2009 Meeting
Subseafloor Ocean Biosphere and
Borehole Observatory Science

OVERVIEW | AGENDA | REFERENCES | PARTICIPANTS

Overview

The "Subseafloor Ocean Biosphere and Borehole Observatory Science" meeting was held 19-21 October 2009 at the Fairmont Orchid at the Mauna Lani Resort, on the island of Hawaii.

The scientific conference comprised a series of keynote speakers covering aspects of Circulation Obviation Retrofit Kit (CORK) subseafloor observatory history and design, technical specifications and options for future modifications, drilling and other operational considerations, monitoring and contamination concerns, key results from earlier subseafloor experiments using observatories, and future directions for subseafloor biosphere science involving observatories. Our intent was to integrate lecture, discussion, and poster formats so as to encourage engagement and development of collaborative opportunities between individuals and groups that have not previously worked together or have had difficulty visualizing the overlap among each other's disciplines.

The agenda was composed of oral presentations, breakout session themes and training workshop topics. Breakout session discussions addressed themes of The Big Science Questions, Technology Innovations and Limitations, and CORK Scenario Planning. All participants were asked to present during a poster session, highlighting work completed or in progress involving subseafloor observatories and/or the deep biosphere, or conceptual proposals describing how to move the science forward through novel application of observatory technology for passive (monitoring) or active experiments. The training workshop at this meeting consisted of a series of presentations and exercises on hydrogeology modeling and computation, electrochemistry measurement and borehole microbial observatory construction, crossing over between microbiological sampling and monitoring and marine hydrogeology. It is important to note that this is a technologically challenging area of research and one that is extremely new to science and in particular to microbiology.

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