The future of scientific drilling in Antarctic waters

• Published in: Antarctic Science
• Main Author: Dalziel, Ian W.D.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1992
• Subjects: Geology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Oceanography; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Austral; Amery; Amery Ice Shelf; Chile Trench; Antarc*; Antarctic Science; Ice Shelf
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102092000014; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102092000014

Over the past twenty years, nine legs of the Ocean Drilling Programme (ODP) and its predecessor the Deep Sea Drilling Project have been conducted at high southern latitudes (>45°S). Only four have taken place near the margins of the Antarctic continent (>60°S), the last off the Amery Ice Shelf in 1988. At present, JOIDES Resolution is drilling on the Chile Rise-Chile Trench triple junction (46°S), but she will return to lower latitudes at the end of this leg (#141). The Planning Committee of ODP has already approved a schedule that precludes a return to the Antarctic prior to the 1994–95 austral summer at the earliest. Few proposals for Antarctic drilling have even been submitted in recent years; none has received high ranking. This should be a matter of considerable concern to the Antarctic earth sciences community. The JOIDES Resolution is an international asset with a unique sampling capability but the lifetime of the ODP may not extend beyond 1998.