Scientists to Unveil Results from Final Ocean Drilling Program Expeditions
Filed under: Discovery,News & Resources,Press Releases,Scientific Ocean Drilling
(Click to enlarege image) Asuka Yamaguchi, Structural Geology, Japan samples a core. Photo by Yujin Kitamura
Abstracts of all ocean-drilling presentations (PDF: 129KB) are contained in binders available for research purposes at the IODP booth (#1017) and in the Press Room. Some talks of interest include:
Age Constraint and Interpretations of a Hiatus in the Newfoundland-Iberia Rift Basin, ODP Leg 210, Sunday, November 7, 11:00 -11:15 AM, Room 708/710/712.
The final expedition of ODP (Leg 210) drilled and cored over 1700 meters of below-sea-floor sediments in the Newfoundland Basin – some of the deepest drilling during ODP. These cores provide information on the separation of Europe and North America millions of years ago. These cores are the first to show the basement history of the North American side (Newfoundland), as earlier ODP expeditions drilled on the European (Iberian) side.
Sedimentology, Paleontology, and Geochemistry of the K/T Boundary in ODP Hole 1259B, Demerara Rise, Monday, November 8, 11:25 -11:40 AM, Room 605
Drilling during ODP Leg 207 recovered six sections that showed the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary Period (K/T boundary). This period is best known to many as the end of the dinosaurs, likely caused by an asteroid impact. Scientists studying these cores noted, “[The cores] preserve a beautiful record of sedimentologic and paleontological changes across the boundary. The sequence is remarkable for how closely it matches the stratigraphy expected given an impact-induced mass extinction.”
Decoupled Shelf-Ocean Phytoplankton Productivity Responses Across the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, Monday, November 8, 1:30 PM-5:30 PM, Booth# 148
Cores from Leg 198 illustrate another dramatic climate change. The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, which occurred approximately 55 Million years ago, was one of the most abrupt global warming episodes in Earth history. Global ocean temperatures increased by approximately 5-8ºC. The cores provide a method to examine the biotic changes that occurred during this event.
Although the Ocean Drilling Program ended operations in September 2003, scientists will continue to use the cores collected to make discoveries. The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) began operations this year with two expeditions on the riserless vessel JOIDES Resolution to explore fluids in the Earth’s crust on the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the northeast Pacific Ocean and obtain long-term records showing climate change in the North Atlantic Ocean. IODP also conducted an expedition focused on past climate changes in the Arctic Ocean using a fleet of three icebreakers. Information on these and future IODP expeditions is available online at www.iodp.org.
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 was funded principally by the National Science Foundation, with substantial contributions from its international partners.
