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Reef Drilling

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Encyclopedia of Modern Coral Reefs

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Synonyms

Boring; Coring; Reef coring

Definition

Reef drilling is a method that recovers samples from the interior of a reef, typically using a rotary apparatus operated on the sea floor by divers or from a surface vessel.

Background

Dating to the writings of DaVinci in the fifteenth century and Mojsisovics’ description of alpine reefs four centuries later, natural philosophers asked two fundamental questions: (1) how do we explain oceanic deposits found so far above present sea level, and (2) how did organisms that were limited to the upper few hundred meters of the ocean create deposits that are hundreds or even thousands of meters thick? Tectonic uplift provided a widely accepted answer to the first question. In contrast, the role of subsidence in creating thick reef deposits triggered a heated debate among nineteenth and early twentieth century reef scientists such as Darwin (1842), Geike (1883), Guppy (1888), Murray (1889), Agassiz, (1902), Gardiner (1904), Daly (1915), and Davis (

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Acknowledgments

The greatest and most obvious debt is to the researchers who have wrestled with the practical and intellectual problems associated with sampling the interiors of Holocene reefs. Starting with researchers from the Smithsonian Institution and growing into a community of researchers as diverse as the reefs they study, a suite of drilling strategies have evolved that balance simplicity and depth of recovery; the list is too long for adequate individual acknowledgment of the individuals that have made our way easier. Studies by the author that contributed to the information provided in this chapter were funded by the National Science Foundation (St. Croix cores), the Sea Grant and Undersea Research Programs of the National Oceanic, and Atmospheric Administration (fabrication of the SCARID drilling system; cores in Salt River, St. Croix; Puerto Rico and the Florida Keys), the US National Park Service (cores in Buck Island Underwater National Monument), the National Institute for Global Environmental Change (Puerto Rico cores), and the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society (Dominican Republic studies).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, 44074, USA

    Dennis K. Hubbard

Authors
  1. Dennis K. Hubbard
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. James Cook University, Townsville, Australia

    David Hopley

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Hubbard, D.K. (2011). Reef Drilling. In: Hopley, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Modern Coral Reefs. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2639-2_54

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