ALBERT

Description: In summer 2017, the ICDP SUSTAIN project (Surtsey Underwater volcanic System for Thermophiles, Alteration processes and INnovative concretes), drilled three cored boreholes (Table 1) through Surtsey at sites ≤10 m from a cored hole obtained in 1979. Drilling through the still hot volcano was carried out with an Atlas Copco CS1000 drill rig, whose components were transported by helicopter to Surtsey and re-assembled on site. The first vertical borehole, SE-02a, was cored in HQ diameter to 152 meters below surface (m b.s.) during August 7-16. It was terminated due to borehole collapse. A second vertical (SE-02b) cored borehole was then drilled in HQ diameter to 192 m during August 19-26. Wireline borehole logging in SE-02b was performed August 26. The anodized NQ-sized aluminum tubing of the Surtsey Subsurface Observatory was installed in SE-02b to 181 m depth on August 27. A third borehole, SE-03, angled 35° from vertical and directed 264°, was drilled from August 28 to September 4 and reached a measured depth of 354 m (~290 m vertical depth) under the eastern crater. The core is HQ diameter to a measured depth of 213 m and NQ diameter from 213-354 m measured depth. The core traverses the deep conduit and intrusions of the volcano to a total vertical depth of 290 m b.s. Seawater drilling fluid for boreholes SE-02a and SE-02b was filtered and doubly UV-sterilized at the drill site. No mud products were employed while coring SE-02a, while small amounts of attapulgite mud were used in SE-02b and SE-03. Core samples for geochemical analyses of pore water and microbiological investigations were collected on site from all three boreholes. About 650 m of core was transported by helicopter to Heimaey, 18 km northeast of Surtsey, to a processing laboratory where the core was scanned, documented, and described. Additional core processing has taken place at the Náttúrufraedistofnun Íslands, the Icelandic Institute of Natural History in Gardabaer, where both the 1979 and 2017 cores are stored.

Description: Length: 32 min What forms the landscapes of the Earth with its mountains, rivers, soils, the places we live in? Is Earth’s surface shaped when rocks are uplifted by geologic forces, and are then destroyed by rain, ice, and wind; or do plants with their roots, animals that dig into soil and the vast number of microorganisms shape the landscapes? Watch the scientists of the German-Chilean “EarthShape” project study these questions along a fascinating landscapes in Chile, and in their home laboratories. A science movie designed and produced by Friedhelm von Blanckenburg from GFZ Potsdam, Germany, Kirstin Übernickel from Universität Tübingen, and Wolfgang Dümcke from Filmbüro Potsdam, Germany, within the DFG-funded research network “EarthShape – Earth Surface Shaping by Biota” which is coordinated by Todd Ehlers (Universität Tübingen) und Friedhelm von Blanckenburg (GFZ Potsdam).

Description: Deliverable D5.2 presents the experimental outcome of jetting experiments at simulated reservoir conditions. Different rock types are tested under various conditions with the use of three different types of test bench. At first jetting experiments are conducted under submerged conditions in order to derive a better understanding of the governing erosion mechanism. Therefore pitting tests are combined with PIV measurements in order to derive and explain the erosion pattern of the occurring cavitation erosion and why the rock is more like to be eroded by the stagnation pressure of the impinging jet. Second, jetting experiments under pressure controlled conditions are performed. Rate of penetrations (ROP) of up to 100 m/h can be achieved which proofs the successful application of RJD technology especially in sand stone reservoir rock types. Especially the rotating nozzle design bears the highest potential for jetting operations where the static nozzle designs tend to fail, especially when pore pressure increases. The third experimental series under application of a bi- axial stress field show that the current RJD technology, as being used by project partner WSG, is not able to penetrate harder sandstone rock types (e.g. Dortmund sandstone) when field operating conditions are applied. The induced stress in the specimen does not initiate or enhance ROP. A second experiment thereby shows that higher nozzle exit speeds can lead to massive breakouts. Fourth, experiments are performed under a tri-axial stress field in collaboration with TU DELFT. Rock cubes are tested under different and very severely stress regimes while jetting into them. Compared to tests at atmospheric conditions it can be stated that the application of a stress field does not enhance the erosion of rock. At last experiments are conducted with the project partner WSG in order to determine the jetability of the Icelandic Basalt rock type and Icelandic inter basalt sediment layer. The experiments show that already higher pump pressures result in higher jetting performance, hence making them jetable as previously not expected. Furthermore the experiments approved the feasibility of the planned field test in Iceland when the soft sediment layer is the target zone. All in all the experiments conducted with the RJD technology show different results at simulated reservoir conditions compared to those at atmospheric which are described in deliverable D5.1 (Hahn & Wittig, 2017). Therefor, further testing at conditions representing the reservoir conditions more closer are needed in order to better understand and analyze the jetting process downhole.

Description: In this deliverable, the objectives of the Imperial College team are to consider jetted boreholes in the context of conventional borehole wall-rock stability analysis and to utilise an in-house advanced combined finite-discrete element code to examine the wall-rock failure process for jetted holes. The geomechanical modelling of Lateral Stability in D7.2 presented here is in addition to the main focus on modelling the water-jetting breakdown of the rock itself, reported in D7.1.

Description: The aim of this research is to investigate the failure mechanism for different types of rock in the context of water jet drilling and to predict the jet-ability or assess the radial jet drilling (RJD) performance prior to drilling and at the well petrophysical analysis stage. The main approach is to numerically simulate the water jet drilling for different types of rock using ICL’s in-house fluid-solid coupling codes. The rock properties, CT-scan data and jetting results obtained from D4.1 (Bakker et al., 2018) and D5.1 (Hahn et al., 2017) provide a good foundation for the related numerical results.

Description: The GEOFON program consists of a global seismic network (GE Network), a seismological data centre (GEOFON DC) and a global earthquake monitoring system (GEOFON EQinfo). These three pillars are part of the MESI research infrastructure of the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences aiming at facilitating scientific research. GEOFON provides real-time seismic data, access to its own and third party data from the archive facilities as well as global and rapid earthquake information. The GEOFON Seismological Software can be considered a fourth cross-cutting module of the GEOFON Program. Data, services, products and software openly distributed by GEOFON are used by hundreds of scientists and data centres worldwide. Its earthquake information service is accessed directly by tens of thousands of visitors. The SeisComP software package is the flagship software provided to the community, which is geared for seismic observatory and data centre needs and used extensively to support our internal operations. Like all other MESI (Modular Earth Science Infrastructure) modules GEOFON has the majority of users outside the GFZ as well as an external advisory committee that provides advice to the GFZ Executive Board and to the GEOFON team. This report describes the main activities carried out within the three GEOFON pillars and the software development group.

Description: Length: 32 min What forms the landscapes of the Earth with its mountains, rivers, soils, and the places we live in? One view holds that Earth’s surface is shaped when rocks are uplifted by geologic forces, and are then destroyed by rain, ice, and wind that carve landscapes by erosion and weathering. Another view suggests that the green layer of life between rocks below and climate above is the key player. Do plants with their roots, animals that dig into soil and the vast number of microorganisms shape the landscapes? Or do minerals, soil, and water provide the environment for them to live? Or are they both interdependent? Can they together resist the massive climate change imposed by humans today? Watch the scientists of the German-Chilean “EarthShape” project study these questions along a climate gradient in Chile, in the National Parks Pan de Azúcar, La Campana, and Nahuelbuta. Take a tour through fascinating landscapes and see the young scientists study the interactions between geology and biology, from the dry Atacama Desert to dense forests, and in their sophisticated home laboratories. See how feedbacks control Earth’s climate. A science movie designed and produced by Friedhelm von Blanckenburg from GFZ Potsdam, Germany, Kirstin Übernickel from Universität Tübingen, and Wolfgang Dümcke from Filmbüro Potsdam, Germany, within the German National Science Foundation (DFG) funded research network “EarthShape – Earth Surface Shaping by Biota” which is coordinated by Todd Ehlers (Universität Tübingen) und Friedhelm von Blanckenburg (GFZ Potsdam).

Description: There has been growing recognition of the importance of the accurate seismic locations in quantitative seismological studies, such as seismic hazard analyses, fault zone characterization, and Earth's deformation. Accurate estimation of seismic locations is critical since a wrong estimate of the seismic source location will result in wrong interpretations in the subsequent analyses. We present SCOTER, an open-source Python program package that is designed to relocate multiple seismic events by using P- and S-wave station correction terms. The package implements static and shrinking-box source-specific station terms techniques extended to regional and teleseimic distances and adopted for probabilistic, non-linear, global-search location for large-scale multiple-event location. This program provides robust relocation results for seismic event sequences over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales by applying empirical corrections for the biasing effects of 3-D velocity structure. Written in the Python programming language, SCOTER is run as a stand-alone command-line tool (requiring no knowledge of Python) and also provides a set of sub-commands to develop inputs (dataset, configuration etc) and export results (hypocenter parameters, travel-time residuals etc) { routine but non-trivial tasks that can consume much user time. This package can be used for relocation in local, regional, and teleseimic scales. We describe SCOTER's functionality, design and technical implementation, accompanied by an overview of its use cases. As an illustration, we demonstrate the applicability of this tool through two examples based on (1) a catalogue of several hundred events in the Arctic plate boundary region using regional and teleseismic arrival times and (2) a small dataset of low-magnitude seismic events recorded by dense, local stations at the western Iberia, central Portugal. The relocated datasets highlight the future potential for applying the SCOTER relocation tool to greatly improve the relative location accuracy among nearby events.

Description: Length: 3 min Watch the fascinating cycle through which plants obtain the mineral nutrients that they need to grow. Plants “eat” mineral nutrients like phosphorous or potassium from the soil and rock that their roots grow in. But this natural resource is limited. To prevent running out of nutrients, hyphae (long thread-like cells of fungi that are attached to roots) recycle phosphorus from falling leaves, and return it to the trees. In dry landscapes plants take up their phosphorus directly from rock. See the fundamental difference of ecosystems in different climates. An animated science movie designed and produced by Friedhelm von Blanckenburg from GFZ Potsdam, Germany, Michaela Dippold from Universität Göttingen, Germany, and Andreas Schulz from Filmbüro Potsdam, Germany within the DFG Project ““EarthShape – Earth Surface Shaping by Biota”.