The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program: Utilizing New Drilling Platforms for Ocean Research

Abstract

The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) began officially on October 1, 2003, the result of a decade of planning by the international scientific community. IODP represents the first-ever multiple platform scientific ocean drilling program, building upon successful single platform programs that began in the late 1960s. Dynamically positioned drilling vessels are being supplied by both the U.S. (riserless) and Japan (riser-equipped), while a European consortium is providing additional drilling capabilities as needed to address scientific objectives in shallow waters and in the high Arctic. The program's decadal science plan emphasizes process-based studies of the world's seismogenic zones beneath convergent margins, the sub-seafloor biosphere, gas hydrates, long- and short-term climate changes, the genesis and evolution of Large Igneous Provinces (LIPS), continental break-up and sedimentary basin formation, and a total penetration of the oceanic crust (the 21st Century Mohole). Central management of the program's technology will assure operational efficiencies, while at the same time providing internationally distributed access to facilities both to store and to analyze cores. IODP is also committed to international partnerships, particularly in the installation, operation, maintenance, and monitoring of seafloor and sub-seafloor observatories.