The Funds will be used to drill two holes into platform carbonates on the Great Bahama Bank. This drilling will take place from a jack-up platform situated in 5 to 10 m of water on the platform margin and interior and will penetrate between 500 and 1000 m of sediments. The rationale for drilling these holes is two fold. First, recent discoveries about the subsurface, Neogene, seismic stratigraphy of Great Bahama Bank have drastically changed long standing ideas concerning the evolution of the Bahamas. Drilling will provide a test of these ideas as well as examining relationships between pulses of progradation and relative fluctuations of sea level. Second, drilling the holes will allow an unique opportunity to examine the chemistry of formation fluids from deep within the platform which will provide an indication of the diagenetic reactions taking place.
