Articles | Volume 21
https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-21-29-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-21-29-2016
Science report
 | 
27 Jul 2016
Science report |  | 27 Jul 2016

The Towuti Drilling Project: paleoenvironments, biological evolution, and geomicrobiology of a tropical Pacific lake

James M. Russell, Satria Bijaksana, Hendrik Vogel, Martin Melles, Jens Kallmeyer, Daniel Ariztegui, Sean Crowe, Silvia Fajar, Abdul Hafidz, Doug Haffner, Ascelina Hasberg, Sarah Ivory, Christopher Kelly, John King, Kartika Kirana, Marina Morlock, Anders Noren, Ryan O'Grady, Luis Ordonez, Janelle Stevenson, Thomas von Rintelen, Aurele Vuillemin, Ian Watkinson, Nigel Wattrus, Satrio Wicaksono, Thomas Wonik, Kohen Bauer, Alan Deino, André Friese, Cynthia Henny, Imran, Ristiyanti Marwoto, La Ode Ngkoimani, Sulung Nomosatryo, La Ode Safiuddin, Rachel Simister, and Gerald Tamuntuan

Abstract. The Towuti Drilling Project (TDP) is an international research program, whose goal is to understand long-term environmental and climatic change in the tropical western Pacific, the impacts of geological and environmental changes on the biological evolution of aquatic taxa, and the geomicrobiology and biogeochemistry of metal-rich, ultramafic-hosted lake sediments through the scientific drilling of Lake Towuti, southern Sulawesi, Indonesia. Lake Towuti is a large tectonic lake at the downstream end of the Malili lake system, a chain of five highly biodiverse lakes that are among the oldest lakes in Southeast Asia. In 2015 we carried out a scientific drilling program on Lake Towuti using the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) Deep Lakes Drilling System (DLDS). We recovered a total of  ∼ 1018 m of core from 11 drilling sites with water depths ranging from 156 to 200 m. Recovery averaged 91.7 %, and the maximum drilling depth was 175 m below the lake floor, penetrating the entire sedimentary infill of the basin. Initial data from core and borehole logging indicate that these cores record the evolution of a highly dynamic tectonic and limnological system, with clear indications of orbital-scale climate variability during the mid- to late Pleistocene.

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Short summary
The Towuti Drilling Project seeks to understand the long-term environmental and climatic history of the tropical western Pacific and to discover the unique microbes that live in metal-rich sediments. To accomplish these goals, in 2015 we carried out a scientific drilling project on Lake Towuti, located in central Indonesia. We recovered over 1000 m of core, and our deepest core extended 175 m below the lake floor and gives us a complete record of the lake.