Hawaiian Drowned Reefs (Expedition 389)

Summary from the Scientific Prospectus: Shallow marine corals are highly sensitive to sea level and global climate change and preserve a reliable record of past sea level and climate conditions. Knowledge of sea level and global climate variations over the past half a million years is severely limited because of a lack of continuous fossil coral records over this time. To address the critical need for coral records, this project focuses on the submerged fossil reefs around the island of Hawaii. Frequent and large volcanic eruptions formed and continue to grow the volcanic island of Hawaii, and the island and surrounding shallow coral reefs are pushed down at a rapid and nearly constant rate because of the weight of the volcanic rock erupted onto the land. As the land and coral reefs subside, coral reef growth can match the subsidence rate, and changes in sea level and global climate are preserved in a unique and near-continuous fossil coral record covering the last half a million years. Scientific drilling of these reefs will provide a new record of climate and sea level change, including several key time periods where sea level and climate conditions are poorly known. The project has four major scientific objectives: (1) to measure the extent of sea level change over the past half a million years, (2) to investigate why sea level and climate change through time, (3) to investigate how coral reefs respond to abrupt sea level and climate changes, and (4) to improve scientific knowledge of the growth and subsidence of Hawaii over time.

NW Greenland Glaciated Margin (Expedition 400)

Summary from the Scientific Prospectus: Sea-level consequences of anthropogenic climate forcing hinge on how the polar ice sheets respond to global warming. If fully melted, the Greenland Ice Sheet has the potential to raise sea level by >7 meters, yet we know very little about its long-term responses to past climate warming or its role in Earth’s climate system. Expedition 400 seeks to address current knowledge gaps in the evolution and variability of the northern Greenland Ice Sheet by analyzing sedimentary archives of warm and cold periods of the last ~30 million years, including times when the greenhouse gas content of the atmosphere was higher than it is today.

Sediment archives will be obtained by drilling at seven sites to depths of 300–1000 meters below seafloor along a transect crossing the northwest Greenland margin into Baffin Bay. The seven sites will provide a composite stratigraphic succession that includes preglacial settings, a record of first growth of the northern Greenland Ice Sheet, and glacial and interglacial cycles when the ice sheet grew to its maximum positions at the shelf edge and retreated toward land, possibly melting nearly completely.

Below is a sample of recent articles featuring IODP expeditions, samples, data, or related research. Please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to request to post an article on this page. Journalists and communication professionals are encouraged to speak with the program's Media Contacts for photos or others resources.

• Scientists Drill into Earth's Crust, Gather Historic Samples of Mantle, USA Today
• In a Geologic Triumph, Scientists Drill a Window into Earth's Mantle, Washington Post
• At Long Last, Ocean DrillersExhume a Bounty of Rocks from Earth’s Mantle, Science
• The Classic Mediterranean Vacation Spot That Sits Over a Live Volcano, CNN
• Drilling for Earth's Climate Secrets Buried under the Sea, WHYY
• Ocean-drilling Ship that Revolutionized Earth Science Due to Retire, Nature
• Drilling Deeper into Ocean Floor in Search for Origins of Life, Wall Street Journal
• Smithsonian Scientists Unearth Signs of an Ancient Climate Calamity Buried Beneath the Seafloor, Smithsonian Voices
• Pliocene-Like Monsoons are Returning to the American Southwest, Wired
• Analysing Ancient Marine DNA in Antarctic Sediments, Tasmanian Times
• Japan's Next Great Earthquake Probed by Deepest-Ever Scientific Ocean Drilling, Engineering and Technology
• Deep Drilling Offers Clues to Japan's Next Big Earthquake, Futurity
• How the Tibetan Uplift Affects Evolution of Westerly Circulation, phys.org
• Seabed Core Samples Could Reveal Links Between Climate and Hundreds of Thousands of Years of Eruptions, Earthquakes, Stuff
• Could Earth Scientists Create Their Own Equivalent to the James Webb Space Telescope?, Discover Magazine
• Stretching of the Continents Drove Ancient Global Warming Event, Phys.org
• An Ambitious Vision for the Future of Scientific Ocean Drilling, Eos
• Research Leads to Deeper Understanding of Ocean Currents, NSF Research News
• India's Monsoon is Unique - It's an Enormous Movement of Water and Energy Across Earth, The Times of India
• Million-Year Study Shows Warming Will Make Indian Monsoons More Extreme Says Geoscientist Kaustubh Thirumalai, The Times of India
• A Million Years of Data Confirms: Monsoons Are Likely to Get Worse, New York Times
• Science Drill Ship Sets Depth Record Off Japan, BBC
• Climate Change: A Small Green Rock's Warning About Our Future, BBC
• How an Ill-fated Undersea Adventure in the 1960s Changed the Way Scientists see the Earth, Vox
• Tracking Past Earthquakes Along the Japan Trench, EurekaAlert (AAAS)
• 100 Million Year Old Seafloor Sediment Bacteria Have Been Resuscitated, Scientific American
• Space dust found in Chicxulub crater confirms asteroid’s dinosaur-killing role, Imperial College London
• Tracking Arctic climate change from a Greenhouse to an Icehouse world, EurekaAlert (AAAS)
• Scientists solve a major climate mystery, Space.com
• Paleoclimate puzzle explained by seasonal variation, Nature
• Will warming bring a change in the winds? Dust from the deep sea provides a clue, NSF Research News
• Life in the Chicxulub Crater years after it was formed, AGU Advances
• How hot is too hot for life deep below the ocean floor? EurekaAlert (AAAS)
• Microbial diversity below seafloor is as rich as on Earth's surface, URI Today
• The mission to drill through Earth's crust, CNN World

International Ocean Discovery Program (2013-present)

(last updated: May 2023)

Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (2003-2013)

Ocean Drilling Program (1985-2003)

Deep Sea Drilling Project (1968-1983)

Last updated August 30, 2023

Completed Expeditions (2014- )

Expeditions from previous scientific ocean drilling programs:

• Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expeditions (2003-2013)
• Ocean Drilling Program Expeditions (Leg Summaries) (1985-2003)
• Comparative Statistics from ocean drilling programs