Australian scientists are better placed to discover the secrets of the seas after Australia and New Zealand signed up to the world’s largest ocean research program - The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP).
The IODP is an international marine research program dedicated to advancing scientific understanding of the Earth through drilling, coring and monitoring the subseafloor. Hundreds of scientists from the 24 collaborating countries participate in IODP expeditions to investigate climate change history, geodynamics and solid-earth cycles and the deep biosphere.
The involvement of Australia and New Zealand comes through the Australian-New Zealand IODP Consortium (ANZIC). The Australian partnership is funded by the Australian Research Council, 14 Universities and three government agencies. It is led in Australia by The Australian National University’s Professor Neville Exon and based at ANU.
Professor Exon, a marine geologist and geophysicist at the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences, says the agreement to join IODP will allow Australian scientists new research opportunities and access to essential information.
“IODP provides research opportunities to a broad swathe of scientists in Australia and New Zealand with expertise in seabed mapping, past climate change, geological hazards and many aspects of marine geology and biology,” he said.
“IODP membership provides local earth scientists with opportunity to engage in leading-edge international science projects using technology and infrastructure far beyond the resources of these two countries. Our scientists can now obtain continuous cores of sediments or rocks in most water depths and up to five kilometres below the sea bed.”
The membership will allow local scientists to participate in the ten expeditions scheduled this year, including ocean drilling in the Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea, Antarctica and a research expedition scheduled to investigate environmental changes in the Great Barrier Reef. Through membership, Australia and New Zealand will gain access to IODP activities including shipboard and post-cruise research, development and leadership of drilling proposals, and participation in planning and advisory committees.
The program operates several state-of-the-art drilling platforms: Chikyu, a riser-equipped vessel provided by Japan, the JOIDES Resolution, a newly refurbished research vessel provided by the United States, and mission-specific drilling platforms managed by ECORD, a 17-member European ocean-drilling research consortium.
