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

geohazard A geologic hazard or geohazard is an adverse geology, geologic condition capable of causing widespread damage or loss of property and life. These hazards are geological and environmental conditions and involve long-term or short-term geological ...

s, and the structure and processes of Earth's

tectonic plates Plate tectonics (, ) is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of , an idea developed durin ...

and uppermost mantle. IODP began in 2013 and builds on the research of four previous scientific ocean drilling programs:

Project Mohole Project Mohole was an attempt in the early 1960s to drill through the Earth's Crust (geology), crust to obtain samples of the Mohorovičić discontinuity, or Moho, the boundary between the Earth's Crust (geology), crust and Mantle (geology), m ...

Deep Sea Drilling Project 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, alt ...

Ocean Drilling Program The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) was part of an international project to explore and study the composition and structure of Earth's oceanic basins. This collaborative effort spanned multiple decades and produced comprehensive data that improved un ...

, and

Integrated Ocean Drilling Program 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 rese ...

. Together, these programs represent the longest running and most successful international Earth science collaboration.

Scientific scope

The scientific scope of IODP is laid out in the program's science plan, ''Illuminating Earth's Past, Present, and Future''. The science plan covers a 10-year period of operations and consists of a list of scientific challenges that are organized into four themes called Climate and Ocean Change, Biosphere Frontiers, Earth Connections, and Earth in Motion. The science plan was developed by the international scientific community to identify the highest priority science for the program.

IODP funding and operations

IODP uses multiple drilling platforms ('' JOIDES Resolution'', ''

Chikyū is a Japanese scientific drilling ship built for the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). The vessel is designed to ultimately drill beneath the seabed, where the Earth's crust is much thinner, and into the Earth's mantle, deeper than an ...

'', and mission-specific platforms) to access different subseafloor environments during research expeditions. These facilities are funded by the U.S.

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

(NSF), Japan's

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology The , also known as MEXT, is one of the eleven ministries of Japan that compose part of the executive branch of the government of Japan. History The Meiji period, Meiji government created the first Ministry of Education in 1871. In January 2001 ...

(MEXT), and th
European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling
(ECORD), alongside the

Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...

(MOST)
Australian-New Zealand IODP Consortium
(ANZIC), and India's Ministry of Earth Science (MoES). Together, these entities represent a coalition of over two dozen countries. The IODP funding model differs from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program in that NSF, MEXT, and ECORD each manage their own drilling platform. International partners directly contribute to the operating costs of the drilling platforms in exchange for scientific participation on the expeditions and seats on the advisory panels. The research vessel ''JOIDES Resolution'' (JR) is managed and operated for NSF by the ''JOIDES Resolution'' Science Operator (JRSO), which is based at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

(TAMU). The JRSO was formalized as the implementing organization for IODP in 2014. The drilling vessel ''Chikyū'' was constructed and operated for MEXT by Japan's Center for Deep Earth Exploration (CDEX), which was established within the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) in October 2002. In 2019, JAMSTEC merged CDEX with its Marine Technology and Engineering Center (MARITEC) to create a new department, the Institute of Marine-Earth Exploration and Engineering (MarE3). MarE3 is the current implementing organization for ''Chikyū''. The ECORD Science Operator (ESO), established in 2003, is the implementing organization for mission-specific platform expeditions. ESO is also responsible for managing the IODP Bremen Core Repository. IODP expeditions are based on research proposals submitted by scientists that address the objectives described in the program's science plan. Advisory panels of international experts then rigorously evaluate the proposal for science quality, feasibility, safety, and any environmental issues. Proposals that are determined to be of high quality are forwarded to the appropriate facility board (''JOIDES Resolution'' Facility Board, ''Chikyū'' IODP Board, and ECORD Facility Board) for scheduling. IODP publishes a detailed account of findings and makes all samples and cores freely available. IODP's open data policy assures global access to the information collected by the program, and it allows scientists to use data from multiple expeditions to investigate new hypotheses. Cores collected during expeditions are stored at the IODP core repositories in Bremen, Germany (IODP Bremen Core Repository), College Station, Texas (IODP Gulf Coast Repository), and Kochi, Japan (Kochi Core Center). Scientists may visit any one of the facilities for onsite research or request a loan for teaching purposes/analysis. Archived cores include not only IODP samples, but also those retrieved by the Deep Sea Drilling Project, Ocean Drilling Program, and Integrated Ocean Drilling Program.

Outcomes

IODP expeditions have investigated a wide range of Earth science topics, including past climate and ocean conditions,

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

systems, seismogenic zones, the formation of

continental crust Continental crust is the layer of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks that forms the geological continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to their shores, known as '' continental shelves''. This layer is sometimes called '' si ...

and ocean basins, major extinction events, the role of

serpentinization Serpentinization is a hydration and Metamorphic rock, metamorphic transformation of ferromagnesian minerals, such as olivine and pyroxene, in mafic and ultramafic rock to produce serpentinite. Minerals formed by serpentinization include the Serp ...

in driving hydrothermal systems, and the temperature limits of life in the

deep biosphere The deep biosphere is the part of the biosphere that resides below the first few meters of the ocean's surface. It extends below the continental surface and below the sea surface, at temperatures that may reach beyond which is comparable to s ...

. An early outcome of the program harkens back to the original motivation for scientific ocean drilling with

– drilling and sampling across the

Mohorovičić discontinuity The Mohorovičić discontinuity ( ; )usually called the Moho discontinuity, Moho boundary, or just Mohois the boundary between the Earth's crust, crust and the Earth's mantle, mantle of Earth. It is defined by the distinct change in velocity of s ...

(Moho) and into the upper part of Earth's mantle. Expedition 360 was the initial part a multiphase project whose goal, among others, is to directly sample the mantle for the first time. The expedition took place near the Southwest Indian Ridge at a location where the crust is particularly thin due to the formation of an

oceanic core complex An oceanic core complex, or megamullion, is a seabed geology, geologic feature that forms a long ridge perpendicular to a mid-ocean ridge. It contains smooth domes that are lined with transverse ridges like a corrugated roof. They can vary in siz ...

. Expedition 360 completed 790 meters of drilling and IODP plans to return to the site in the coming years to continue the research. Expedition 364 sampled the peak ring of the Chicxulub impact crater, which is buried offshore near the Yucatán Peninsula. Chicxulub is the only well-preserved crater on Earth with a peak ring and was formed when an asteroid slammed into the planet 66 million years ago, killing off non-avian dinosaurs and most life on the planet. Analysis of the collected samples and data shows that the asteroid's impact caused rocks from deep in the Earth to shoot up and form the large mountains of the peak ring in a matter of minutes. The sediments overlying the peak ring also provide a record of how life returned to the area after the mass extinction event. In addition to studying how the Earth moves in response to impact events, IODP also studies the processes that cause earthquakes. For example, Expedition 362 brought new insight to the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time ( UTC+7), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck with an epicentre off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The undersea megathrust earthquake, known in the sci ...

through the sampling and analysis of sediments and rocks from the oceanic plate that feeds the Sumatra subduction zone. The science team discovered that the sediment's minerals dehydrated before reaching the subduction zone, resulting in a strong fault that allowed for a larger than previously expected earthquake to occur. IODP's early climate studies focused on efforts to understand the Asian monsoon system. Expeditions 353, 354, 355, and 359 collected sediments from the Bay of Bengal, the Andaman Sea, and the Arabian Sea. These sediments were eroded from the land and primarily carried by rivers to the ocean, where some of the sediments have laid buried for millions of years. By analyzing the chemical and physical properties of the sediments, scientists are learning about the evolution of mountain growth, monsoonal precipitation, weathering and erosion, and climate across the region and across multiple time scales. For example, one such study discovered that the monsoonal winds that drive the region's climate began suddenly 12.9 million years ago. Scientific studies from subseafloor instruments and IODP's core archives, which contain samples from this and previous ocean drilling programs, are also yielding insights into the Earth's climate and tectonic history. A study examining samples collected from around the world concluded that the rate of carbon release today is 10 times greater than during the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum or anytime during the past 66 million years. And, measurements taken in the Nankai Trough near Japan show that slow slip earthquakes are releasing about 50% of the subduction zone's energy, which has implications for understanding tsunami hazards.

Coring statistics

October 2013 to September 2024 (Expeditions 349–403)

References

{{Reflist

External links