Philippe Gaillot

Cold water coral mounds revealed

The discovery of mounds and reefs hosting cold-water coral ecosystems along the northeastern Atlantic continental margins has propelled a vigorous effort over the past decade to study the distribution of the mounds, surface sediments, the ecosystems they host, and their environments [Hovland et al., 1994; Freiwald and Roberts, 2005].This effort has involved swath bathymetry, remotely operated vehicle deployments, shallow coring, and seismic surveys. Global coverage is difficult to gauge, but studies indicate that cold-water corals may cover as large an area as the better known warm-water corals that form shallow reefs (284,300 square kilometers) [Freiwald et al., 2005]. Cold-water corals occur in a variety of forms and settings, from small isolated colonies or patch reefs to giant mound structures such as those found west of Ireland.

Age‐calibrated three‐dimensional views of the crust

Scientific drilling provides detailed, highresolution, direct observations of the Earths crust. Ocean drilling science has a nearly 40-year history, starting with the Deep Sea Drilling Project (1968–1983), running through the Ocean Drilling Program (1985–2003), and continuing as the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP2003 to present). Ocean drilling science also has growing ties to the International Continental Drilling Project (1996 to present). Over the course of these scientific drilling programs, intensive analysis of a wide array of global geological and geophysical systems has been accomplished, including oceanic crustal architecture; tectonics and fluid flow along convergent and divergent plate margins; oceanic plateau composition, structure, age, and genesis; volcanic and nonvolcanic rifted margin tectonics, structure, and evolution; sedimentary records of ocean circulation, climate change, and evolution; fault zone geometry and dynamics.