Over the last five decades, scientific ocean drilling has played a pivotal role in deepening our understanding of the Earth and its oceans, from their past to their future.
What is?
Scientific ocean drilling is a research method in marine geosciences. Specialized ships and platforms drill boreholes beneath the ocean floor to retrieve core samples – long, cylindrical “tubes” of rocks and sediments that represent a vertical section of the ocean crust. The open holes can also be used to retreive geophysical data and fluid samples.
By studying the cores and other data, scientists can learn about the Earth’s history and its dynamics, including past climate and environmental changes, and the evolution of the Earth’s formations. Scientific accomplishments range from obtaining the first direct evidence of seafloor spreading, to the discovery of deep microbial life and the deployment of novel systems for earthquake prediction.
Science’s collective past
The past of scientific ocean drilling is a social history of community-building to collectively advance our visions of the Earth by pooling together expert knowledge, specific skills, and resources. Since its birth, thousands of experts around the world have participated in scientific ocean drilling programs either onboard or in mainland laboratories, at advisory boards or during scientific meetings, from early career positions to the most senior chairs. The fields of expertise involved had vastly enlarged from sedimentology, micropaleontology, or structural geology, to integrate seismologists, microbiologists, and geochemists.
Scientific ocean drilling has shaped the careers of hundreds of scientists around the world. Their memories are an integral part of scientific ocean drilling’s past, but without a deliberate effort to preserve them, they are at risk of fading away. The project Oral Histories of Scientific Ocean Drilling pursues the mission of collecting, curating, and disseminating oral history records to facilitate its use in academic, educational and outreach purposes.
Vessels, programs, members
Scientific drilling vessels have succeeded one to another along more member countries joined the effort, thus opening new research frontiers beneath the oceans.
1968
The Deep Sea Drilling Project starts
A US-led program onboard the first scientific drillship in the world, the DV Glomar Challenger. Foreign experts were invited onboard each expedition.
1983
Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) starts
The ODP started with a new and more capable drillship, the DV JOIDES Resolution, and an enlarged international participation that included the European community.
2003
Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP)
The start of a new century witnessed the integration of new drilling platforms for scientific ocean drilling, which expanded even more the (deep) horizons of research. Japan contributed with the riser-equipped DV Chikyu while the European community (ECORD) brought in Mission Specific Platforms.
2013
International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP)
The current phase of scientific ocean drilling gathers experts from thirty-one member countries in expeditions around the world, devoted to sound the ocean crust from a wide range of fields of expertise.
Evolution of member countries
The maps below do not show the countries that have collaborated with onboard scientists or by working with the data recovered.
