New Ocean Drilling Research Findings, Opportunities Presented at AGU Fall Meeting
Filed under: Discovery,News & Resources,Press Releases,Scientific Ocean Drilling
Scientists from around the globe will present more than 200 papers (PDF: 1.4MB) with new discoveries made possible through scientific ocean drilling at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco from December 13-17, 2004. These papers, which draw upon three generations of ocean drilling programs - the Deep Sea Drilling Project, Ocean Drilling Program, and Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP)- provide new knowledge related to topics ranging from paleoclimatology change to ocean sciences to volcanology.
Future opportunities for IODP breakthroughs will be discussed at a Town Meeting on Tuesday evening, from 5:30-7:45 p.m., at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, 345 Stockton Street. This briefing will highlight the scientific possibilities of the coming year as well as provide information on the inaugural IODP expeditions conducted with the riserless vessel JOIDES Resolution and Arctic mission-specific platforms.
Binders of all ocean drilling abstracts (PDF: 1.4MB) and additional information on the program are available in the press room, at the Joint Oceanographic Institutions booth (#326, 328, 330, 332) and IODP Management International booth (#320, 322, 324).
The following sessions highlight the diverse ways in which ocean drilling contributes to understanding the Earth:
Rapid Climate Change
Ocean drilling has revolutionized understanding of rapid and extreme climate change. In these poster sessions, research from one of the final expeditions of ODP, known as Leg 208, highlights advances in understanding the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, a rapid global warming event that occurred 55 million years ago.
Cretaceous/Cenozoic Greenhouse Climate Extremes: Causes and Consequences: Session 1 (PP11B), Monday AM, MCC 1 and Session II (PP14A), Monday PM, MCC 1
Climate Change Triggers
More than 15 papers on climate change research resulting from ODP Leg 202 will be presented in two sessions. ODP Leg 202 recovered nearly seven kilometers of sediment cores from the southern Pacific Ocean, which provide information on climate triggers and effects on several scales, from the slow tectonic uplift of the Andes, to abrupt climate shifts within human history.
Changes in Southeastern Pacific Circulation, Productivity, and Continental Climate on Tectonic, Orbital, and Millennial Timescales: Session I (PP43B), Thursday 1:40 p.m., MCC 2000 and Session II (PP51F) Friday AM, MCC 2.
Plumes or Not?
Four sessions of "Plumes or Not?" (V43G, V44B, V51B, V53C) examine challenges to the long-held theory that plumes of hot material rising from the deep mantle, possibly as deep as the Earth's core, form "hot spots," major volcanic regions that are considered anomalous in a plate tectonic context. Ocean drilling has provided samples from many different types of environments, such as seamounts, plateaus, and ridges, that span all major ocean basins and long periods of geologic time to provide information on these processes. A press conference on this topic will be held on Wednesday, December 15 at 11:00 am.
Plumes or Not I (V43G) and II (V44B), Thursday 1:40 - 6 p.m., MCC 3008;
Plumes or Not III (V51B), Friday AM, MCC 1; Plumes or Not IV (V53C), Friday 1:40 pm, MCC 3008
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The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) is an international marine research drilling program dedicated to advancing scientific understanding of the Earth by monitoring and sampling subseafloor environments. Through multiple platforms, scientists explore IODP's principal themes: the deep biosphere, environmental change, and solid earth cycles. IODP drilling platforms are operated by the. Joint Oceanographic Institutions Alliance (JOI, Texas A&M University, and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University), Japan's Center for Deep Earth Exploration, and the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling. IODP's initial 10-year, $1.5 billion program is supported by two lead agencies, the U.S. National Science Foundation and Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology; by ECORD, and China's Ministry of Science and Technology. ODP, which conducted operations from 1985-2003, was funded principally by the National Science Foundation, with substantial contributions from its international partners.
