• Submit drilling proposals to ODP (and successor programmes) in keeping with scientific and general guidelines;

• Apply to sail on forthcoming ODP (and successor programmes) cruises as shipboard scientists;

• Apply to work on ODP (and successor programmes) drillcore and micropalaeontological material.

This results from the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI), with the Marine Institute and Enterprise Ireland, having joined the European Science Foundation Consortium for Ocean Drilling (ECOD) in 2000. Further information is offered below.

Following the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP, 1968-1984), the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) has been operating from 1985 and will end in September 2003. The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) will be its successor from late 2003 to 2013.

ODP is an international partnership of scientists and research institutions organized to explore Earth’s evolution and structure by drilling in the world’s oceans. It provides researchers access to a vast repository of geological and environmental information recovered from seafloor sediments and rocks far below the ocean surface.

ODP full members (arranged alphabetically)

• Australia/Canada/Korea/Chinese-Taipei Consortium for Ocean Drilling;

• European Science Foundation Consortium for Ocean Drilling (ECOD), Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, IRELAND, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland;

• Germany;

• Japan;

• United Kingdom;

• United States of America.

• France (Level 3);

• People's Republic of China (Level 1).

The ODP drill-ship ‘JOIDES Resolution’ can suspend 9.15km of drill pipe and can drill sediment and rock cores in water depths up to 8.2km. Each year the ship makes 6 scientific expeditions of 2 months duration. All expeditions have specific scientific goals chosen through a careful review process.

Core recovered is sent to one of 4 core repositories for curation, storage and future research. Several micropalaeon-tological reference centres keep identical collections of calcareous nanofossils, foraminifera, radiolaria and diatoms.

ODP projects represent a more focused study of oceanic basins than was the case with DSDP, and have been concerned with:

• Testing models of global tectonics (especially convergent margins), climate change, and sea level variations;

• Deeper drilling to study oceanic crustal structure;

• Genesis and evolution of oceanic plateaux and volcanic continental margins;

• Borehole laboratories to monitor fluid fluxes, crustal stress, global seismicity.

The final phase (Phase 3) of ODP, 1998-2003, will focus on a better understanding of tectonic processes that shape oceans and continents, including erosion of continents and long and short term climate change.

‘JOIDES Resolution’ is at present in the western Pacific and returns to the Atlantic in late 2002 after Leg 205.

1. DEEP BIOSPHERE AND SUB-SEAFLOOR OCEAN

• Extensive sub-seafloor microbial populations.

• Frozen methane reservoir beneath seafloor (gas hydrates).

• Hydrothermal fluid flux in upper oceanic crust.

• Fluid pressure and discharge along main thrust fault zones.

2. ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE, PROCESSES AND EFFECTS

• Development of palaeoceanography.

• Orbital variability during Cenozoic.

• Development of high-resolution chronology.

• Ocean circulation changes on decadal to millenial time scales.

• Ocean biochemical cycles.

• Global oceanic anoxic events.

• Vast deep water fan deposits of sand.

• Timing of polar ice sheet developments.

• Impact events and biological evolution.

• Sea level change and global ice volume.

• Uplift of Himalayas and Tibetan plateau.

• Desiccation of Mediterranean ocean basin.

• Environmental controls on growth and demise of carbonate platforms.

3. SOLID EARTH CYCLES AND GEODYNAMICS

• Validation of plate tectonic theory.

• Non-volcanic passive margin evolution (and Alpine geology): rifting, sedimentation processes, sedimentary architecture and sea level changes, fluid flow regimes.

• Large igneous provinces (LIPs):

- Volcanic margins associated with continental breakup.

- Origin of oceanic plateaux.

• Oceanic crust.

• Massive sulphide deposits.

• Convergent margin tectonics and subduction recycling.

• Hot spot tracks on the oceanic crust.

• Hydrated mantle in diverse tectonic environments.

The consortium has 2 committees:

ESF Scientific Committee for ODP (ESCO);

ESF Management Committee for ODP (EMCO).

The Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI) is the National Point of Contact for ECOD and current GSI delegates and alternates are as follows:

- ESCO delegate: Barry Long

- ESCO alternate: Helen Gwinnutt

- EMCO delegate: Peadar McArdle

- EMCO alternate: Deepak Inamdar.

ODP drilling proposals in Irish waters

Currently two proposals are live:

• Louvain and NUI,Galway: Carbonate mounds in the Porcupine Basin. Henriet et al., (# 573 Full 2).

• NUI, Dublin: Search for ‘missing’ early Cretaceous igneous province in the southern Rockall-Hatton region. Morrissey et al. (new submission).

Opportunities exist for shipboard scientists:

• Students, principally undergraduates;

• Experienced scientists, generally post-doctoral.

The number of berths on board 'JOIDES Resolution' for ECOD scientists is a function of the financial contributions of their member states. Ireland now has c. 0.33 berths per year (i.e. two 2-month cruises per year).

An experienced microbiologist now at NUI, Cork is currently an applicant for Leg 201, Peru biosphere, in early 2002. Despite recent nomination by ESCO, the applicant, a former DeepBUG worker at Cardiff, still faces competition to gain final acceptance.

ECOD scientists, students, educators, and professionals are permitted to request shore-based samples, use shore-based facilities, and bid on all contracts and services required by the programme.

A large amount of information is available from a number of ODP-related websites. When applying to sail on an ODP cruise, geoscientists in Ireland should be aware of the need to apply through the ESCO Secretariat (with a copy to the ESCO delegate, Ireland) as well as directly to ODP-TAMU. Useful websites include the following:

ODP home page:

http://www.oceandrilling.org/

Useful ODP information:

http://www-odp.tamu.edu/

Information regarding ODP participation:

Cruises, loan of drill core, microfossils samples, other types of participation:

http://www.oceandrilling.org/Participating/Part.html

http://www.oceandrilling.org/Data/Data.html

Application to sail as a shipboard scientist:

http://diamant.geo.su.se/ESCO_ODP/ESCO_WEB/Participating.htm

Formal drilling proposal application details available at:

http://joides.rsmas.miami.edu/proposals/index.html

Formal drilling proposal applications to be submitted to:

odp.proposals@rsmas.miami.edu.

Two annual deadlines for receipt of formal applications are 15^th March and 1st October.

IODP home page:

http://www.iodp.org

Revised Draft Initial Science Plan - Final (Version 6):

http://www.iodp.org/pdf/IODP_Init_Sci_Plan.final.pdf

Europe has a unified approach to IODP. Two European bodies are currently concerned with planning:

• Joint European Ocean Drilling Initiative (JEODI): A research project supported by the European Commission from 9/01 until 12/03 that is devising a management structure, science plan and outreach strategy for Europe, as a major consortium in the IODP.
• European Steering Committee on Ocean Drilling (ESCOD): An ad hoc ESF body concerned with European entry to IODP as a third leg, together with the USA and Japan. It is examining likely European drilling targets and the required technology.

Objectives of the Initial Science Plan for IODP cover Earth, Oceans and Life: scientific challenges in studying the planet Earth system using new drilling technologies with two new drillships, multiple mission-specific platforms, and a process-orientated approach to research. Three broad themes are planned:

1. Deep biosphere and sub-seafloor ocean:

• Complex sub-seafloor microbial ecosystem;

• Gas hydrates; frozen carbon reservoir beneath continental

margins.

2. Environmental change, processes and effects:

• Past climate extremes and rapid climate change as potential indicators of sensitivity of Earth’s climate system to human inputs.

3. Solid earth cycles and geodynamics:

• Continental break-up and sedimentary basin formation;

• Formation and evolution of volcanic margins and oceanic plateaux (LIPs) to exemplify Earth’s non-steady state behaviour through time;

• Nature of earthquake generation zone beneath convergent continental margins;

• '21st century Mohole' to drill and monitor a complete section of oceanic crust to the Moho.