(Table 2) Estimated basement temperatures at DSDP Hole 69-504B

The achievement of deep penetration (562 m) of seafloor basalts at Hole 504B, near the Costa Rica Rift (1°13.63'N, 83°43.81'W), on DSDP Legs 69 and 70 presented a rare opportunity to examine the structure of young (6 m.y.) oceanic crust. In addition to the recovery of samples for laboratory studies, an extensive suite of downhole logs and experiments was carried out at this site, for two main purposes: (1) to allow reliable deductions about the nature of the entire section of penetrated crust, because recovery of samples was far from complete (-25%); (2) to probe the physical state of rock around the drilled hole on a scale of tens of meters to kilometers. Information on the latter large-scale phenomena at Hole 504B were provided mainly by the oblique seismic experiment, utilizing a bore-hole seismometer (Stephen 1983), and by the large-scale-electrical- resistivity experiment described below.

Data compilation of ESOP

The work in this sub-project of ESOP focuses on the advective and convective transforma-tion of water masses in the Greenland Sea and its neighbouring areas. It includes observational work on the sub-mesoscale and analysis of hydrographic data up to the gyre-scale. Observations of active convective plumes were made with a towed chain equipped with up to 80 CTD sensors, giving a horizontal and vertical resolution of the hydrographic fields of a few metres. The observed scales of the penetrative convective plumes compare well with those given by theory. On the mesoscale the structure of homogeneous eddies formed as a result of deep convection was observed and the associated mixing and renewal of the intermediate layers quantified. The relative importance and efficiency of thermal and haline penetrative convection in relation to the surface boundary conditions (heat and salt fluxes and ice cover) and the ambient stratification are studied using the multi year time series of hydro-graphic data in the central Greenland Sea. The modification of the water column of the Greenland Sea gyre through advection from and mixing with water at its rim is assessed on longer time scales. The relative contributions are quantified using modern water mass analysis methods based on inverse techniques. Likewise the convective renewal and the spreading of the Arctic Intermediate Water from its formation area is quantified. The aim is to budget the heat and salt content of the water column, in particular of the low salinity surface layer, and to relate its seasonal and interannual variability to the lateral fluxes and the fluxes at the air-sea-ice interface. This will allow to estimate residence times for the different layers of the Greenland Sea gyre, a quantity important for the description of the Polar Ocean carbon cycle.