1 DR. COOPER: I can see this for, what, some unknown period of time 



2 in the head of Lydonia. 



3 DR. BUTMAN: I just wanted to make sure that we had the same 



4 conceptual picture here that it's not-- 



5 DR. VALENTINE: But the area that is covered by this so-called 



6 layer might not be very big because of the patchiness. 



7 DR. GRASSLE: That is the mitigating thing, that there is always 



8 going to be some surface suitable. 



9 DR. BUTMAN: Right. 



10 DR. COOPER: Most of the commercial species that we are talking 



11 about here, they are very highly habitat type three and four oriented. 



12 If you sit for a period of time on the bottom in a submersible, for 



13 example, and watch the intensity and the frequency with which surficial 



14 sediments are stirred up because of the biological activity, and this 



15 stuff, as I remember it, hardly settles before it's stirred right back 



16 up. It's going up canyon and down canyon. 



17 DR. RAY: One thing is that the materials are going to be coming 



18 from the drilling operation over a period of months or years. Aren't 



19 there going to be--there are going to be similar materials of similar 



20 grain size and composition also coming into the canyon at the same time 



21 as the materials from the drilling. 



22 From the way the conversation is going, it is sounding like the 



23 only thing coming down the side of the canyon down the wall is going to 



24 be the drilling-related solids, yet, they are the same kinds of 



25 materials that are fine-grained stuff, you know, on the shelf. 



26 I am asking the question: Aren't there other materials moving 



27 into the canyons of a similar particle size? 



28 DR. VALENTINE: Also, the fine-grained stuff is generated by the 



29 bio-erosion right in the canyon itself. 



30 DR. BUTMAN: Except the accumulation rates which Mike measured 



31 were 60 centimeters per 1,000 years, which is 2 grams. 



32 DR. KRAEUTER: That is the accumulation, the long-term net 



33 accumulation. 



34 DR. BUTMAN: That is .06 centimeters per year. 



312 



