2001 - 2005

Expedition 310 Tahiti Sea Level

Fall 2005

The IODP Tahiti Sea Level Expedition 310 in 2005 was initiated to investigate global sea level rise since the last glacial maximum, approximately 23,000 years ago, to learn more about the timing and course of past global sea level changes to better understand present and future sea level rise due to global greenhouse conditions.  Since the end of the last ice age, global sea level has risen by about 120 meters, primarily because of the melting of large inland ice sheets and thermal expansion of the global body of ocean waters attributable to rising temperatures.  Tahiti is well situated for these investigations because the island is located in a tectonically stable region. Consequently, changes in sea level here can be related solely to global effects.  Because the corals off Tahiti have strict ecological requirements and are extremely sensitive to environmental changes, both natural and human-induced, they are accurate, sensitive recorders of past sea level and climatic change.  For six weeks, aboard the DP HUNTER, the expedition science party worked on the most extensive geological research investigation ever undertaken in a coral reef area.

• IODP Expedition 310

Petrophysics staff scientist

• Hendrick Braaksma

Publications

• Inwood, J., Brewer, T. S., Braaksma, H. and Pezard, P.  2008.  Integration of Core, Logging and Drilling Data in Modern Reefal Carbonates to Improve Core Location and Recovery Estimates (IODP Expedition 310).  Journal of the Geological Society of London 165, 585-596.

NanTroSEIZE

The Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment (NanTroSEIZE), starting in 2007, is a complex ocean drilling project that will be conducted over several years with multiple expedition teams of scientists from all around the world. NanTroSEIZE attempts for the first time to drill, sample, and instrument the earthquake-causing, or seismogenic portion of Earth’s crust, where violent, large-scale earthquakes have occurred repeatedly throughout history.

The Nankai Trough is located beneath the ocean off the southwest coast of Japan. It is one of the most active earthquake zones on the planet. The plan for NanTroSEIZE includes drilling, below the ocean, very deep into the Earth to observe earthquake mechanisms, and this will help us to learn more about how and why earthquakes and tsunamis occur.

Alumni Dr Joanne Tudge, part of the Geophysics and Borehole Research Group in the Department of Geology at Leicester, sailed as an LWD specialist on this NanTroSEIZE expedition to classify the rocks and understand the physical properties of the sediments in the subduction zone. 

Publications

• Tudge, J., Lovell, M.A., Davies, S. J., Harvey, P.K. and Saito, S. 2008. Petrophysically determined lithofacies at the Nankai Trough Accretionary Prism: NanTroSeize, IODP Expedition 314. Journal of the Geological Society 166, 961-968. doi: 10.1144/0016-76492008-136

Expedition 312 Superfast Spreading Rate Crust 3

• IODP Expedition 312

Logging scientist

• Dr Marc Reichow

Publications

• Alt, J.C., Laverne, C., Coggon, R.M., Teagle, D.A.H., Banerjee, N.R., Morgan, S., Smith-Duque, C.E., Harris, M. and Galli, L. 2010. Subsurface structure of a submarine hydrothermal system in ocean crust formed at the East Pacific Rise, ODP/IODP Site 1256. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 11, Q10010, doi: 10.1029/2010GC003144.
• Swift, S.S., Reichow, M.K., Tikku, A., Tominaga, M., Gilbert, L., and the Scientists of IODP Expeditions 309 and 312. 2008. Vertical velocity structure of Upper Ocean Crust at Ocean Drilling Program Site 1256. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 9, Q10O13, doi:10.1029/2008, GC002188

Expedition 305 Oceanic Core Complex Formation, Atlantis Massif 2

• IODP Expedition 305

Publications

• Michibayashi, K., Hirose, T., Nozaka, T., Harigane, Y., Escartin, J., Delius, H., Linek, M., Ohara, Y. 2008. Hydration due to high-T brittle failure within in situ oceanic crust, 30o N Mid-Atlantic Ridge.   Earth and Planetary Science Letters 275, 348-354. doi: dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2008.08.033
• Anderson, L., Halary, S., Lechaire, J-P., Boudier, T., Frébourg, G., Marco, S., Zbinden, M., and Gaill, F.  2008.  Tomography of bacteria-mineral associations within the deep sea hydrothermal vent shrimp Rimicaris exoculata. CR Chimie, 11 (3), 268-280. doi: doi.org/10.1016/j.crci.2007.10.007

Expedition 302 Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX)

August - September 2004

ACEXThe offshore phase of IODP Expedition 302 took place in August and September of 2004, recovering cores from five holes across three sites along the Lomonosov Ridge, 250 km from the North Pole.

ACEX (Arctic Coring Expedition) was the first IODP Mission Specific Platform (MSP) expedition, managed by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) Science Operator (ESO).  It also represented the first scientific drilling project in the central Arctic Ocean. This expedition required two icebreakers, the Oden and Sovetskiy Soyuz, to clear a channel through the ice to allow a third icebreaker, the Vidar Viking, to undertake drilling operations. The aim of the expedition was to recover sediments preserved on the Lomonosov Ridge in order to determine the paleoenvironmental development in the central Arctic Ocean during post-Paleocene times and to decipher its role in the global climate evolution.

• IODP Expedition 302

Petrophysics staff scientist

• Brice Rea