1 formed at the water/sediment interface continuously, given reducing 



2 conditions in the sediments below. 



3 I envision that these surfaces are--you know, being generated at 



4 the sea floor, they are being resuspended and then they would grab 



5 whatever is in solution. As you know, all these metals are in solution 



6 at some low concentration all the time. 



7 DR. RAY: Okay. 



8 DR. BUTMAN: The issue, then, following what Jerry also said is 



9 that if dissolved constituents are in the water column from drilling, 



10 the question of whether they would get incorporated into sediments is a 



11 question of water mixing, not particle transplant, actually. 



12 DR. BOTHNER: It's both. 



13 DR. TEAL: It is both because the solubility of some of these 



14 things is so low that the accumulation by stripping could take a much 



15 longer time, at least in theory, speaking from ignorance, compared to 



16 the transit time or the dilution rate. 



17 DR. BUTMAN: But the water--we talked about particles entering the 



18 canyon, but the water with dissolved contaminants discharged to the 



19 surface, there may be no mechanism for that ever to get into this zone 



20 where stripping would occur. That might just go off to the southwest 



21 with the mean flow or something like that. 



22 But if they are absorbed in particles immediately in the surface 



23 zone and the particles are trapped in the canyon, that is another--but I 



24 didn't ask the question of surface waters from the shelf enter the deep 



25 water in the canyon carrying its contaminants with it, which dissolves 



26 it. Mike? 



27 DR. BOTHNER: Well, this gets, of course, more complicated, but 



28 given that as the scenario here, that we are going to discharge some 



29 dissolved contaminants in the surface water, there, because of the 



30 normal biological recycling of particles and the incorporation of 



31 dissolved constituents into the final point, for example, that's been a 



32 well documented mechanism for getting dissolved constituents into the 



33 particle phase and then rocketing them to the bottom with fecal pellets 



34 as those bioplankton are being grazed upon. 



199 



