May, 2009

Follow along as the scientists on board work to unlock the secrets to our Earth's past.

In 1961 when drilling technology was used to successfully recover the first sample of oceanic crust, scientific drilling took root as a new scientific technique. Scientific ocean drilling represents Earth science’s longest running and most successful international collaboration.

A dynamic positioning system, supported by powerful thrusters, uses computers to maintain the ship over a specific location while drilling in water depths up to 8,200 meters (5 miles). Ships can suspend as much as 9,150 meters of pipe to obtain core samples.

The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) brings together hundreds of scientists from dozens of countries and scientific disciplines to conduct cutting-edge investigations of Earth deep below the seafloor. For each drilling project undertaken, IODP employs the best-suited drilling platform available along with complementary drilling tools and technologies. IODP affords scientists the opportunity to:

1. Recover geological records and rock samples.
2. Investigate and document ocean and climate change through time.
3. Explore the presence of primitive life below the seafloor.
4. Verify remote, near-seafloor observatories.
5. Gain understanding of how tectonic plates move and recycle themselves into Earthís deep mantle.

Name: Dr. Jeffrey Hernandez

Education: Medical School
IODP Experience: 13 years in ODP and IODP

Interests: Traveling, spending time with family.

The most challenging part of being the ship’s doctor is that Dr. Hernandez is the only medical person aboard. He has to do everything himself and in an emergency can’t rely on the assistance of nurses, residents and medical technicians to help him—simply because there are none!

PEAT News Network — Report 1

An Explanation of Deep Sea Coring

From the JOIDES Resolution Bridge

Tiny tiny shells, big big screen

We are still on our way to the first site. We are expecting to get there around noon on Tuesday. It will take a long time to get set up to start bringing up mud from the seafloor, probably by early Wednesday morning.

In the ocean, there are lots and lots of plants and animals that live at the surface. Except they are very very small. So small you cannot see them without a special piece of equipment called a microscope. Microscopes make very tiny things look much bigger. Many of these tiny plants and animals have shells on them. When they die, their shells fall through the ocean and eventually land on the seafloor.

JOIDES Resolution Returns to Ocean Drilling in the Pacific Ocean

Nearly 53 million years of climate & ocean acidification history found by following the paleo-equator

What is a core? (PDF, 88 KB) This one-page guide to cores explains what they are, where they come from, and how IODP keeps them all organized (we've collected a lot, so we needed a good system).

Drilling Through Time — How old are the cores that the JOIDES Resolution has recovered? Find out here (PDF, 71 KB)

More classroom resources

The name “Resolution” comes from:

a. The resolve of scientists on board to solve scientific mysteries
b. Resolution is a brand name
c. Captain James Cook’s ship, HMS Resolution

Science Question:

Ocean drilling produces:

a. Scientific evidence
b. Core samples of sediments and rock
c. Fossil records
d. Timeline for Earth’s changes
e. All of the above