Description: Present day system Earth research utilizes the tool ‘Scientific Drilling’ to access samples and to monitor deep Earth processes that cannot be tackled by other scientific means. Unlike most laboratory experiments or computer modelling, drilling projects are massive field endeavours requiring intense collaboration of researchers with engineers and service providers. In the framework of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program, ICDP, more than seventy drilling projects have been conducted, from multiyear big research programs to short, smallscale deployments such as lake drilling projects. ICDP has supported these projects not only through grants covering field-related costs, but also through a variety of scientific-technical services and support, as well as active help in data management, outreach and publication. These services are described in this booklet. Due to its instructional character, we call it the ICDP Primer.

Description: This brochure is designed for scientists and engineers of upcoming drilling projects and explains the key steps and important challenges in planning and executing continental scientific drilling.

Description: This brochure is designed for scientists and engineers of upcoming drilling projects and explains the key steps and important challenges in planning and executing continental scientific drilling.

Description: In July 2007 GFZ hosted ILP’s first Potsdam Conference, titled “Frontiers in Integrated Solid Earth Sciences”. The results of this meeting were presented in an over 400 pages large Springer book, the first volume of a new series on the International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE). In October 2010 ILP’s Second Potsdam Conference took place, entitled “Solid Earth – Basic Science for the Human Habitat”, again in Potsdam. More than 70 scientists from more than 20 states worldwide came together and shared their results, ideas and visions. This time, in September 2015, ILP’s 35th birthday was the motivation for “Celebrating Excellence in Solid Earth Sciences”. Together with more than 50 scientists, members of the ILP Task Forces and Coordinating Committees, the ILP bureau and ILP’s office came together for three days in September.

Description: In our meeting Dynamic Earth – from Alfred Wegener to today and beyond we will review how Wegener‘s findings evolved into to modern Earth system science including its impact on climate and the Earth surface, and how this system affects our daily life: where humans live, what risks we are exposed to, where we find our resources. In the meeting we will hold sessions that cover the entire geoscience spectrum (from mineral physics over solid earth geodynamics to the climate sciences) and that explore the consequences of Wegeners findings on how humans use our planet today (from energy and mineral resources over georisks to utilisation of the subsurface and materials for modern society). We have invited keynote speakers that are eminent international scientists in these fields. In events open to the general public we will get an account of Wegeners final trip to Greenland on the history of science of his hypothesis.

Description: In summer 2017, the ICDP SUSTAIN project (Surtsey Underwater volcanic System for Thermophiles, Alteration processes and INnovative concretes), drilled three cored boreholes (Table 1) through Surtsey at sites ≤10 m from a cored hole obtained in 1979. Drilling through the still hot volcano was carried out with an Atlas Copco CS1000 drill rig, whose components were transported by helicopter to Surtsey and re-assembled on site. The first vertical borehole, SE-02a, was cored in HQ diameter to 152 meters below surface (m b.s.) during August 7-16. It was terminated due to borehole collapse. A second vertical (SE-02b) cored borehole was then drilled in HQ diameter to 192 m during August 19-26. Wireline borehole logging in SE-02b was performed August 26. The anodized NQ-sized aluminum tubing of the Surtsey Subsurface Observatory was installed in SE-02b to 181 m depth on August 27. A third borehole, SE-03, angled 35° from vertical and directed 264°, was drilled from August 28 to September 4 and reached a measured depth of 354 m (~290 m vertical depth) under the eastern crater. The core is HQ diameter to a measured depth of 213 m and NQ diameter from 213-354 m measured depth. The core traverses the deep conduit and intrusions of the volcano to a total vertical depth of 290 m b.s. Seawater drilling fluid for boreholes SE-02a and SE-02b was filtered and doubly UV-sterilized at the drill site. No mud products were employed while coring SE-02a, while small amounts of attapulgite mud were used in SE-02b and SE-03. Core samples for geochemical analyses of pore water and microbiological investigations were collected on site from all three boreholes. About 650 m of core was transported by helicopter to Heimaey, 18 km northeast of Surtsey, to a processing laboratory where the core was scanned, documented, and described. Additional core processing has taken place at the Náttúrufraedistofnun Íslands, the Icelandic Institute of Natural History in Gardabaer, where both the 1979 and 2017 cores are stored.

Description: Recent mobilisation of soil organic matter (SOM) in permafrost of the northern high latitudes is thought to have a significant impact on the carbon balance in the atmosphere. However, the environmental processes which influence SOM accumulation and remobilisation still need to be investigated more accurately. This study investigates the quantity and quality of SOM on Herschel Island in the western Canadian Arctic in relation to various landscape characteristics. To reach this goal, soil moisture, total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN) contents, stable carbon isotopes (∂¹³C) and TOC/TN ratios (C/N) were determined on 128 samples from twelve sediment cores reaching up to 250 cm depth. Drilling locations were chosen based on morphology, vegetation and soil properties and supported by satellite imagery and air photos. Seasonal thaw depths (active layer depths) correlate with ground disturbance and vegetation cover and lie between 20 and 100 cm. Well-preserved SOM is accumulated in the active layer and subjacent ice-rich permafrost of wet polygonal tundra. Uplands, hummocky tussock tundra and alluvial fans cover more than 50 % of the island and show heterogeneous SOM storage characteristics with considerable TOC contents being limited to the active layer. Disturbed areas with slope gradients greater than 6° show strong SOM degradation with low TOC contents throughout the active layer and permafrost strata. Linear regression and principal component analysis (PCA) shows that a decreasing SOM content is driven by increasing ground disturbance and reduced vegetation cover. Improved drainage decreases the preservation of SOM in the active layer. Future deepening of the active layer because of increasing temperatures and ground disturbance will remobilise SOM stored in ice-rich permafrost. This might increase carbon dioxide and methane emissions from permafrost landscapes.

Description: Developing ow paths or expanding existing pathways in deep geological strata is generally referred to as "stimulation". To extract heat from geothermal reservoirs, stimulation treatments are carried out by injecting water at high pressure into the formation (hydraulic stimulation), by dissolution of certain mineral components, mostly carbonates, thus increasing the hydraulic pathways (chemical stimulation), or by cooling of the rock to induce tensile stresses which helps the fracture expansion (thermal stimulation). The achieved factor of productivity increase by conventional stimulation treatments is reported to be between 1.3 and 25. In petrolium industry a significant decline of the production increase occurs already during the first year after stimulation. The time to refracturing is typically 4 to 7 years. It is not clear whether these values are also appropriate for geothermal applications. The sustainability of the increase in permeability due to thermal stimulation depends on the situation: for an injection well the increase remains for few years. For production wells, the longevity of the stimulation depends on the self-propping ability of the rock. After reviewing the current situation in the field of deep geothermal energy in Europe, dierent stimulation techniques are discussed. Furthermore, case studies of stimulation treatments in deep geothermal reservoirs are presented. In the subsequent chapters the authors present the methods of stimulation treatment in deep geothermal wells to show the increase of productivity, to explain the potential benefits and risks and estimate the economic performance.