The SCOPSCO drilling project recovers more than 1.2 million years of history from Lake Ohrid

[摘要] The Scientific Collaboration on Past Speciation Conditions in Lake Ohrid(SCOPSCO) project is an international research initiative to study theinfluence of major geological and environmental events on the biologicalevolution of lake taxa. SCOPSCO drilling campaigns were carried out in 2011and 2013. In 2011 we used gravity and piston coring at one of the fiveproposed drill sites, and in 2013 we undertook deep drilling with the DeepLake Drilling System (DLDS) of Drilling, Observation and Sampling of the Earth's Continental Crust (DOSECC). In April and May 2013, a total of2100 m sediments were recovered from four drill sites with water depthsranging from 125 to 260 m. The maximum drill depth was 569 m below the lakefloor in the centre of the lake. By retrieving overlapping sedimentsequences, 95% of the sediment succession was recovered. Initial datafrom borehole logging, core logging and geochemical measurements indicatethat the sediment succession covers >1.2 million years (Ma) in aquasi-continuous sequence. These early findings suggest that the record fromLake Ohrid will substantially improve the knowledge of long-termenvironmental change and short-term geological events in the northeasternMediterranean region, which forms the basis for improving understanding ofthe influence of major geological and environmental events on the biologicalevolution of endemic species.

[学科分类] 地质学