stations 16, 17, and 18) near the Shell Oil Company platform that operated in 
block 410 between July 1981 and March 1982. 
Eight exploratory wells have been drilled to date on Georges Bank. The 
first was started on July 22, 1981, and the last well was completed on 
September 27, 1982. Each of the exploratory wells was classified as a dry 
hole with no commercial quantities of hydrocarbons. There has been no 
additional drilling on Georges Bank in the period between September 27, 1982 
and February 15, 1985. 
FIELD SAMPLING AND SAMPLE PREPARATION 
Positioning of the ship on each cruise was based on the _ Loran-C 
navigation network. A Northstar 6000 (Digital Marine Equipment Corp., 
Bedford, Mass.) receiver was used to read time delays and calculate latitude 
and longitude. The latitude and longitude values reported are not as accurate 
as those calculated using a more modern algorithm, and workers who wish to 
plot or re-occupy the stations of this program should rely on the time delay 
values rather than the latitude and longitude. Samples were collected when 
the ship was within 40.3 us of the target time delays for each station. At 
station 5, for example, this converts to an error in positioning of +140 m 
drms (distance root mean square; see Bowditch, 1977, p. 1231). Navigation 
data for each sample analyzed for chemistry are compiled in appendix 
tables 1A, 1B, and 1C. 
Special steps were taken to minimize contamination of sediment samples at 
2 stainless 
sea. The samples for chemical analyses were collected with a 0.1-m 
steel Van Veen grab sampler with teflon coating on all surfaces in contact 
with sediment. A polyethylene-coated cable was used to lower the grab to the 
sea floor. Upon recovery of a sample, the overlying water was siphoned off 
