The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) was a multinational effort to explore and study the composition and structure of the Earth's
oceanic basin
In hydrology, an oceanic basin (or ocean basin) is anywhere on Earth that is covered by seawater. Geologically, ocean basins are large geologic basins that are below sea level.
Most commonly the ocean is divided into basins fol ...
s. ODP, which began in 1985, was the successor to the
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 ...
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
295px, Drillship ''JOIDES Resolution'' in 1988
The riserless research vessel ''JOIDES Resolution'' (Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling), often referred to as the JR, is one of the scientific drilling ships used by the Intern ...
'' 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
Paleoceanography is the study of the history of the oceans in the geologic past with regard to circulation, chemistry, biology, geology and patterns of sedimentation and biological productivity. Paleoceanographic studies using environment models ...
. In 2004 ODP transformed into the
Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP).
See also
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Project Mohole
*
Deep Sea Drilling Program
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, alth ...
*
Integrated Ocean Drilling Program
*
Allison Guyot
References
External links
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ODP Legacy Website
Marine geology
Projects established in 1985
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