Taylor, 1971) . The corer was designed according to the criteria men- 

 tioned earlier so as to yield high quality samples. Each core was cut 

 into 2-foot increments on shipboard, sealed with vinyl electrician's 

 tape and a mixture of paraffin and silicon wax, and stored at near sea- 

 floor temperatures (39°F) . 



In addition, at least one gravity core was taken at each site 

 using a corer designed by A. Richards of Lehigh University (designed 

 using criteria of Richards and Parker, 1967) . This corer contains many 

 improved design features including a large diameter, plastic core 

 barrel. 



The three sites are shown on the map of Figure 1 and have the 

 coordinates given in Table I. In this report the sites will be referred 

 to by their water depths: 100-foot site, 600-foot site, and 1200-foot 

 site. Additional laboratory and in-situ test data on the soils at the 

 100-foot and 600-foot sites are given by Demars and Taylor (1971) , 

 Taylor and Demars (1971), Kretschmer and Lee (1970), and Herrmann and 

 others (1972). The characteristics of this 1200-foot site have not 

 been reported previously; the index properties for it are given in 

 Table II. 



In-Situ Tests 



At least one field vane shear and one cone penetration test were 

 performed at each site. NCEL's vane shear and cone penetrometer device 

 (Demars and Taylor, 1971) was used in conjunction with the DOTIPOS 

 platform. The vane and cone results are given in Figures 2 and 3. 



Laboratory Tests 



Miniature vane, residual pore pressure, and water content tests 

 were performed on selected samples obtained from the various cores. 

 The vane tests were performed in the usual manner (Demars and Taylor, 

 1971). Both field and laboratory vane tests were performed at the same 

 rotation rate - one revolution per hour. Therefore, since the field 

 vanes are larger in diameter than the laboratory vanes by about a factor 

 of four, there is a difference between the tangential velocities of the 

 vane tips. This could lead to systematic differences in strength 

 separate from disturbance effects. However, on the basis of previous 

 research on vane rotation rate effects (Migliore and Lee, 1971; Halwacks 

 and Monney, 1972) , it appears as if these systematic differences are 

 minimal (less than ten percent change in strength) . 



The residual negative pore pressure was measured with a device 

 consisting of a pressure transducer connected to a ceramic disk with a 

 nominal air penetration pressure of one bar. The ceramic disk was 

 placed in contact with a flat soil surface, and the residual pressure 

 was transferred across the disk to the transducer. Some time (as long 

 as 30 minutes) was required for stabilization of pressures. Techniques 

 similar to these have been used previously by Gibbs and Coffey (1969). 



