Funds from this grant support efforts to integrate the various diverse research projects and initiatives of the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) through the development of new numerical models and visualizations.  Geologist Elizabeth Cottrell of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History will lead a multidisciplinary team of researchers, technologists, and representatives from each of the DCO’s four scientific directorates to spearhead the collaborative development of new models and visualizations that incorporate the data collected and theoretical insights developed by DCO researchers in the field.  Contrell and her team will convene a workshop of DCO stakeholders to set modeling and visualization priorities, create an introductory visualization of the history of terrestrial vulcanism, and oversee the distribution of a small number of seed grants to stimulate modeling work on projects identified as high priority.  The project promises several benefits, including forcing consistency upon diverse DCO research efforts, revealing gaps in measurement and functional understanding within the DCO community, and spurring new insights and projections. 

This grant provides continued support to a team led by Peter Fox at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to provide computational and data management services to the Deep Carbon Observatory.  Grant funds support the continued operation and development of deepcarbon.net, which is used to manage the project as a whole, coordinate member activities, and disseminate results both within the DCO and with the wider public.  In addition, the RPI team maintains a state-of-the-art computing cluster used to store and analyze data collected by DCO scientists and to run complicated and data-rich model simulations.  Grant funds provide continued support for these activities as well as additional work designed to lay the groundwork for a “deep carbon virtual observatory” that would exist as a continuing legacy after the DCO has completed its decadal research goals. 

Funds from this grant provide two years of continued support to the international secretariat of the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) as it pursues its 10-year mission to transform our understanding of the sources, forms, and properties of deep Earth carbon and its relation to hydrocarbons and the origins of life.  As the governing body of the DCO, the international secretariat coordinates and oversees the activities of the DCO’s four scientific communities, keeps the larger project on track, sets priorities and standards, helps allocate resources, and aids in project fund raising.  Grant funds provide general support for these activities for the next two years.

This grant to the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) supports seven field studies, including the extraction and analysis of deep Earth drilling cores, at seven sites around the globe. Sample types and locations include: Hydrocarbons and microbes from fluids, Canadian Shield (Ontario, Canada); Surface-collected, carbon-bearing sediments and carbonate reefs, North Pole Dome (Western Australia); Hydrocarbons and deep microbes recovered from drilling, Songliao Basin (Northeastern China); High-pressure metamorphic rocks, graphite, and carbonates, Alpine Corsica (France); Possibly abiotic hydrocarbons recovered from drilling, Romashkino oil field (Tatarstan, Russia); (Sub)seafloor methane hydrates (clathrates), water-column methane, Eastern Siberian Arctic Ocean Seafloor; Altered ocean crust and mantle, Samail ophiolite (Oman). Sites were selected through a year-long collaborative process involving the entire DCO community.  Together with cores already in repositories, new samples from these sites will complement the two dozen other locations where researchers are already working (such as volcanoes) in a way that DCO leaders believe will allow the program to achieve its decadal goals.