AGU Town Hall Meeting

Drilling in the Earths Continental Crust: Research Accomplishments and Opportunities

33rd International Geological Congress
5–14 August 2008
Oslo, Norway

IRIS Real-Time Earthquake Map

OBJECTIVE

DOSECC, Inc. will be acting as the general contractor for the NSF funded Hawaii Scientific Drilling Project, conducted by the University of Hawaii School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, in collaboration with the University of California at Berkeley and California Institute of Technology. The objective of the research is to sample an extended sequence of lava flows from a “hot spot” volcano and to analyze these samples to better understand the geologic history of Hawaii and of the processes by which the Hawaii volcanoes form.

Drilling, using the Hybrid Core Drilling Rig, commenced on March 15, 1999 near Hilo, Hawaii. Daily history of the project is posted an the ICDP website. The Daily Drilling Progress in shown for the HSDP versus several other Hawaii Drilling Projects on an accompanying graph and Specification and Progress of the Casing for the hole. The coring will be conducted in three phases as follows:

• Phase 1:  Coring from 0 to 6000 feet.  Coring began on March 15, 1999 (Day 1). On June 6, 1999 (Day 84) a cored depth of 6007 feet was reached, ending Phase I. The hole was reamed three times during this Phase: March 18-24 (opening and setting 13-3/8” diameter casing to 412 ft depth), April 5-22 (opening and setting 9-5/8” diameter casing to 1981 ft depth) and June 7-July 5 (opening and hanging 7” casing to 6007 ft depth).

                            Photo taken on the HSDP on August 27, 1999

• Phase 2: Coring from 6000 to 10,201 feet. Coring began on July 20, 1999 (Day 127). On September 22, 1999 (Day 192) a cored depth of 10,201 feet was reached and Phase II. No casing was set during this phase.
• Phase 3: Coring from 10,201 to 14,500 feet. UPDATES FOLLOW:
• Equipment leaves Seattle dock mid-March, due at Hilo Dock April 14th.
• April 14, 2003 - DOSECC Set-up Crew assemble in Hilo for equipment offload of equipment from barge and assembly of rigs at drill site.
• April 16, 2003 - DOSECC Crew begins setting up equipment at Site. 
• June 14, 2003 - Pull out of Hole - Depth 9893’
• June - July 2003- Logging hole
• End of July 2003 - Set 6” Casing to the bottom of Hole.

View DOSECC’s project brochure