Abstract

Eleven whole-round core samples from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 341 Sites U1417 and U1418 were tested for vertical permeability. Subsamples of each core were taken and analyzed for grain size, biogenic silica content, and clay mineralogy. Measured vertical permeability varied from 1.8 × 1018 to 1.5 × 1016 m2. With the exception of one sample from Site U1417, samples were dominated by clay-size (<4 μm) fractions with lesser silt-size (4–63 μm) and sand-size (>63 μm) fractions. Biogenic silica (SiO2) content ranged from 2 to 15 wt% at Site U1417 and was consistently ~2 wt% in samples from Site U1418. Clay mineral abundance exceeded that of quartz, feldspar, and calcite in all samples. Smectite content ranged from 3 to 38 wt% in Site U1417 samples and from 0 to 3 wt% in Site U1418 samples.