Comparative geoscience studies of the Madeira and Southern Nares Abyssal Plains: NEA/SWG preference location document

Technical Report · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6132231

Auffret, G A; Buckley, D E; Schuttenhelm, R T.E.; Searle, R C; Shephard, L E; Cranston, R E

This document summarizes the status of geoscience investigations in the two primary North Atlantic study locations Great Meteor East (GME) in the Madeira Abyssal Plain, and the Southern Nares Abyssal Plain (SNAP), and assesses the characteristics of these locations relative to the guidelines considered desirable and necessary for a potential subseabed high-level waste repository. These characteristics will be continually reevaluated as additional data become available and as our understanding of deep-sea sediment processes within abyssal plain environments improves. Initially, a number of areas of minimum size were identified in the ocean basins that appeared to comply with most of the stability and barrier guidelines. However, detailed studies in both GME and SNAP demonstrate that as our level of knowledge improves, and the degree of resolution increases, the number of 100 km/sup 2/ areas complying with these guidelines becomes much more limited. This observation may be characteristic of abyssal plain and abyssal hill environments in both the North Atlantic and North Pacific basins. Marked differences in geoscience characteristics exist between the Great Meteor East and the Southern Nares Abyssal Plain study locations. The significance of these differences, as they impact the selection of a single preferred site for a potential subseabed repository, can only be determined by using an integrated systems risk assessment modeling approach. The known geoscience characteristics can, however, be used in conjunction with the site assessment guidelines to draw conclusions concerning the geoscience suitability of these two locations. These conclusions will be modified as specific types of data from future expeditions become available.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA); Centre National pour l'Exploitation des Oceans (CNEXO), 29 - Brest (France). Centre Oceanologique de Bretagne; Bedford Inst. of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia (Canada). Atlantic Geoscience Center; Rijks Geologische Dienst, Haarlem; Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Godalming (UK)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 6132231
• Report Number(s): SAND-85-2213; ON: DE86005858
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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