Scientific drilling through the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) continues to provide unique opportunities to investigate the workings of the interior of our planet, Earth’s cycles, natural hazards and the distribution of subsurface microbial life. The past and current scientific drilling programs have brought major advances in many multidisciplinary fields of socio-economic relevance, such as climate and ecosystem evolution, palaeoceanography, the deep biosphere, deep crustal and tectonic processes, geodynamics and geohazards. This session invites contributions that present and/or review recent scientific results from deep Earth sampling and monitoring through ocean and continental drilling projects. Furthermore, we encourage contributions that outline perspectives and visions for future drilling projects, in particular projects using a multi-platform approach.
Message from ECORD/IODP, Director ECORD Management Agency:
Science knowledge over the last 50 years of ocean drilling has greatly enhanced our understanding of the Earth system. Since its creation in 2003, ECORD has played a leading role in the successive ocean drilling programmes. During 2019, the scientific ocean drilling community took a unique multi-decadal approach to formulating the future of this international program in the new 2050 Science Framework: Exploring Earth by Scientific Ocean Drilling. The unprecedented health crisis related to the COVID-19 disease outbreak is severely affecting the activities of our programme, but the scientific ocean drilling community remains mobilized for a brighter future. In these different times, I do hope that you and your loved ones will stay safe and healthy.
Message from the ICDP Executive Director Marco Bohnhoff:
COVID-19 is having a huge impact on society as a whole and the personal life of most of us has been turned upside down. However, ICDP is also active in times of COVID-19. A new ICDP Science Plan for the time after 2021 is currently being prepared and will be published in the second half of 2020. For those who submitted drilling or workshop proposals this year: the ICDP Panels will meet online between May 11-16 and decide about your proposals. Good news is also that the COSC-2 drilling is Sweden runs very successful, passing a depth of 500 m on April 30. Whether the ICDP training course can take place in October as planned is currently still open. Please check the ICDP website or our social media channels regularly for updates. I wish you a successful EGU session, stay healthy, and I look forward to seeing you again, hopefully soon.