Canadian participation in the integrated ocean drilling program

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The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) is an international multi-disciplinary scientific endeavour involving twenty-four countries and requiring an operational budget of about US$120 M/year. IODP explores our planet's history as a complex system, archived in seafloor sediments and rocks. It arose from the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP, 1968-1983) and the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP, 1985-2003), which have been among the most successful international collaborative science programs ever conducted, and have revolutionized the understanding of Earth history and dynamics. IODP offers the international community access to multiple drilling platforms and cutting-edge technologies to achieve its scientific goals as outlined in the Initial Science Plan (2003-2013), which focuses on three themes: (1) The deep biosphere and the sub-sea floor ocean, (2) Environmental change, processes and effects, and (3) Solid earth cycles and geodynamics. The first phase of IODP has perpetuated the DSDP/ODP legacy and led to significant discoveries such as the role of the Arctic Ocean in moderating climate changes, and the substantially higher-than-predicted concentration and distribution of gas hydrates along the Cascadia margin. The new drilling facilities of IODP have also recovered the most accurate and complete record of temperature and salinity changes in the southern Pacific from reefs off Tahiti and a complete section through the ocean crust to the gabbroic layer (>1.15 km). This proposal requests funds to continue Canadian participation in IODP for the remaining part of IODP until the end of fiscal year 2013. Current expeditions involving Canadians researchers and students include the New Jersey exp. 313 to document sea-level changes along the northeastern North America, the Bering Sea exp. 323 to explore the role of this gateway on the exchanges between the Pacific and the Arctic Oceans, and the Shatsky Rise exp. 324 to examine mantle geodynamics processes and their impact on the Earth's surface. Canadians are actively participating in an impressive series of drilling proposals in most world oceans, notably in the Arctic where key science issues of immediate concern for Canadians require enhanced research efforts.