UKRI-3918 New England Shelf Hydrogeology

Tender description

The British Geological Survey (BGS), acting on behalf of the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD), requires a marine coring capability and suitable vessel to operate offshore New England, USA, for a scientific drilling, coring and groundwater sampling campaign for a period of between 60 – 90 days (estimated) between May and August 2025. This scientific coring project seeks to extend our understanding of the current and past states of fluid composition, pressure, and temperature in continental shelf environments. In many coastal settings worldwide, the distribution of freshwater within continental shelf sediments is far out of equilibrium with modern sea level. One of the most remarkable examples is found on the Atlantic continental shelf off New England where groundwater within shallow Pliocene-Pleistocene sand aquifers over 100 km offshore has low salinity (3000 mg/l or less). This project will test several hypotheses to help constrain rates, directions, and mechanisms of groundwater flow and chemical fluxes in continental shelf systems. Lot 1: The project requires a contractor to provide a suitable platform from which to deploy coring apparatus to achieve near-continuous core samples (min. diameter 60mm) from seabed to a total depth (TD) of 550 mbsf (meters below sea floor) at each of 3 pre-determined sites. Additionally, the project requires to drill (not core) 2 boreholes at 2 of the 3 pre-determined sites for groundwater testing and sampling at specific intervals selected using the results from the cored boreholes. The contractor will be responsible for supplying the vessel and personnel; and undertaking the drilling, coring and groundwater testing/sampling requirements. Please see the Specification for full details.