The Arctic Coring Expedition 302 (ACEX) researchers report in the June 21 issue of Nature that the Arctic Ocean changed from a landlocked body of water to a poorly oxygenated estuarine sea to a fully oxygenated ocean during the latter part of the early Miocene era, 17.5 million years ago. The authors attribute the change in Arctic conditions to the evolution of the Fram Strait into a wider, deeper passageway that allowed an inflow of saline North Atlantic water into the Arctic Ocean.
The authors of the article are Martin Jakobsson (Stockholm University), Jan Backman (Stockholm University), Bert Rudels (Finnish Institute of Marine Research), Jonas Nycander (Stockholm University), Martin Frank (Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences, IFM-GEOMAR), Larry Mayer (University of New Hampshire), Wilfried Jokat (Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research), Francesca Sangiorgi (Utrecht University), Matthew O’Regan (University of Rhode Island), Henk Brinkhuis (Utrecht University), John King (University of Rhode Island) and Kathryn Moran (University of Rhode Island).
The New Jersey Shallow Shelf Expedition 313 will not take place in 2007. Due to further delays in availability of the selected mission-specific platform, ESO has discontinued their plans to carry out the expedition this calendar year.
Following several delays to the original mid-May start date, the expedition team had been working towards starting offshore operations in mid-July. However, news of additional platform-related delays meant that drilling operations would be pushed further into September, October, and November, when deteriorating weather conditions would raise issues of supply to the platform, possible downtime, and increase concerns about personnel transfer and safety. ESO is beginning discussions with all parties regarding future plans for the expedition. Look for updates about this expedition at www.eso.ecord.org/expeditions/313/313.htm.
A new scientific article, “Oceanic core complexes and crustal accretion at slow-spreading ridges,” appears in the July issue of Geology. Written by science party members of Oceanic Core Complex Expeditions 304/305, the article discusses a revised model for oceanic core complex development and processes within magma-poor regions of slow- and ultra-slow-spreading ridges. The authors are Benoit Ildefonse, co-chief scientist for Exp. 305, of CNRS, Université Montpellier 2; Donna Blackman, co-chief scientist for Exp. 304, of Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Barbara John, co-chief scientist for Exp. 304, of University of Wyoming; Yasuhiko Ohara, co-chief scientist for Exp. 305, of Japan’s Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department; Jay Miller, staff scientist at TAMU; Chris MacLeod, Cardiff University (UK); and the IODP Expeditions 304/305 Science Party.
IODP is currently accepting applications from prospective scientific staff members for its Bering Sea scientific drilling program, currently scheduled for July 19-Sept. 18, 2008. (The schedule could change, however, depending on the completion date of the USIO vessel conversion--see http://iodp.tamu.edu/scienceops/).This expedition is designed to achieve the science objectives in IODP Proposal 477. A summary of the Bering Sea program with anticipated drill sites is available at http://iodp.tamu.edu/scienceops/expeditions/bering_sea.html.
Scientists interested in participating should apply to the appropriate IODP Program Member Office (PMO, www.iodp.org/program-member-offices) by Aug. 31, 2007. Scientists must apply within their preferred research specialty: sedimentology; organic and inorganic geochemistry (including opal diagenesis); stratigraphic correlation; micropaleontology (planktonic and benthic foraminifers, calcareous nannofossils, diatoms, radiolarians, dinoflagellates); physical properties; paleomagnetism. The USIO will receive the nominated applications from the Program Member Offices in October. The USIO will work closely with the co-chief scientists and PMOs to maximize scientific return, while balancing member country/consortia participation.
The Google Earth Scientific Borehole map has been improved. Now, in addition to viewing the location of all holes drilled during DSDP, ODP, and IODP, web users can select links to newly digitized online expedition publications that correspond to existing drill sites. Proposed drill sites also have been updated and linked to the IODP Site Survey Data Bank. Users can now move a mouse over borehole locations to display links that lead to corresponding online data. Drilled holes will be displayed by default. Select Proposed Sites and/or Site Survey Data from the left menu in Google Earth to view that additional information (it will take up to 30 seconds for Google Earth to react because of the huge amount of data.) Be patient, once loaded, the navigation is fast. IODP Data Manager Bernard Miville, who created the borehole presentation, advises, “Do not use these files on a slow computer or with a slow Internet connection.”
Once Google Earth is downloaded to your computer, you can view the program and save it to your computer. Click here to access the program through the IODP web portal: www.iodp.org/borehole-map.
The updated version of the borehole map will be demonstrated at AOGS at the IODP exhibition booth, A18-19, in Bangkok, July 30-Aug. 3.
Joint Oceanographic Institutions (JOI)—an institutional member of the USIO—and the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE) will merge their staff and operations into a new organization called the Consortium for Ocean Leadership. The public launch of the new organization is expected to occur early next year. The Board of Trustees and officers for the new organization were recently elected. The new consortium will provide a unified voice for ocean researchers and educators and serve as the prime point of contact between the ocean science community and the U.S. federal government. The organization’s program managers, system engineers, policy experts and educators will continue to manage ocean research and education programs, while advocating for sound marine policies and federal investment in ocean research and education. For more details, go to www.joiscience.org/node/796.
IODP-Japan, including CDEX/JAMSTEC, the Kochi Core Center repository, J-DESC, and IFREE sponsored an IODP exhibition at the Japan Geoscience Union Meeting in Chiba, Japan, at the end of May. A main attraction at the IODP booth was a series of several mini-lectures given by Masa Kinoshita and Juichiro Ashi, NanTroSEIZE co-chief scientists about the upcoming expedition’s operations and scientific goals. Following the conference, shipboard scientists and co-chiefs from Japan presented results from IODP Expeditions 307, 308, 310, and 311 at a meeting sponsored by J-DESC.
JPGU is emerging as the premier geosciences meeting in Japan, encompassing participation from 40 scientific Japanese societies. See www.jpgu.org/index_e.html for more information.
During recent months, the IODP Bremen Core Repository (BCR) attracted many new visitors. A regional radio station, for example, devoted one of its regular children’s programs to deep sea research. During the programming, kids phoned in to win a guided tour of the repository and the MARUM building at Bremen University. The most prominent group of recent visitors comprised 20 scientific advisors representing various foreign embassies in Berlin. The visit was part of an informational itinerary organized by the German Federal Ministry of Research. After the welcome reception, complete with light meal, MARUM-Director Prof. Gerold Wefer presented current research underway at MARUM. ESO Curation & Laboratory Manager Ursula Röhl then introduced Bremen University’s involvement in the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). A tour through the IODP Bremen Core Repository rounded off the program. More about BCR is online at http://www.iodp.org/repositories/.
Ursula Röhl shows core samples to embassy science counselors visiting BCR from Berlin.
Education Initiatives Attract Students, Teachers to IODP
Fieldwork for IODP Japan’s newest outreach program, "Sand for Students," will be held at Kino-kawa and Arida-gawa Rivers in Kii Peninsula, Japan, this summer. An English language web site has now launched. Web visitors will find data on sand collected by the field workers, program objectives, and a textbook to guide learning about the Earth from a grain of sand. Details of this instructive program and application materials are online at www.sand4students.net.
The USIO is currently sponsoring a teacher-at-sea: Rory Wilson, from Meeker, Colorado, aboard the R/V Roger Revelle. Wilson is sailing in the Indian Ocean as part of Will Sager's site survey expedition of the 90 East Ridge between June 18 and August 6. To read Rory's daily blog, view photos, ask questions, participate in scientific challenges, and learn about the people involved in this expedition, visit www.joilearning.org/sea90e.
DRILLS Seeks Host Venues for Inaugural Lecture Series
Academic and educational institutions with lively scientific communities are urged to invite a DRILLS scientist to visit and give a lecture. DRILLS lecturers are fully supported by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. Simply complete an online application at www.iodp.org/index.php?option=com_facileforms&Itemid=945. IODP-MI will contact selected hosts.
The lecturers will each cover a continent and speak on their areas of expertise:
Bo Barker Jørgensen of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Germany will tour North America and present “The Deep Subseafloor Biosphere: Discovering the Largest Living Community on Earth.” Ted Moore of the University of Michigan will tour Asia and present “The Warm Earth We Know.” Yoshiyuki Tatsumi, program director of the Institute for Research on Earth Evolution (IFREE) at JAMSTEC will tour Europe and present “Drilling into the Memory of Earth.”
The Dutch Minister of Education & Science recently announced that the Utrecht University paleoclimatology team was the winner of the 2007 Academic Year Award. The team, led by Tine Beneker, included Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX) science party member Henk Brinkhuis, Luc Lourens and Appy Sluijs. The Utrecht team developed a cross-media communications project for school children that explains past climate change events and how they relate to today’s greenhouse effect and carbon footprint. The distinction comes with a prize of 100,000 euros that will be used to execute the entire concept; including film/DVDs and internet programming. The creators aim to bring new understanding about the PETM “greenhouse world” and its consequences to Dutch high school students. The "greenhouse world" package of DVDs will feature IODP drilling, a web site, and a national film production contest for kids (“YouTube” style). Winners of the school competition will participate in an actual expedition to Svalbard next summer, in association with the Climate Change College. Following its development, the new educational programming will become part of the Netherlands’ obligatory science curriculum. For more information, contact ESSAC delegate Henk Brinkhuis:
. Watch sample video clips from the Utrecht team at www.bio.uu.nl/~palaeo/people/Leonard/acadJaarprijs/cnt_acadjaarprijs.htm.
Asahiko Taira, JAMSTEC executive director and CDEX director-general, recently was awarded the Japan Academy Prize for research on the "Accretion Tectonics and Evolution of the Japan Islands." The Japan Academy Prize ceremony has been held every year since 1911 to recognize individuals who have achieved landmark research. The ceremony is attended by His Majesty the Emperor of Japan and Her Majesty The Empress of Japan. Download Dr. Taira’s winning research abstract: | English | Japanese | See a photo from the ceremony atwww.japan-acad.go.jp/image/japanese/shiki/shugo.jpg
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July 30-Aug. 3—Asia Oceanic Geosciences Society (AOGS), Bangkok. Visit IODP at Booth A18-19 on the exhibition floor. Cosponsored with JAMSTEC, with participation from K-IODP (Korea) and IODP-China.
Aug. 15-16—IODP Topical Symposium, “North Atlantic & Arctic Climate Variability,” Universität Bremen, Germany. Registration remains open. See www.iodp.org/topical-symposium. Applicants must book their own accommodations (after July 3).
Aug. 31—Deadline to apply for participation in Bering Sea Expedition.
Sept. 6—Abstract submission deadline for AGU Fall Meeting, Dec. 10-14, San Francisco. (The abstract submissions tool will be available on July 20.)
Sept. 2-7—International Conference on Paleoceanography (ICP9), Shanghai. Organized by the State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology (Tongji University) and IODP-China. Visit the IODP exhibition booth. To register online, go to http://icp9.iodp-china.org.
Oct. 8-10—Workshop, “Drilling to Decipher Long-term Sea-level Changes and Effects,” Salt Lake City, Utah. Co-convened by Craig Fulthorpe, Ken Miller, Andre Droxler, Gilbert Camoin, Stephen Hesselbo. To participate, visit www.joiscience.org/sealevel.
Oct. 21–24—International Workshop on Microbial Life Under Extreme Energy Limitation, convened by Bo Barker Jørgensen and Tori Hoehler, University of Aarhus, Denmark. Opening lecture by Prof. Rudolf K. Thauer to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his landmark review of microbial bioenergetics. Registration period extended. See http://bio.au.dk/microenergy.
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IODP E-News is a bimonthly publication of Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Management International (IODP-MI). It is produced and distributed by IODP-MI for the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program under the sponsorship of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the Ministry of Culture, Education, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, and other participating countries. Its content is based upon research supported under NSF Contract OCE-0432224.
