Ocean Drilling Program: Recent Highlights and Future Expeditions

Scientific ocean drilling has a rich history in the United States, beginning with Project Mohole in 1961. In 1966, the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the establishment of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), which, beginning in 1968, carried out coring expeditions aboard the purpose-built drilling vessel Glomar Challenger, managed by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The program became international in 1975 when the Federal Republic of Germany, United Kingdom, France, Japan, and the Soviet Union joined DSDP.DSDP concluded in 1983 and was succeeded by the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP). The workhorse vessel for ODP (1985-2003) and the subsequent Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP-1; 2003-13) and International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP-2; 2013-24) was the JOIDES Resolution (JR), owned by Siem Offshore and leased and managed by Texas A&M University. Expeditions during IODP-1 and IODP-2 were also implemented by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling using a mission specific platform model, and by Japan aboard the riser-equipped drilling vessel Chikyu.Because of a long-term decline in available funds, the lease agreement for the JR ended in 2024; thus, for the first time in more than 50 years, the U.S. is without a dedicated platform for scientific ocean drilling. In this presentation we describe U.S. plans for a Subseafloor Sampling Program (S3P) to succeed IODP-2. S3P will follow a mission specific platform approach. Proponents will submit drilling proposals directly to NSF, which will employ a semiannual review panel to evaluate them in the context of the internationally developed guiding document, “2050 Science Framework: Exploring Earth by Scientific Ocean Drilling.” In addition, the U.S. community is developing a list of near and intermediate term science priorities through the FOCUS (“Future Ocean Drilling in the U.S.”) workshop effort.A newly created Scientific Drilling Coordination Office (SODCO) will identify and procure appropriate platforms for projects that are positively reviewed and selected for drilling; it is hoped that up to two expeditions per year can be implemented. SODCO will also assist the U.S. community through planning and training workshops, pre-drilling activities, support for technological innovation, and science communication and outreach. A robust advisory committee structure will ensure that the U.S. subseafloor sampling effort is open, broad-based, community-driven, and motivated by achieving the highest quality science at acceptable risk.International collaboration in ocean drilling remains a priority for the U.S. For example, NSF is contributing significant funds toward IODP3/NSF Expedition 501 (New England Shelf Hydrogeology) and will support the participation of around a dozen U.S. scientists. Similarly, the U.S. is interested in providing opportunities for non-U.S. scientists aboard S3P expeditions. The exact mechanisms and policies for mutual participation remain to be developed; the U.S. will take a flexible approach that emphasizes transparency, reciprocity, and the interests of potential partners.

The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) and its predecessor, the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), have completed over 30 years of scientific ocean drilling. In the early days of DSDP, drilling began in the deepest parts of the oceans, in water depths to which the oil industry is just now moving, 30 years later. ODP/DSDP technology developments have continued over the years with a special focus on high quality sampling tools and the development of seafloor observatories. One of the most successful tool developments is the advanced piston corer. This wireline tool can recover 10 m long samples and has been used successfully to recover high quality core samples in deep water (>3000 m) to 300 meters below seafloor. Other deep water coring tools have been developed to sample sedimentary and igneous rocks. Complimenting the core sample tools, ODP has developed wireline-deployed tools that measure in situ physical properties, such as pressure and temperature. The seafloor observatories have been developed for deep water science applications. These observatories are installed into boreholes, sealed from the overlying ocean water, and left to collect a variety of physical data (temperature & pressure sensors, seismometers, pore fluid samples) as time series. These ODP technologies can be used for deep water site investigations, shallow water flow assessments, and to establish fluid flow and pressure monitoring stations at deep water sites. These tools and techniques may be applied to deep water site investigations at reduced costs with high quality results. Background The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) and its predecessor, the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), have completed over 30 years of scientific ocean drilling. These two Programs have circumnavigated the globe many times, drilling in all regions of the global ocean (Fig. 1). The Deep Sea Drilling Project officially began in 1968 when the drill ship, Glomar Challenger, sailed on its first scientific drilling expedition to the Gulf of Mexico and the Bermuda Rise. In addition to the major engineering feat of this first voyage - drilling in water depths greater than 5000 m and penetrating 700 m into the seafloor - the science successes were outstanding. Scientists recovered the oldest rocks ever found in the deep ocean and discovered deep water petroleum and salt dome cap rock. Yet scientific ocean drilling began even earlier than the Deep Sea Drilling Project. In 1961, the vessel, CUSS I, was chartered and drilled 200 m into the seafloor in 3,800 m of water off Guadeloupe Island. The recovery of basalt in this first ever deep sea borehole verified the composition of ocean crust Layer 2, and demonstrated that ocean drilling was indeed critical to the advancement of science. Drilling during the early years of the Deep Sea Drilling Project took place in the deepest parts of the oceans, in water depths to which the oil industry is just now moving, 30 years later. In addition to achieving this deep water challenge, the Project developed sampling tools to recover high quality samples of deep sea sediment, sedimentary rock, and igneous rock.

Proposed funding for scientific ocean drilling within the National Science Foundation (NSF) in fiscal 1983 totals $14 million, $6 million less than the current fiscal 1982 plan and about half of the original FY 1982 budget request of $26 million. However, there is more to these numbers than simple subtraction: Additional funding for scientific ocean drilling programs is on hold while decisions are being made about a future drilling program called Advanced Ocean Drilling (AOD).With the demise of the Ocean Margin Drilling Program (OMDP) when industry withdrew its support (Eos, October 20, 1981, p. 705) and with the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) long ago scheduled to end in fiscal 1983, the future for scientific ocean drilling within NSF was uncertain. To steer ocean drilling toward scientific objectives for the decade, the Conference on Scientific Ocean Drilling (COSOD) (Eos, December 22, 1981, p. 1197) examined four ocean drilling options and decided that the Glomar Explorer, converted to the current capabilities of the DSDP mainstay Glomar Challenger (i.e., without riser and well‐control technologies), would meet scientific objectives through the decade. In December, the National Research Council's Committee on Ocean Margin Drilling came to the identical conclusion in its interim report. Both of these decisions were based solely on scientific merit and did not consider costs.

Texas A&M University has been designated as Science Operator for a new National Science Foundation sponsored program of scientific ocean drilling - the Ocean Drilling Program. The responsibilities of the Science Operator include implementing the science plans under the guidance of the Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling, providing logistical and technical support for a shipboard science team, managing post-cruise activities, the long term duration and distribution of core samples, and coordinating, editing and publication of the final research product. The scientific programs will be carried out with the drilling vessel SEDCO/BP 471, a dynamically positioned drillship capable of deploying 30,000 ft. of drill string and operating with a riser in 6000 ft. of water. The primary scientific objectives of the Ocean Drilling Program will being studying the origin and evolution of the oceanic crust, the tectonic evolution of continental margins, the origin and evolution of marine sedimentary sequences, studies of long term changes in the atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere, biosphere and magnetic field and development of new tools and technology for deep ocean exploration and drilling. INTRODUCTION In 1964, four of the major marine geoscience institutions [Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University (L-DGO), Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California (SIO), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science of the University of Miami (RSMAS)], signed a memorandum of agreement which inaugurated the Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling [JOIDES] and led the way for the development of a unified program of deep ocean drilling. Prior to this time, the only method of sampling the deep sea floor had been in the form of dredge hauls and piston cores, which provided samples from the upper 20 m of the ocean floor. These samples contributed greatly to our understanding of the geological history of the ocean floor, and suggested that even more information was within grasp with a drilling program which could penetrate thicker stratigraphic sections and the ocean crust. The initial effort of JOIDES, which was managed by L-DGO and sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), was the drilling of several deep holes on the Blake Plateau off northern Florida. The drilling vessel was M/V CALDRILL I, a converted 54-meter, AKL-type vessel equipped for rotary drilling.1 The success of the inaugural JOIDES effort provided the impetus and framework for a more ambitious drilling program. Under the sponsorship of NSF, SIO was designated the operating institution for what became known as the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and a world-wide drilling program commenced in 1968. The operating vessel was D!V GLOMAR CHALLENGER which logged 375,000 n. miles, drilled 1092 holes at 624 sites, and recovered 96,000 meters of core until November, 1983, when the DSDP terminated its field operations. During this 15-year period, the Universities of Washington, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Texas, Texas A&M and Oregon State all became active members of JOIDES.

The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) has completed 40 internationally staffed expeditions and seven years of scientific ocean drilling in search of answers relating to the tectonic evolution of passive and active continental margins, origin and evolution of oceanic crust, origin and evolution of marine sedimentary sequences, and paleoceanography. To address these problems, OOP has made numerous advances in technology for retrieval of continuous undisturbed cores under hostile environmental conditions. ODP curates over 160 km of cored material and associated scientific data bases and publishes results of the scientific expeditions in a continuous series of Proceedings volumes. During its seventh year, ODP has completed pioneering scientific and technical exploration in the Pacific Ocean. Leg 135 studied the geologic history of the Lau Basin and adjoining TofuaiTonga Arc. The results here yield important information on the geologic processes that form new oceanic crust at convergent plate margins. Leg 136 drilled and cased a reentry hole off Hawaii to provide a site for the future employment of a broad-band ocean seismometer. This is the first site of an envisioned global network of 15-20 permanent seismic observations in the deep ocean. Leg 137 cleaned and conditioned and slightly deepened Hole 504B, off the Galapagos, for future coring and downhole measurements. This hole is the deepest hole we have into the basaltic ocean crust. Leg 138 broke the Leg 133 core recovery record by retrieving 5537 m of material on two north-south transects in order to define the paleoceanographic evolution of the eastern Pacific during the last 12 million years. Leg 139 recovered core in the Middle Valley of the northern Juan de Fuca Ridge with the major objective of elucidating processes and products of hydrothermal circulation in a sedimented spreading center. Future cruises include, amongst others, Leg 141 in the Chile Triple Junction region which will focus on the effects of ridge-crest subduction; Leg 142, the third ODP engineering leg in order to test the diamond coring system, Phase liB, on the East Pacific Rise; Legs 143 and 144, Northwest Pacific Atolls and Guyots, to address problems relating to changes in sea level; Leg 145 to address broad themes of surface and deep water evolution through the Neogene in the North Pacific; leg 146 to drill on convergent margin accretionary prisms off Vancouver and Oregon; Leg 147 to drill in Hess Deep to understand igneous, tectonic and metamorphic evolution of fast spreading oceanic crust and to understand the processes of rifting in young oceanic crust. After Leg 147, in January 1993, the JOIDES Resolution will commence an Atlantic ocean drilling campaign. This paper focuses on ODP's scientific and technical achievements during its seventh year of field operations and discusses areas of future study. Introduction The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), an international basic research program of scientific ocean drilling, is the successor program to the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) with Texas A&M University as the science operator. ODP is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation with major contributions from 19 non-U.S. countries.

Twenty years of scientific drilling by DSDP and ODP resulted in the penetration of numerous "black shales" of varying ages. Many of these units are hydrocarbon source rocks but are thermally immature. Because neither program utilized a riser, pre-cruise preparation was aimed at preventing an accidental hydrocarbon discovery. Hydrocarbons were, however, encountered on no less than ten legs. Some of the hydrocarbons have migrated into the section from a down-dip source while other hydrocarbon were generated in situ as a result of elevated temperatures. The nature and distribution of the "black shales" and the limited hydrocarbon provide information on the potential occurrence of hydrocarbons in deep oceans and continental margins. INTRODUCTION During the past two decades the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) have examined over 700 locations and have recovered more than 126,000 meters of core. The material recovered includes both sediment and oceanic crust. The age of this recovered material ranges from Jurassic through Quaternary. These international scientific drilling programs were undertaken into examine major sedimentologic, paleoclimatic and structural problems that could only be answered through the acquisition of subsurface samples beyond the depth range of piston cores or through the emplacement of down-hole instrumentation packages. While not considered a major objective, the drilling programs encountered numerous organic-rich (Organic Carbon ?1.0 wt.%) muds, shales, diatomites, marls and limestones, which have collectively been termed "black shales". These organic-rich deposits have been recovered in each of the ocean basins (Fig. 1) and range in age from Jurassic through Pleistocene. They are, however, not uniformly distributed through time, and are more common in Cretaceous and Neogene sediments (Fig. 2). Because neither drilling program utilized a riser, extensive pre-cruise preparation was directed at preventing major pollution problems as a result of a hydrocarbon discovery. Yet these programs did accidently encounter at least small quantities of hydrocarbon on no less than ten legs (Fig-1). The occurrence and character (generation potential, Principal Products, and level of thermal maturity of the "black shales" and the hydrocarbon shows encountered by the two drilling programs are significant in that they provide information on the direction of future exploration in the deep ocean basin and in the deeper water portions of the continental margins. They specifically provide information on the processes of hydrocarbon formation and occurrence in deep water regimes. This paper will briefly review the character and significance of both the organic-rich rock and the hydrocarbon shows. ORGANIC-RICH SEDIMENTS: CHARACTER AND MODE OF FORMATION Rocks typically encountered by scientific ocean Drilling contain about 0.3 wt.% total, organic carbon (TOC; McIver, 1975). There are, however, a small group of which contain substantially more organic matter, commonly containing in excess of 1 wt.% TOC, with maximum values in excess of 30+ wt.% at DSDP site 367 (Deroo et al., 1978). Such values would permit these sediments to be considered possible hydrocarbon sources.

The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) has now completed 29 internationally staffed expeditions and five years of scientific ocean drilling. JOIDES Resolution, the scientific drillship of ODP, has travelled in the Atlantic, eastern and northwest Pacific, and Indian oceans, including high latitude zones bordering East and West Antarctica, and the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Weddell, Sulu, Celebes, Philippine and Japan seas, in search of answers to important scientific problems designated by the Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling (JOIDES). These scientific objectives relate to the tectonic evolution of passive and active continental margins, origin and evolution of oceanic crust, origin and evolution of marineedimentary sequences, and paleoceanography. In addition, ODP has continued modification and reliability of existing coring systems as well as made numerous advances in technology to improve the capture of scientific information. During its fifth year, the ODP has completed pioneering exploration in the Northwest Pacific Ocean and adjacent seas. Leg 124E, in the Philippine Sea, was our first cruise dedicated to engineering development. Legs 125 and 126 were a two cruise effort designed to study, amongst other important problems, the geological processes involved in thedevelopment of the Bonin and Marianas arcs. Legs 127 and 128 were dedicated to study the tectonics and sedimentation history of the Japan Sea. Leg 129 commenced after a dry dock period of JOIDESResolution, to study the oldest Pacific crust in Pigafetta and east Mariana basins in the Western Pacific. This paper focuses on ODP's scientific successes of five years of scientific ocean drilling and discusses areas of future study. Introduction The Ocean Drilling Program, an international basic research program of scientific ocean drilling, is the successor program to the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) with Texas A&M University as the science operator. The mission of ODP is to learn how Earth has evolved with time. To do this, sediment and hard rock samples are retrieved from beneath the deep-sea floor to study evolution of ocean basins, evolution of prehistoric life, evolution of past ocean current and paleoclimates. ODP is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation with major contributions from 18 non-U.S. countries. This international partnership is called the Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling (JOIDES) ODP commenced its field operations with a shakedown and sea trials cruise in January 1985 in the Gulf of Mexico1. About every two months since that time, an internationally staffed expedition of our drilling research vessel, the SEDCOIBP 471, better known to the scientific community as the JOIDES Resolution (Figure 1), has taken place in very remote but geologically important areas of the world's oceans. Each expedition carries a scientific and technical complement of 51 persons as well as a ship's crew and drilling complement of about 60 persons. The ship, as of cruise 129 (January 1990), has operated at 175 sites in the north Atlantic Ocean, in the eastern and northwest Pacific Ocean, in the Weddell Sea and Prydz Bay off Antarctica and in the Indian Ocean (Figure 2).

The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) has completed 34 internationally staffed expeditions and six years of scientific ocean drilling in search of answers relating to the tectonic evolution of passive and active continental margins, origin and evolution of oceanic crust, origin and evolution of marine sedimentary sequences, and paleoceanography. To address these problems, ODP has made numerous advances in technology for retrieval of continuous undisturbed cores under hostile environmental conditions. ODP curates over 150 km of cored material and associated scientific data bases and publishes results of the scientific expeditions in a continuous series of Proceedings volumes. During its sixth year, ODP has completed pioneering exploration in the western Pacific Ocean. Leg 130 recovered 4800 m of core, the most ever up to that point in time, in order to gain new insight into the evolution of global ocean dynamics and climate during the past 25 million years and the origin and tectonic history of the world's largest oceanic plateau -- the Ontong Java Plateau. Leg 131 studied the initial step in the process of mountain building and continental crustal growth by coring the toe of the Nankai Trough accretionary prism. Leg 132 was the second engineering cruise planned to test new drilling technology, in particular the diamond coring system, necessary to achieve the scientific objectives of ODP. Leg 133 broke the Leg 130 core recovery record by retrieving 5505 m of material over the platforms and basins of northeast Australia. Leg 134 drilled at seven sites in order to study collision of an aseismic ridge and a guyot with an island arc in the vicinity of the Vanuatu area. Future cruises include, amongst others, the Lau Basin on Leg 135, a hole for future Ocean Seismographic Network experiments off Hawaii on Leg 136, cleaning and continued coring of Hole 5048 off the Galapagos on Leg 137, an East Equatorial Pacific paleoceanographic transect on Leg 138, coring of sedimented ridges in the northern Juan de Fuca Ridge area on Leg 139 and, if possible, further efforts at the Hole 5048 (or Hess Deep) on Leg 140. This paper focuses on ODP's scientific and technical achievements during its sixth year of field operations and discusses areas of future study. Introduction The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), an international basic research program of scientific ocean drilling, is the successor program to the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) with Texas A&M University as the science operator. ODP is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation with major contributions from 18 non-U.S. countries. This international partnership is called the Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling (JOIDES). To date, JOIDES Resolution (Figure I), the scientific drillship of ODP has retrieved sediment and hard rock samples from beneath the deep sea floor at 217 sites (Table 1) in search of answers to important scientific problems designated by JOIDES. These sites are located in the Atlantic, eastern and western Pacific, and Indian oceans, including high latitude zones bordering East and West Antarctica, and Baffin Bay, the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Norwegian, Sulu, Celebes, Philippine, Japan and Coral seas. Thus far, approximately 832 scientists from around the world(Figure 2) have participated in cruises and brought over 325,000 individual core samples home to their respective institutions for further study.

Hydrocarbon shows and source rocks in scientific ocean drilling

The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), an international program of scientific ocean drilling, is the successor program to the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP). ODP commenced its field operations with a shakedown and sea trials cruise in January 1985 in the Gulf of Mexico. Approximately every two months since that time, an internationally staffed expedition of our drilling research vessel the SEDCO/BP 471 (Fig. 1) or better known to the scientific community as the Joides Resolution has taken place in very remote but geologically important areas of the world’s oceans (Rabinowitz et al, 1984–1987).

Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 317 was devoted to understanding the relative importance of global sea level (eustasy) versus local tectonic and sedimentary processes in controlling continental margin sedimentary cycles. The expedition recovered sediments from the Eocene to recent period, with a particular focus on the sequence stratigraphy of the late Miocene to recent, when global sea level change was dominated by glacioeustasy. Drilling in the Canterbury Basin, on the eastern margin of the South Island of New Zealand, takes advantage of high rates of Neogene sediment supply, which preserves a high-frequency (0.1–0.5 m.y.) record of depositional cyclicity. The Canterbury Basin provides an opportunity to study the complex interactions between processes responsible for the preserved stratigraphic record of sequences because of the proximity of an uplifting mountain chain, the Southern Alps, and strong ocean currents. Currents have locally built large, elongate sediment drifts within the prograding Neogene section. Expedition 317 did not drill into one of these elongate drifts, but currents are inferred to have strongly influenced deposition across the basin, including in locations lacking prominent mounded drifts. Upper Miocene to recent sedimentary sequences were cored in a transect of three sites on the continental shelf (landward to basinward, Sites U1353, U1354, and U1351) and one on the continental slope (Site U1352). The transect provides a stratigraphic record of depositional cycles across the shallow-water environment most directly affected by relative sea level change. Lithologic boundaries, provisionally correlative with seismic sequence boundaries, have been identified in cores from each site and provide insights into the origins of seismically resolvable sequences. This record will be used to estimate the timing and amplitude of global sea level change and to document the sedimentary processes that operate during sequence formation. Sites U1353 and U1354 provide significant, double-cored, high-recovery sections through the Holocene and late Quaternary for high-resolution study of recent glacial cycles in a continental shelf setting. Continental slope Site U1352 represents a complete section from modern slope terrigenous sediment to hard Eocene limestone, with all the associated lithologic, biostratigraphic, physical, geochemical, and microbiological transitions. The site also provides a record of ocean circulation and fronts during the last ~35 m.y. The early Oligocene (~30 Ma) Marshall Paraconformity was the deepest drilling target of Expedition 317 and is hypothesized to represent intensified current erosion or nondeposition associated with the initiation of thermohaline circulation following the separation of Australian and Antarctica. Expedition 317 set a number of scientific ocean drilling records: (1) deepest hole drilled in a single expedition and second deepest hole in the history of scientific ocean drilling (Hole U1352C, 1927 m); (2) deepest hole and second deepest hole drilled by the R/V JOIDES Resolution on a continental shelf (Hole U1351B, 1030 m; Hole U1353B, 614 m); (3) shallowest water depth for a site drilled by the JOIDES Resolution for scientific purposes (Site U1353, 84.7 m water depth); and (4) deepest sample taken by scientific ocean drilling for microbiological studies (1925 m, Site U1352). Expedition 317 supplements previous drilling of sedimentary sequences for sequence stratigraphic and sea level objectives, particularly drilling on the New Jersey margin (Ocean Drilling Program [ODP] Legs 150, 150X, 174A, and 174AX and IODP Expedition 313) and in the Bahamas (ODP Leg 166), but includes an expanded Pliocene section. Completion of at least one transect across a geographically and tectonically distinct siliciclastic margin was the necessary next step in deciphering continental margin stratigraphy. Expedition 317 also complements ODP Leg 181, which focused on drift development in more distal parts of the Eastern New Zealand Oceanic Sedimentary System (ENZOSS).

The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), an international program of scientific ocean drilling, is the successor program to the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP). ODP commenced its field operations with a shakedown and sea trials cruise in January 1985 in the Gulf of Mexico. Approximately every two months since that time, an internationally staffed expedition of our drilling research vessel the SEDCO/BP 471 (Fig. 1) or better known to the scientific community as the Joides Resolution has taken place in very remote but geologically important areas of the world’s oceans (Rabinowitz et al, 1984–1987).KeywordsOcean CrustOcean Drill ProgramDrill StringDeep Water CoreHydraulic Shock AbsorberThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

The International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) conducts scientific ocean drilling expeditions throughout the world’s oceans in search of clues to Earth’s past. The current expedition is Expedition 356: Indonesian Throughflow, aboard the U.S. vessel for scientific ocean drilling, the JOIDES Resolution (http://www.joidesresolution.org). On this expedition we are investigating the interaction of currents and monsoons in and around Western Australia. We’ll do that by drilling sediment samples from six different sites in the northwest Australian shelf, to see how sediments have changed over the last 5 million years. We’ll use the data we collect to work out how the Indonesian Throughflow and Leeuwin Currents have changed over this time, and the patterns of the northwest Australian monsoon over the same period. We will also use our data to study the movement of the Australian tectonic plate. The scientific objectives are to: Look at the history of the Indonesian throughflow and Leeuwin current a. See how the flow of these currents has affected the development of reef systems Look at how these currents have affected climate a. Understand the history and changes of the Australian monsoon b. Understand the nature and timing of aridity (dryness) in Australia Construct subsidence curves a. Better visualize the vertical movement of the Australian plate b. Investigate changes in sea level c. Look at the subsidence history A team of 30 scientists from around the globe are on board for two months to work on these questions. Hand-in-hand with the amazing technology required to drill deep into the ocean floor, we are collecting the core samples that hold clues to answer these questions. Join us to ask us anything about this intriguing science, how we got here, what we hope to discover, and our lives on board the ship! We will be back at 1 pm ET (10 am PT, 5 pm UTC) to answer your questions, ask us anything!

The International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) conducts scientific ocean drilling expeditions throughout the world’s oceans in search of clues to Earth’s past. The current expedition is Expedition 359: Maldives Monsoon, aboard the U.S. vessel for scientific ocean drilling, the JOIDES Resolution www.joidesresolution.org. On this expedition we are exploring the story of climate change and of times past (paleoclimatic changes). Using core samples from off the coast of the Maldives the scientists aim to reconstruct paleoceanographic evolution over the past 23 million years. Drilling will provide cores required for reconstructing changing current systems through time that are directly related to the evolution of the Indian monsoon. As such the drift deposits will provide a continuous record of Indian monsoon development in the region. One important outcome of Expedition 359 is ground-truthing the hypothesis that the dramatic, pronounced change in the style of the sedimentary carbonate sequence stacking was caused by a combination of relative sea level fluctuations and ocean current system changes. The scientific objectives are to: - explore the variation in regional monsoon systems over multi-million year time scales - learn how scientists reconstruct the causes of fluctuations in ocean currents and triggers of evolution - learn how sea level respond to a warming climate - learn about magnitude and rate of past sea level change A team of 30 scientists from around the globe are on board for two months to work on these questions. Hand-in-hand with the amazing technology required to drill deep into the ocean floor, we are collecting the core samples that hold clues to answer these questions. Join us to ask us anything about this intriguing science, how we got here, what we hope to discover, and our lives on board the ship! Update: Thanks for joining us, we really enjoyed the questions. Some of us are now finished with our 12 hr shift and we're signing off. Please continue to send questions, visit our website at www.joidesresolution.org, follow us on twitter @TheJR, instagram joides_resolution, and like our www.facebook.com/joidesresolution page!

JOIDES Resolution (a.k.a. SEDCO/BP 471), the scientific drillship of the National Science Foundation's Ocean Drilling Program, contains over 12,000 square feet of laboratory space. Years of experience gained in the previous JOIDES program of scientific ocean drilling (the Deep Sea Drilling Project) have provided many ideas for improving upon the capabilities of a scientific drillship. Each laboratory on JOIDES Resolution is designed to include state-of-the-art equipment and techniques. A laboratory module seven stories high was added to the ship. This allows for ship investigations of sedimentology, physical properties, paleomagnetics, chemistry, petrography, and paleontology. In addition, thin section, X-ray diffraction/X-ray fluorescence, underway geophysics, logging and downhole measurement, computer, photographic, core storage, and library facilities are all available. This paper emphasizes the new instrumentation that was acquired or developed for the laboratories. Some techniques and equipment are in use for the first time at sea. Our experiences with these through the program's early cruises are related. The program plans to continually update its shipboard laboratory capability.