| Established | 2003 |
|---|---|
Field of research | Geology |
| Website | www |
The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) was an international marine research program, running from 2003 to 2013. The program used heavy drilling equipment mounted aboard ships to monitor and sample sub-seafloor environments. With this research, the IODP documented environmental change, Earth processes and effects, the biosphere, solid earth cycles, and geodynamics. [1]
The program began a new 10-year phase with the International Ocean Discovery Program, from the end of 2013. [2]
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Scientific ocean drilling represented the longest running and most successful international collaboration among the Earth sciences. Scientific ocean drilling began in 1961 with the first sample of oceanic crust recovered aboard the CUSS 1, a modified U.S. Navy barge. American author John Steinbeck, also an amateur oceanographer, documented Project Mohole for LIFE Magazine.
The Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), established in June 1966, operated Glomar Challenger in drilling and coring operations in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, as well as in the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Glomar Challenger's coring operations enabled DSDP to provide the next intellectual step in verifying the hypothesis of plate tectonics associated with seafloor spreading, by dating basal sediments on transects away from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
| Deep Ocean Explorer: Glomar Challenger | |
|---|---|
| Total distance penetrated below sea floor | 325,548 m (1,068,071 feet) |
| Total interval cored | 170,043 m (557,884 feet) |
| Total core recovered and stored | 97,056 m (318,425 feet) |
| Overall core recovery | 57% |
| Number of core samples recovered | 19,119 |
| Number of sites investigated | 624 |
| Deepest penetration into basaltic ocean crust | 1,714 m (5,623 feet) |
| Maximum penetration into basaltic ocean crust | 1,350 m (4,430 feet) |
| Deepest water (Leg 60, Site 461A) | 7,044 m (23,110 feet) |
| Total distance traveled | 375,632 nautical miles (695,670 km; 432,270 mi) |
In June 1970, Glomar Challenger's DSDP engineers devised a way to replace worn drill bits and then re-enter boreholes for deeper drilling while in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New York, in 3,000 m (10,000 feet) of water. This required the use of sonar scanning equipment and a large-scale re-entry cone.
Process-oriented Earth studies continued from 1985 until 2003 aboard JOIDES Resolution , which replaced Glomar Challenger in January 1985 as DSDP morphed into the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP). JOIDES Resolution is named for the 200-year-old HMS Resolution which explored the Pacific Ocean and Antarctica under the command of Captain James Cook.
The Ocean Drilling Program contributed significantly to increased scientific understanding of Earth history, climate change, plate tectonics, natural resources, and geohazards. ODP discoveries included validation of:
National consortia and government funding agencies supported IODP science and drilling platform operations. Participation in IODP was proportional to investment in the program.
The European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) was established in December 2003 with 13 European countries to represent the European contribution in IODP. The consortium grew into a collaborative group of 17 European nations (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom) and Canada that together comprise an IODP-funding agency. Working alongside Japan and the United States, ECORD provided the IODP scientific community with access to mission-specific platforms, which chosen to fulfill specific scientific objectives. These platforms have limited space on board for labs and scientists, and require an onshore science meeting to describe, process, and analyze the sediment samples collected immediately following a drilling expedition.
In April 2004, the People's Republic of China joined IODP as an Associate Member through sponsorship of China's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). China's participation in IODP has given the Chinese marine science community a new impetus and increased their opportunity for deep-sea research. Chinese scientists participated in research expeditions and represent China's interests in the IODP Science Advisory Structure.
The Republic of Korea joined IODP as an Associate Member in June 2006 through the sponsorship of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM). South Korea's memorandum of understanding with the lead agencies created the Interim Asian Consortium.
Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India joined the IODP in 2008 as an Associate member. Since then, the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa has been designated by India to look after all IODP related activities in India (IODP-India). In this direction, an international workshop on IODP drilling in Indian Ocean was organized in Goa during 17–18 October 2011. The workshop was co-hosted by IODP Management International and ANZIC.
Hundreds of international Earth and ocean scientists participated in IODP on a voluntary basis. Participation took many forms: submission of a drilling proposal; sailing on an expedition; participation in an advisory capacity; attendance at a planning workshop or topical symposium. The program's central management office, IODP Management International, coordinated an integrated work plan between and among all IODP organizational partners. An annual program plan was written each fiscal year and included objectives and tasks necessary for drilling vessel operation, from science coordination to publications, data management, and outreach.
IODP distinguishes itself from its legacy programs by employing multiple drilling technologies/platforms and science/drilling operators to acquire sediment and rock samples and to install monitoring instrumentation beneath the seafloor. Samples and data collected during IODP drilling expeditions are available to scientists and teachers on an open-access basis, once members of the expedition parties have completed their initial studies.
Drilling proposals originated with science proponents, often researchers in geology, geophysics, microbiology, paleontology, or seismology. Once submitted to IODP, the proposal was carefully evaluated by the Science Advisory Structure (SAS), a group of technical review panels. Only those proposals judged as the greatest value based on scientific and technical merit were scheduled for implementation.
SAS panels provided advice on drilling proposals to both proponents and IODP management. Drilling proposals were accepted twice a year, in April and October, and could be submitted to IODP electronically via their website.
A ten-year program plan called the Initial Science Plan (ISP) guided IODP investigation. Specific scientific themes were emphasized in the ISP:
As described in the ISP, IODP sought to develop better understandings of:
Tools critical to these goals included a riser-equipped drilling vessel, a riserless vessel, additional platforms suited to mission specific expeditions, enhanced downhole measurement devices, and long-term monitoring instrumentation.
An engineering proposal submission process, initiated in April 2007, facilitated the acquisition of existing or latent technology to be used in IODP operations.
Drilling operations were conducted and managed by three IODP implementing organizations:
Each drilling expedition was led by a pair of co-chief scientists, with a team of scientists supported by a staff scientist. Each implementing organization provided a combination of services: technical, operational, and financial management; logging; laboratory; core repository; data management; and publication. Although each implementing organization was responsible for its own platform operations and performance, its science operations was funded by the lead agencies.
The operators conducted the following expeditions during the IODP: [3]
| Expedition | Title |
|---|---|
| 310 | Juan de Fuca Hydrogeology |
| 302 | Arctic Coring Expedition |
| 303 | North Atlantic Climate 1 |
| 304 | Oceanic Core Complex Formation, Atlantis Massif 1 |
| 305 | Oceanic Core Complex Formation, Atlantis Massif 2 |
| 306 | North Atlantic Climate 2 |
| 307 | Porcupine Basin Carbonate Mounds |
| 308 | Gulf of Mexico Hydrogeology |
| 309 | Superfast Spreading Rate Crust 2 |
| 310 | Tahiti Sea Level |
| 311 | Cascadia Margin Gas Hydrates |
| 312 | Superfast Spreading Rate Crust 3 |
| 313 | New Jersey Shallow Shelf |
| 314 | NanTroSEIZE Stage 1: LWD Transect |
| 315 | NanTroSEIZE Stage 1: Megasplay Riser Pilot |
| 316 | NanTroSEIZE Stage 1: Shallow Megasplay and Frontal Thrusts |
| 317 | Canterbury Basin Sea Level |
| 318 | Wilkes Land Glacial History |
| 319 | NanTroSEIZE Stage 2: Riser/Riserless Observa |
| 320 | Pacific Equatorial Age Transect I |
| 321 | Pacific Equatorial Age Transect II / Juan de Fuca |
| 322 | NanTroSEIZE Stage 2: Subduction Input |
| 323 | Bering Sea Paleoceanography |
| 324 | Shatsky Rise Formation |
| 325 | Great Barrier Reef Environmental Changes |
| 326 | NanTroSEIZE Stage 3: Plate Boundary Deep Riser 1 |
| 327 | Juan de Fuca Hydrogeology |
| 328 | Cascadia ACORK Observatory |
| 329 | South Pacific Gyre Subseafloor Life |
| 330 | Louisville Ridge |
| 331 | Deep Hot Biosphere |
| 332 | NanTroSEIZE Stage 2: Riserless Observatory |
| 333 | NanTroSEIZE Stage 2: Subduction Inputs 2 and Heat Flow |
| 334 | Costa Rica Seismogenesis Project (CRISP) |
| 335 | Superfast Spreading Rate Crust 4 |
| 336 | Mid-Atlantic Ridge Microbiology |
| 337 | Deep Coalbed Biosphere off Shimokita |
| 338 | NanTroSEIZE Stage 3: Plate Boundary Deep Riser 2 |
| 339 | Mediterranean Outflow |
| 340 | Lesser Antilles Volcanism and Landslides |
| 340T | Atlantis Massif Oceanic Core Complex |
| 341 | Southern Alaska Margin Tectonics, Climate & Sedimentation |
| 341S | SCIMPI |
| 342 | Paleogene Newfoundland Sediment Drifts |
| 343 | Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project |
| 343T | Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project II |
| 344 | Costa Rica Seismogenesis Project A Stage 2 |
| 345 | Hess Deep Plutonic Crust |
| 346 | Asian Monsoon |
| 347 | Baltic Sea Paleoenvironment |
| 348 | Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment Stage 3, Plate Boundary Deep Riser |
IODP employed two dedicated drilling vessels, each sponsored by a lead agency and managed by their respective implementing organization:
The U.S.-sponsored drilling vessel was operated throughout the Ocean Drilling Program and the first phase of IODP. The vessel then underwent a rebuild, allowing for increased laboratory space; improved drilling, coring, and sampling capacity; and enhanced health, safety, and environmental protection systems on board. [4]
Japan began building a state-of-the-art scientific drilling vessel for research in 2001 with the intent of reaching Earth's mantle and drilling into an active seismogenic zone. The resulting drilling vessel, Chikyū (Japanese for "Planet Earth") features a riser drilling system, a dynamic positioning system, and a high-density mud circulation system to prevent borehole collapse during drilling, among other assets. Chikyu can berth 150 people, cruise at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), and drill more than 7,000 m (23,000 feet) below the seafloor in water depths exceeding 2,000 m (6,600 feet). Chikyū was damaged during the tsunami of 11 March 2011, and was out-of-service for several months. [5] Chikyū returned to ocean drilling in April 2012.
ECORD commissioned ships on an expedition-by-expedition basis, depending on specific scientific requirements and environment. ECORD contracted the use of three icebreakers for the Arctic Coring Expedition (2004), drilling vessels diving for use in shallow Tahitian (2005) and Australian waters (2010), where scientists sampled fossil coral reefs to investigate the rise in global sea levels since the last ice age, and a liftboat for sampling the New Jersey Shallow Shelf (2009). Mission-specific expeditions required substantial flexibility.
Publications, data management, online tools, and databases are in development to support information- and resource-sharing, so as to expand the ranks of scientists who engage in ocean drilling investigations.
IODP publications are freely available online and a data management system integrates core and laboratory data collected by all three implementing organizations and the two IODP legacy programs. A web-based search system will eventually aggregate post-expedition data and related publications. Requests for data and samples can be made online.
A web-based Site Survey Data Bank enabled proponents to access and deposit the large amounts of data required to document potential drill sites for evaluation. This data was reviewed to assure IODP expeditions could meet their objectives and comply with safety and environmental requirements.
Three IODP core repositories located in Bremen, Germany (IODP Bremen Core Repository), College Station, Texas (IODP Gulf Coast Repository), and Kochi, Japan, archive cores based on geographical origin. Scientists may visit any one of the facilities for onsite research or request a loan for analysis or for teaching purposes. Archived cores include not only IODP samples, but also those retrieved in the two IODP legacy programs (DSDP and ODP).
The Mohorovičić discontinuity – usually called the Moho discontinuity, Moho boundary, or just Moho – is the boundary between the crust and the mantle of Earth. It is defined by the distinct change in velocity of seismic waves as they pass through changing densities of rock.
The Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) was an ocean drilling project operated from 1968 to 1983. The program was a success, as evidenced by the data and publications that have resulted from it. The data are now hosted by Texas A&M University, although the program was coordinated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. DSDP provided crucial data to support the seafloor spreading hypothesis and helped to prove the theory of plate tectonics. DSDP was the first of three international scientific ocean drilling programs that have operated over more than 40 years. It was followed by the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) in 1985, the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program in 2004 and the present International Ocean Discovery Program in 2013.
The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) was a multinational effort to explore and study the composition and structure of the Earth's oceanic basins, running from 1985 to 2004. ODP was the successor to the Deep Sea Drilling Project initiated in 1968 by the United States. ODP was an international effort with contributions of Australia, Germany, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and the ESF Consortium for Ocean Drilling (ECOD) including 12 further countries. The program used the drillship JOIDES Resolution on 110 expeditions (legs) to collect about 2,000 deep sea cores from major geological features located in the ocean basins of the world. Drilling discoveries led to further questions and hypotheses, as well as to new disciplines in earth sciences such as the field of paleoceanography.
Earth's mantle is a layer of silicate rock between the crust and the outer core. It has a mass of 4.01×1024 kg (8.84×1024 lb) and thus makes up 67% of the mass of Earth. It has a thickness of 2,900 kilometers (1,800 mi) making up about 46% of Earth's radius and 84% of Earth's volume. It is predominantly solid but, on geologic time scales, it behaves as a viscous fluid, sometimes described as having the consistency of caramel. Partial melting of the mantle at mid-ocean ridges produces oceanic crust, and partial melting of the mantle at subduction zones produces continental crust.
Scientific drilling into the Earth is a way for scientists to probe the Earth's sediments, crust, and upper mantle. In addition to rock samples, drilling technology can unearth samples of connate fluids and of the subsurface biosphere, mostly microbial life, preserved in drilled samples. Scientific drilling is carried out on land by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) and at sea by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). Scientific drilling on the continents includes drilling down into solid ground as well as drilling from small boats on lakes. Sampling thick glaciers and ice sheets to obtain ice cores is related but will not be described further here.
The Glomar Challenger was a deep sea research and scientific drilling vessel for oceanography and marine geology studies. The drillship was designed by Global Marine Inc. specifically for a long term contract with the American National Science Foundation and University of California Scripps Institution of Oceanography and built by Levingston Shipbuilding Company in Orange, Texas. Launched on March 23, 1968, the vessel was owned and operated by the Global Marine Inc. corporation. Glomar Challenger was given its name as a tribute to the accomplishments of the oceanographic survey vessel HMS Challenger. Glomar is a truncation of Global Marine.
Project Mohole was an attempt in the early 1960s to drill through the Earth's crust to obtain samples of the Mohorovičić discontinuity, or Moho, the boundary between the Earth's crust and mantle. The project was intended to provide an earth science complement to the high-profile Space Race. While such a project was not feasible on land, drilling in the open ocean was more feasible, because the mantle lies much closer to the sea floor.
Chikyū (ちきゅう) is a Japanese scientific drilling ship built for the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). The vessel is designed to ultimately drill 7 km beneath the seabed, where the Earth's crust is much thinner, and into the Earth's mantle, deeper than any other hole drilled in the ocean thus far.
The riserless research vessel JOIDES Resolution, often referred to as the JR, is one of the scientific drilling ships used by the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), an international, multi-drilling platform research program. JOIDES Resolution was previously the main research ship used during the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) and was used along with the Japanese drilling vessel Chikyu and other mission-specific drilling platforms throughout the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. She is the successor of Glomar Challenger.
Deep-sea exploration is the investigation of physical, chemical, and biological conditions on the ocean waters and sea bed beyond the continental shelf, for scientific or commercial purposes. Deep-sea exploration is an aspect of underwater exploration and is considered a relatively recent human activity compared to the other areas of geophysical research, as the deeper depths of the sea have been investigated only during comparatively recent years. The ocean depths still remain a largely unexplored part of the Earth, and form a relatively undiscovered domain.
The European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) is a consortium of 14 European countries and Canada that was formed in 2003 to join the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) as a single member. ECORD is now part of the International Ocean Discovery Program, which addresses crucial questions in Earth, Ocean, Environmental and Life sciences based on drill cores, borehole imaging, observatory data, and related geophysical imaging obtained from beneath the ocean floor using specialized ocean-going drilling and research vessels and platforms. As a contributing member of IODP, ECORD is entitled to berths on every IODP expedition.
The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, or JAMSTEC (海洋機構), is a Japanese national research institute for marine-earth science and technology. It was founded as Japan Marine Science and Technology Center (海洋科学技術センター) in October 1971, and became an Independent Administrative Institution administered by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in April 2004.
The Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project (JFAST) was a rapid-response scientific expedition that drilled oceanfloor boreholes through the fault-zone of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. JFAST gathered important data about the rupture mechanism and physical properties of the fault that caused the huge earthquake and tsunami which devastated much of northeast Japan.
The International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) is an international marine research collaboration dedicated to advancing scientific understanding of the Earth through drilling, coring, and monitoring the subseafloor. The research enabled by IODP samples and data improves scientific understanding of changing climate and ocean conditions, the origins of ancient life, risks posed by geohazards, and the structure and processes of Earth's tectonic plates and uppermost mantle. IODP began in 2013 and builds on the research of four previous scientific ocean drilling programs: Project Mohole, Deep Sea Drilling Project, Ocean Drilling Program, and Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. Together, these programs represent the longest running and most successful international Earth science collaboration.
Carlota Escutia Dotti is a Spanish geologist, best known for her work on the geologic evolution of Antarctica and the global role of the Antarctic ice cap. Escutia is based at the Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad de Granada and the High Council for Scientific Research (CSIC).
Kai-Uwe Hinrichs is a German biogeochemist and organic geochemist known for his research of microbial life below the ocean bed – the deep biosphere.
Beth N. Orcutt is an American oceanographer whose research focuses on the microbial life of the ocean floor. As of 2012, she is a senior research scientist at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. She is also a senior scientist of the Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations, a Science and Technology Center funded by the National Science Foundation and headquartered at the University of Southern California and part of the Deep Carbon Observatory Deep Life Community. Orcutt has made fundamental contributions to the study of life below the seafloor, particularly in oceanic crust and has worked with the International Scientific Ocean Drilling Program.
Fumio Inagaki is a geomicrobiologist whose research focuses on the deep subseafloor biosphere. He is the deputy director of the Research and Development Center for Ocean Drilling Science and the Kochi Institute for Core Sample Research, both at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC).
The upper mantle of Earth is a very thick layer of rock inside the planet, which begins just beneath the crust and ends at the top of the lower mantle at 670 km (420 mi). Temperatures range from approximately 500 K at the upper boundary with the crust to approximately 1,200 K at the boundary with the lower mantle. Upper mantle material that has come up onto the surface comprises about 55% olivine, 35% pyroxene, and 5 to 10% of calcium oxide and aluminum oxide minerals such as plagioclase, spinel, or garnet, depending upon depth.
Rosalind Mary Coggon is an English scientist who is a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Southampton. She is the co-editor of the 2050 Science Framework, which guides multidisciplinary subseafloor research. She was awarded the 2021 American Geophysical Union Asahiko Taira International Scientific Ocean Drilling Research Prize.
