The Iceland Deep Drilling Project research well IDDP-2 at Reykjanes, Iceland, reached supercritical conditions at 4.5 km in January 2017. The bottom hole temperature was 426 °C and the fluid pressure was 34 MPa. Reykjanes is the landward extension of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in Iceland, and unique among Icelandic geothermal systems in being recharged by seawater. The setting and fluid characteristics at Reykjanes provide a geochemical analog of a mid-ocean ridge submarine black smoker system.

Pressure coring is currently the only method that enables precise off-site analysis of gas and gas-hydrate volumes in marine sediments. Pressure barrels for sampling and preservation of submarine sediments under in situ pressure with the robotic sea-floor drill rig MeBo (MARUM, Bremen, Germany) were developed. Here we report on the design and operational procedure of the so-called MDP during two seagoing cruises and demonstrate functionality by presenting results from pressure core degassing.

This paper describes a new tracer delivery system designed for use with seabed drills. The motivation for this system was the need to assess for possible seawater contamination of hard rock cores intended for microbiological and geochemical assessment. During IODP Expedition 357, the system was tested and proven to deliver a synthetic tracer at target saturating concentrations, which was useful for assessing sample contamination and handling procedures.

The Ivrea–Verbano Zone is the most complete, time-integrated crust–upper mantle archive in the world. It is a unique target for assembling data on the deep crust and Moho transition zone to unravel the formation, evolution, and modification of the continental crust through space and time across the Earth. Four drilling operations in the Ivrea-Verbano Zone crustal section represent the scientifically most promising solution to achieve the major goals of DIVE Project.

The Scientific Exploration of Induced SeisMicity and Stress (SEISMS) meeting brought together earthquake scientists from around the world. Discussion focused on field-scale experiments for understanding earthquake nucleation, propagation, and arrest.