Deep+Sea+Drilling+Project

= = __ The Deep Sea Drilling Project __ BY : Matthew Kary

= The Deep Sea Drilling Project =
 * The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) was an international cooperative effort to explore and study the composition and structure of the Earth's ocean basins. ODP, which began in 1985, was the direct successor to the highly successful Deep Sea Drilling Project initiated in 1968 by the United States. ODP was a truly international effort with contributions of Australia, Germany, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and the ESF Consortium for Ocean Drilling (ECOD) including 12 further countries. The program used the Drill Ship Joides Resolution (JOIDES=Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling) on 110 expeditions (Legs) to collect about 2000 deep sea cores from major geological features located in the ocean basins of the world. Drilling discoveries led to further questions and hypotheses, as well as to new disciplines in earth sciences such as the field of paleoceanography. In 2004 ODP transformed into the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). **


 * Funded by the National Science Foundation, the project was directed by the Joint Oceanographic Institution for Deep **
 * Earth Sampling (JOIDES), a consortium of leading U.S. oceanographic institution. Begun in 1964, a test drilling program was completed successfully in 1965; by 1968, the Glomar Challenger, displacing 10,500 tons and capable of drilling 2,500ft of sediment in 20,000 ft of water, was leased to JOIDES. The scientific operations carried out on board consisted of continuous seismic and magnetic surveys while underway, in-hole measurements, and laboratory analysis of the cores recovered. **

The Ocean Drilling Project (ODP), begun in 1983 and supported by a U.S. -led consortium that included 25 nations, was the successor of the Deep Sea Drilling Project. The program employed the drillship JOIDES resolution and was managed by Joint Oceanographic Institutions (JOI). On more than 110 cruises, it drilled in poorly sampled areas, including continental margins and ocean trenches. In addition, the (ODP) contributed to other programs, such as drilling holes in which to lower seismic instruments necessary for a global seismic network project. A total of one thousand, seven hundred ninety seven holes were drilled at six hundred sixty nine sites.
 * The project verified that the present ocean basins are relatively young and confirmed aspects of seafloor spreading and plate tectonics. It also discovered thick bedded salt layers from cores taken out of the Mediterranean sea, indicating that the sea completely dried up between five and twelve million years ago; that Antarctica has been covered with ice for the last twenty million years; and that the northern polar ice cap was much more extensive five million years ago. The Deep Sea Drilling Project drilled about six hundred holes into the ocean floors over the world, about one hole per three hundred thousand, eight hundred eighty square miles!! **

Some say that the Deep Sea Drilling Project was the Worlds most productive science project ever practiced. But their are those who think that it was a waist of time and money. I think that it was a very creative and successful project that took some time but in the end benefited us in the most successful way possible.

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