NZ Joins World's Largest Geoscience Programme

MEDIA RELEASE from GNS Science
7 APRIL 2009

NZ Joins World's Largest Geoscience Programme

New Zealand has joined a major international scientific drilling programme that will collect sediment cores from beneath the seabed in New Zealand waters later this year.

The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), the largest and longest-running geoscience programme in the world, operates two scientific drilling ships - the JOIDES Resolution and the Chikyu.

New Zealand has had a long informal association with IODP and its predecessor programmes. Much of our knowledge on the geological evolution of the southwest Pacific Ocean is based on sediment cores collected from this region during five expeditions between 1972 and 1998.

However, it is the first time in the 40-year history of the seafloor drilling programme that New Zealand has formally joined. Membership is currently for two years and New Zealand's long-term commitment to IODP is currently being considered by science funding agencies.

New Zealand has joined 23 other member countries, with membership giving a country rights to plan and participate in drilling expeditions that can be up to six months long.

New Zealand has joined as part of an Australian and New Zealand consortium and is considering expansion of the consortium to include South Korea and other Asian countries.

New Zealand's participation is led by GNS Science and includes the Foundation for Research Science and Technology, Victoria University of Wellington and four other universities: Otago, Canterbury, Waikato and Auckland.

To participate in IODP, the seven organisations are required to contribute a combined annual membership fee of $US280,000. The fee covers all operational costs, which are in excess of $US6 million per expedition.

IODP brings together hundreds of scientists from many countries to conduct leading-edge investigations of the Earth by drilling into the seafloor and recovering sediment and rock cores. It also installs seafloor observation systems to monitor changes in seafloor and subsurface conditions.

The ships operated by IODP are capable of recovering sub-seafloor cores of several kilometres in length.

Study of the cores enables scientists to advance understanding of the history climate change and the natural variability in interactions between climate, oceans and the atmosphere. Most of our current knowledge of the long term history and variability in the climate system has been gleaned from the sediment records collected by ocean drilling.

IODP also investigates microbial life below the seafloor and studies geological hazards such as earthquakes and how tectonic plates recycle themselves within the Earth's mantle. The theory of plate tectonics was verified by ocean drilling in the late 1960s.

The JOIDES Resolution is scheduled to spend two months in New Zealand waters at the end of this year undertaking a range of studies that will include an assessment of seabed resources. It will drill several deep sediment cores at six sites off the Canterbury coast in a study of the link between past climate and sea level change.

New Zealand scientists are also participating in an expedition in early 2010, which will collect sediment cores close to the Antarctic margin. This study will investigate the link between past climate change and the stability of the Antarctic ice sheets.

Between the two expeditions, the ship will spend several days in Wellington in early January 2010 to re-provision and exchange science teams.

Leader of the New Zealand Ocean Drilling Programme, Chris Hollis of GNS Science, said membership presented fantastic opportunities for New Zealand to participate in one of the world's leading Earth science research programmes.

"There are numerous parallels with exploring the solar system, except that the IODP explores the inner space of Earth," Dr Hollis said.

IODP programme director at the US National Science Foundation, James Allan, said New Zealand's significant expertise in marine geoscience and science leadership would boost the programme.

"Collaboration with New Zealand is essential to a drilling expedition offshore eastern South Island, which is scheduled for later this year to investigate the relationship between sea level change, global climate and local tectonic forces," Dr Allan said.

ENDS

For more information go to:
NZ Ocean Drilling Programme: http://drill.gns.cri.nz/nzodp/index.html Integrated Ocean Drilling Program: http://www.iodp.org/

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