TABLE 3. SUMMARY OF SURFACE WATER CONTENT (Conf d) 











Porosity 











Water 





Area 



Void 



Clay-size 





Sample 



Content 



Porosity 



Average 



Ratio 2 



Fraction^ 



Core 



(cm) 



(% dry wt) 



(%) 



(%) 



(100% sat) 



(%) 



F 15 



0-5.5 



121.94 



77.3 





3.339 



50* 



F 16 



0-5 



156.52 



81.0 



77.7 



4.298 



48* 



G 2 



0-10 



232.28 



86.5 





6.33 



59* 



G 3 



0-10 



235.22 



86.4 





6.363 



59* 



G4 



0-10 



226.30 



86.3 





6.25 



58* 



G 5 



0-10 



73.08 



-- 





— 



— 



G 6 



0-10 



236.90 



86.4 





6.35 



55* 



G 8 



0-10 



206.70 



84.7 





5.56 



55* 



G9 



0-10 



202.20 



84.7 





5.54 



51* 



G 10 



0-10 



184.00 



83.6 





5.04 



51* 



G 11 



0-10 



136.30 



~ 



85.5 



— 



— 



H 12 



30.5-35.5 



116.84 



76.9 





3.307 



59* 



H 13 



16.5-21.5 



127.06 



77.8 





3.528 



ca64* 



the quantity of free water in the interstices of micro-organism skeletal remains than 

 with free interstitial water associated with platy clay minerals. 



Practically all mass physical properties are related to the amount of interstitial 

 water in a sediment. Although water content is very easy to determine in the labora- 

 tory, there are remarkably few published measurements of sediments collected from 

 depths greater than 132 m (72 fms), which corresponds to the average depth of the 

 continental shelf edge (Shepard, 1948, p. 143). The degree of saturation apparently 

 has not been determined on previous measurements of water content. This means that 

 all earlier data should be questioned, although many samples reported in the literature 

 may have been protected adequately against desiccation prior to test. 



An example of the effect of a small amount of desiccation is shown in Area A 

 through C cores. These cores were less well protected from drying before testing than 

 those collected subsequently, which shows by measurements of less than 100 percent 

 saturation in the tables of Appendix B. Saturations greater than 95 percent in soil 

 mechanics laboratories usually are considered to represent 100 percent, the difference 

 being due to analytical errors (CM. Yeomans, personal communication). Neverthe- 

 less, when protective measures were better developed it is significant that the measured 

 percentage of saturation rarely was less than 98 percent. 



28 



