Project: Characterizing subseafloor life and environments in the Guaymas Basin

Acronym/Short Name:C-DEBI Guaymas Subseafloor Life
Project Duration:2015-04 - 2016-03
Geolocation:Guaymas Basin

Description

Project description from C-DEBI:
The Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California is a young marginal rift basin characterized by active seafloor spreading and rapid deposition of organic-rich sediments, characterized by extensive temperature and geochemical gradients. Deeply emplaced volcanic sills originating at the spreading center indurate and altered their surrounding sediment matrix, and shape hydrothermal circulation patterns (Einsele et al. 1980). Hydrothermal alteration and mobilization re-injects buried carbon into the biosphere (esp. as hydrocarbons and methane), a process with climate history relevance (Peter et al. 1991, Lizarralde et al. 2011). Subsurface microbial populations can intercept and process these hydrothermally generated and mobilized carbon sources (Teske et al. 2014). In support of a new IODP drilling proposal (No. 833), two Guaymas Basin site survey cruises in 2014 (RV El Puma) and 2015 (RV Sonne) are refining the 2D and 3D seismic structure of the Guaymas Basin subsurface, and collect gravity cores for up-to-date microbial and geochemical analyses. We propose combined microbiological, geochemical and sedimentological analyses to investigate subseafloor life and its environments using sediment cores that we collected on the site survey cruise with RV El Puma in October 2014.

This project was funded by a C-DEBI Research Grant.


DatasetLatest Version DateCurrent State
delta 15N values from sediment cores collected on the Guaymas Basin Ridge flanks and the Sonora Margin from R/V El Puma during October 20142019-12-12Final no updates expected
delta 13C values from sediment cores collected on the Guaymas Basin Ridge flanks and the Sonora Margin from R/V El Puma during October 20142019-12-12Final no updates expected
TOC concentrations from sediment cores collected on the Guaymas Basin Ridge flanks and the Sonora Margin from R/V El Puma during October 20142019-12-12Final no updates expected
Organic matter C:N ratios from sediment cores collected on the Guaymas Basin Ridge flanks and the Sonora Margin from R/V El Puma during October 20142019-12-12Final no updates expected
Porewater Si concentrations from sediment cores collected on the Guaymas Basin Ridge flanks and the Sonora Margin from R/V El Puma during October 20142019-12-12Final no updates expected
Porewater sulfide concentrations from sediment cores collected on the Guaymas Basin Ridge flanks and the Sonora Margin in 2014 from R/V El Puma in October 20142016-10-14Final no updates expected
Porewater methane concentrations from sediment cores collected on the Guaymas Basin Ridge flanks and the Sonora Margin in 2014 from R/V El Puma in October 2014 2016-10-14Final no updates expected
Porewater sulfate concentrations from sediment cores collected on the Guaymas Basin Ridge flanks and the Sonora Margin in 2014 from R/V El Puma in October 20142016-10-14Final no updates expected
Porewater DIC concentrations and d13C isotopic values from sediment cores collected on the Guaymas Basin Ridge flanks and the Sonora Margin from R/V El Puma in October 2014 2016-10-13Final no updates expected

People

Principal Investigator: Andreas Teske
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill)

Co-Principal Investigator: Ivano Aiello
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML)

Co-Principal Investigator: Ana Christina Ravelo
University of California-Santa Cruz (UCSC)

BCO-DMO Data Manager: Shannon Rauch
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI BCO-DMO)


Programs

Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations [C-DEBI]