The International Ocean Drilling Programme (IODP3) - Exploring the Ocean’s past to inform on their future.

Scientific Ocean Drilling is the largest and longest-lasting, truly international collaboration program in the fields of Ocean and Earth sciences, with important links to the Ocean biota including the deep subseafloor biosphere. In over 50 years, using multiple platforms, the program has transformed our understanding of the evolution of our planet through the study of geological archives laying below the ocean floor.

The newly born International Ocean Drilling Programme (IODP³) will further explore the Oceans role in the fields of habitability and life on Earth, Earth’s climate system, Feedbacks in the Earth System, Tipping points in Earth History, Global Cycles of energy and matter, and submarine geological hazards.

As a tool to drives crucial interdisciplinary research on the interconnected Earth system processes that influence the future of our planet, Scientific Ocean Drilling is a fundamental tool to navigate the energy transition and address growing societal challenges. Looking back in Earth history is essential to provide decision makers with information on ocean-climate-biosphere feedbacks in a warming world, for which analogues exist in the past.

The role of the subseafloor in the understanding of the ocean system should be considered as crucial component in ocean literacy and included in the process of policy making.