Ocean Drilling Program Provides Geological Insights

This article was originally published in the April 2001 issue of CLASnotes.

On the rig floor, sections of drill pipe are threaded together and lowered to the sea floor. The drilling begins once the drill bit reaches the floor. The ship can deploy up to 30,000 feet of drill string.

UF recently hosted an important national conference in the oceanographic sciences. The US Science Advisory Committee (USSAC) for Joint Oceanographic Institutions (JOI) met at UF January 24-26 to discuss plans for a new endeavor, the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). UF was recently admitted as one of the 14 members of JOI, which operates the existing Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) and is likely to operate IODP. UF Associate Professor of Geological Sciences Jon Martin, who is nationally recognized for his work in this field, organized the meeting.

The principal task for the 15 USSAC members attending the meeting, who hail from the top US schools in earth and ocean sciences, was to prepare a proposal for submission to the National Science Board requesting approval for the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund IODP. The National Science Board is the governing body of NSF.

The Ocean Drilling Program currently costs $46 million annually, with 64 percent of the funds coming from NSF. Pending funding approval, the IODP will start in October 2003, with an estimated annual budget of $140 million. The US and Japan have agreed to co-fund IODP, but will invite several other European and Asian countries to participate through monetary contributions totaling up to a third of the cost of the program.

Through IODP, researchers from member nations will have access to two newly-constructed and state-of-the-art drill ships. This new technology will provide researchers around the world access to a vast repository of geological and environmental information recorded far below the ocean surface in seafloor sediments and rocks. It will serve as the only means to study many important scientific phenomena such as the global history of climate change, sea level variations through time, the ecology of microbes living deep within the ocean crust, flow of water through the ocean crust, and the origin and controls of major earthquakes and volcanoes. According to Martin, "UF's involvement at the highest levels in ODP and IODP represents an outstanding compliment to the level of oceanographic research currently going on in the geological sciences."