Denver 2004 - Geoscience in a Changing World

Press Release

Ocean Drilling Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
7 November 2004

Media Contact: Kasey White
Director of Public Affairs, JOI
202-232-3900 x 1614; kwhite@joiscience.org

Scientists to Unveil Results from Final Ocean Drilling Program Expeditions

Scientists who conduct research using data from the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) and its predecessor, the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), will present more than 20 talks and posters during the Geological Society of America's Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado from November 7-10, 2004. These papers span numerous sessions and cover topics ranging from asteroid impacts to educational opportunities to climate change.

Abstracts of all ocean-drilling presentations are contained in binders available for research purposes at the IODP booth (#1017) and in the Press Room. Some talks of interest include:

Age Constraint and Interpretations of a Hiatus in the Newfoundland-Iberia Rift Basin, ODP Leg 210
Sunday, November 7, 11:00 -11:15 AM, Room 708/710/712: The final expedition of ODP (Leg 210) cored sediments from 800 to 1725.16 meters below sea floor (mbsf) in the Newfoundland Basin - some of the deepest drilling during ODP. These cores provide information on the separation of Europe and North America millions of years ago. These cores are the first to show the history of the North American side (Newfoundland), as earlier ODP expeditions drilled on the European (Iberian) side.
Sedimentology, Paleontology, and Geochemistry of the K/T Boundary in ODP Hole 1259B, Demerara Rise
Monday, November 8, 11:25 -11:40 AM, Room 605: Drilling during ODP Leg 207 recovered six sections that showed the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary Period (K/T boundary). This period is best known to many as the end of the dinosaurs, likely caused by an asteroid impact. Scientists studying these cores noted, "[The cores] preserve a beautiful record of sedimentologic and paleontological changes across the boundary. The sequence is remarkable for how closely it matches the stratigraphy expected given an impact-induced mass extinction."
Decoupled Shelf-Ocean Phytoplankton Productivity Responses Across the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
Monday, November 8, 1:30 PM-5:30 PM, Booth# 148: Cores from Leg 198 illustrate another dramatic climate change. The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, which occurred approximately 55 Million years ago, was one of the most abrupt global warming episodes in Earth history. Global ocean temperatures increased by approximately 5-8(C. The cores provide a method to examine the biotic changes that occurred during this event.

Although the Ocean Drilling Program ended operations in September 2003, scientists will continue to use the cores collected to make discoveries. The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) began operations this year with two expeditions on the riserless vessel JOIDES Resolution to explore fluids in the Earth's crust on the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the northeast Pacific Ocean and obtain long-term records showing climate change in the North Atlantic Ocean. IODP also conducted an expedition focused on past climate changes in the Arctic Ocean using a fleet of three icebreakers. Information on these and future IODP expeditions is available online at www.iodp.org.

The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) is an international marine research drilling program dedicated to advancing scientific understanding of the Earth by monitoring and sampling subseafloor environments. Through multiple platforms, scientists explore IODP's principal themes: the deep biosphere, environmental change, and solid earth cycles. IODP drilling platforms are operated by the. Joint Oceanographic Institutions Alliance (JOI, Texas A&M University, and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University), Japan's Center for Deep Earth Exploration, and the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling. IODP's initial 10-year, $1.5 billion program is supported by two lead agencies, the U.S. National Science Foundation and Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology; by ECORD, and China's Ministry of Science and Technology. ODP was funded principally by the National Science Foundation, with substantial contributions from its international partners.

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