Ocean Drilling Program

The Ocean Drilling Program was an international scientific research project on the sea floor by deep-sea drilling, which was a focus of marine geology.

The drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution could perform drilling to a depth of 8,200 m. They served to win the seabed samples and perform measurements in the boreholes, with which the physical and chemical properties of the oceanic crust should be determined.

Every year six expeditions were carried out. The costs for 1998 amounted to 44 million U.S. dollars, of which the U.S. contributed 60%.

The ODP began in early 1985 as a follow-up project of the Deep Sea Drilling Project ( DSDP ). It was finished in 2003, while the follow-up project Integrated Ocean Drilling Program ( IODP ) started. The new research program will last until 2013.