Total core recovered (m): 9.7Core recovery (%): 100Rea, D.K., Basov, LA., Janecek, T.R., A., et al., Proc. ODP, Init. Repts., 145: College Station, TX (Ocean Drilling Program)." Shipboard Scientific Party is as given in list of participants preceding the contents. Oldest sediment cored:Depth ( Principal results: The site survey for Leg 145 proposed Site NW-4A (Sites 885/886, Fig. 1) began at 0200 hr (local time) on 3 September 1992, only 36 hr after the Golden Dragon had judged all Worms fit for passage across the International Date Line. A beacon was dropped at 0337 hr; the survey was finished and the ship positioned on Site 885 by 0730 hr. The first attempt at an APC core came up water only. The drillers attempted to "feel" bottom with the drill string and were uncertain, so decided to shift the ship~s position 400 m east before trying again. At the new offset location. Hole 885 A was spudded at 0000 hr on 4 September. Core 145-885 A-6H crossed into pelagic clays from the siliceous ooze above, but the barrel on Core 145-885A-7H did not stroke out, and the core returned with basalt chips in the core-catcher sample. Asingle XCB core (145-885A-8X), was recovered after drilling 6 m and encountering unstable hole conditions. A rubble of basalt and yellow-brown, baked, bricklike rock was recovered from the core-catcher sample. Assuming we had encountered a sill, we offset the ship 2.2 km east to a sediment pond encountered during the site survey, dropped a new beacon, and began Site 886 at 1800 hr on 4 September. Core 145-886A-1H missed the mud line and was full, so we pulled up 7 m and tried again; Core 145-886B-1H recovered the mud line and 1.8 m of siliceous clay. Eight cores were recovered at Hole 886B, reaching basalt at a depth of 68.5 mbsf. The final core (145-886B-9X) came up with only a few rock chips, so we pulled up the drill pipe, offset and spudded Hole 886C at 0630 hr on 5 September. Our intent was to collect a set of cores to overlap with those from Hole 886B. The last core (145-886C-8H) was on deck by 1445 hr, and the JOIDES Resolution was under way at 0030 hr on 6 September to the last site of Leg 145, at the Patton-Murray Seamounts in the Gulf of Alaska.Drilling at Sites 885 and 886 encountered 66 m of sediment overlying basalt. The sediment can be divided into three units: clay with diatoms, diatom ooze, and clay. Unit I (0-17.3 mbsf) is an upper Pliocene to Pleistocene clay containing diatoms and spicules. Unit is an upper Miocene to upper Pliocene diatom ooze with clay. Several large manganese nodules, both brown and black in color, occur at mid-depth in this unit, roughly 40 mbsf. Unit III (50.3-71.9 mbsf in Hole 886C) is clay. This unit is the deep chocolate color of the classic North Pacific Ocean '•red" clays. Lithologic Unit IV, 52.1-58.8 in Hole 886A and 68.5-68.9 in Hole 886B, is basalt that has been baked to a yellow brown color and was recovered only as pieces of rubble.No nannofossils and few foraminifers occur in the section. Diatoms and radiolarians are abundant above 50 mbsf, wh...