ABSTRACT

Saturated bulk density, porosity, and grain density were determined in a shore laboratory for samples from Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 222 (Leg 23) in the Indus Cone, or Fan, in the Arabian Sea. This record-depth hole (1,300 m) penetrated about 80 m of calcareous pelagic sediment overlying (80 to 1,300 m) a fairly homogeneous terrigenous section. Operational difficulties caused cutting of undergauge cores which seriously hampered shipboard property measurements, and made it desirable to make supplementary shore-laboratory measurements. Density and porosity varied from 1.58 g/cm³ and 66% in the calcareous sediment near the surface to 2.29 g/cm³ and 26% in a fine-grained sandstone below 1,200 m. Low-porosity variations from the general trend of porosity with dep h were caused by relatively minor, courser sand and silt layers. The average grain density in the top, calcareous section was 2.71 g/cm³, and the average for the thick, homogeneous terrigenous section was 2.76 g/cm³.