IODP Mission-Specific Platform Expeditions and Their Role in a Future Scientific Ocean Drilling Program

• Main Authors: Uenzelmann-Neben, Gabriele, McInroy, David
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Arctic Ocean
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/57554/; https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/57554/1/Uenzelmann-Neben_McInroy.docx; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.60e5b9c9-2995-4e99-b683-a8d8c72f73bd

IODP is currently supported by 22 Funding Agencies from around the world, and delivered by 3 Platform Providers. The United States NSF provides the riserless drillship JOIDES Resolution, Japan's MEXT provides the riser drillship D/V Chikyu, and the ECORD provides mission-specific platforms (MSPs) which are contracted on a case-by-case basis. Each IODP platform provides specialist capability. The JOIDES Resolution has provided high-quality riserless coring since 1985, and has played a pivotal role in global scientific ocean drilling throughout various generations of IODP. The D/V Chikyu delivers deep riser-mode drilling capability, giving earth scientists access to deeper targets and potentially providing a method to reach the Mohorovičić discontinuity. As capable as the two dedicated IODP platforms are, they are unable to reach all geological targets, such as those located under ice-covered seas, in shallow water, in environmentally sensitive areas or in certain hard-to-drill lithologies such as carbonate reefs and loose sediments. ECORD has provided MSPs to tackle the targets unreachable by either the JOIDES Resolution or D/V Chikyu. To date, ECORD has implemented 9 MSP expeditions including to the Central Arctic Ocean, to the coral reefs offshore Tahiti and the Great Barrier Reef, to the shallow shelf areas offshore eastern United States, Mexico and in the Baltic Sea, and to the ultra-deep waters of the Japan Trench. These projects had multiple scientific objectives, including the recovery of records of climate and sea level change, and the recovery of previously unknown buried microbiological communities. MSPs typically do not have the same level of onboard laboratory infrastructure compared to the JOIDES Resolution, D/V Chikyu and other scientific research vessels. The offshore phase of an MSP expedition carries a smaller scientific team, who focus on measuring ephemeral properties and other measurements that are required to guide the coring strategy at sea. All other analyses are deferred to the Onshore ...