Under this proposal, we intend to study the physical properties of ocean bottom sediments and their relationship to the processes by which they were formed and evolved. The properties of these sediments will be mostly obtained from measurements made down the wells drilled during cruises of the Ocean Drilling Program. If possible, we will also make direct laboratory measurements on any actual samples of these sediments recovered during drilling. This proposal involves three specific work tasks: 1) Analyze existing data sets collected during the Ocean Drilling Program and the previous Deep Sea Drilling Project and collect further data in future ODP cruises. These data sets will be analyzed to obtained the shear wave velocity of the sediments. 2) Refine our method of obtaining shear wave velocity of the sediments from the full waveform acoustic logging data collected. This involves increasing the speed and accuracy of our calculations, better signal processing techniques to reduce noise in the data, and improvements in the model of sound wave propagations in these sediments. 3) Study these sediments in the laboratory, whenever it is possible to do so. These studies will involve inspecting the samples under a high power Scanning Electron Microscope to find out their structure and composition, making direct measurements of shear wave velocity and other physical properties, comparing them to measurements made in the well, examining how these data fit into existing theories about the formation and evolution of these sediments, and, if necessary, developing new theory about these processes.
