature and pressure data using autonomous samplers and data logging systems; and (3) serve as longterm monitoring points for large-scale crustal testing, including formation response to perturbation experiments Davis et al., 1992a;. The development of CORK systems was motivated by the desire to address a broad range of scientific objectives that have been the focus of scientific ocean drilling for decades, particularly those associated with submarine hydrogeology, lithospheric and hydrothermal fluid evolu-
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.