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UK IODP

Programme background

Investigating the Earth and it's history by exploring beneath the seabed.

The UK Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (UK IODP)is providing a better understanding of plate tectonic processes, the Earth's crustal structure and composition, environmental conditions and life in ancient oceans, and climate change.

The need for deep-sea drilling

Perhaps Planet Earth should be named Planet Ocean. Oceans cover more than 70% of Earth, holding important information about the planet's past, present and future.

Over 40 years, scientists have drilled over 2000 holes into the Earth's undersea crust, trying to learn what makes the Earth tick. Even so, many important processes are poorly understood, and vast areas of the ocean floor and the Earth's interior remain virtually unknown.

We need to keep sampling sediments and rocks from beneath the seafloor. Together with seafloor observatories, they will show us how the Earth system operates, for example revealing climate history, improving our knowledge of plate tectonics, volcanoes, earthquakes, sea-level changes, and how life has evolved. So far, scientists have just barely scratched the surface.

The programme

The programme officially began in October 2003 and is made up of an international partnership of scientists and research institutions, building upon 40 years of ocean drilling. The UK is an integral member of the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD), which, together with the US and Japan, funds and steers the research.

NERC's directed science programme is supporting the UK's membership in IODP, enabling UK scientists to:

• help ensure that IODP carries out the best and highest priority science
• participate in and obtain material from drilling legs
• capitalize on the results of IODP drilling and UK Technologies, allowing them to benefit from technological advances in deep sea drilling

The Arctic

Knowledge of how Arctic climates and geology evolved is probably the largest gap in Earth sciences. In 2004 the Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX) successfully cored the Lomonosov Ridge in the high Arctic.

The two main objectives were to:

• understand the palaeoceanographic history
• understand the tectonic evolution of the central Arctic Ocean

Arctic palaeoceanography is so poorly known that recovering any material from this area is true exploration that will increase our knowledge and understanding of this critical region.