Seventy-four days offshore, 718 cores and 871.83 m of total core from three locations: this is the successful outcome after the end of offshore operations of IODPΒ³-NSF Expedition 501: New England Shelf hydrogeology. The goal of the expedition was to take samples not only of sediment cores, but also of the water stored in both sandy aquifers and clayey aquitards beneath the ocean floor. Their existence has been known for decades but they remained virtually unexplored β€” until now.

The expedition is a joint collaboration between the International Ocean Drilling Programme (IODPΒ³) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF), with the expedition being managed and technically supported by the team at BGS.

We set out with lofty goals of understanding the origin and age of this offshore freshened groundwater system through sampling of sediment and water in a difficult drilling environment consisting of sand and mud. With great teamwork between the science team, the technical staff and the drilling crew, we managed to get great samples, including via multiple groundwater pumping tests.

Those tests were a critical to the expedition and a first for scientific ocean drilling. And we did it! Now we have the samples for the science team to really dive into the data and understand the system, which will be helpful for understanding other offshore freshened groundwater systems around the world.

Prof Brandon Dugan, expedition co-chief scientist.

The pump tests were challenging and required us to adapt our processes to get the best possible samples of the groundwater. In the end we pumped nearly 50 000 litres of water from nine distinct places, in terms of location and depth below the sea floor.

This is a huge success story for something so novel. For me in particular, as a geochemist and not a hydrogeologist, I am so appreciative to everyone that leant their expertise. The team of hydrogeologists from the 51ΑΤΖζ especially was outstanding.

Rebecca Robinson, expedition co-chief scientist.

During the expedition, the science team rotated on and off the Liftboat Robert, transported by helicopter or supply vessel. The entire science team will meet for the onshore operations at the Bremen Core Repository, at the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen (MARUM), in January and February 2026 to split, sample and analyse the sediment cores and water collected. The cores will be archived and made accessible for further scientific research for the scientific community after a one-year moratorium period. All the expedition data will eventually be open access in the IODPΒ³ MSP data portal in PANGAEA and resulting outcomes will be published.

I’m absolutely delighted for our BGS colleagues and the whole expedition team, who have delivered this outstanding and unique project for IODP³. The sediment cores, water samples and logging data they helped collect will now be analysed by the international science team to better understand the New England continental shelf and its freshened groundwater system, and I expect some groundbreaking results will emerge in the months and years ahead.

David McInroy, BGS project lead.

International approach

51ΑΤΖζ scientists are part of a science team with over 40 members from 13 nations (Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the USA) that takes part in the expedition. The expedition itself consists of two phases: offshore and onshore operations. Offshore operations took place between May and early August 2025.

The expedition is conducted by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) as part of the International Ocean Drilling Programme (IODPΒ³), funded by IODPΒ³ and the US National Science Foundation (NSF).

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In the 1960s, scientists were quite surprised when they looked at their data: it clearly showed that there was fresh or freshened water under the ocean floor. How did it get there? How long has it been there? Scientists have been trying to find answers to these questions since their intriguing discovery.

Starting in May 2025, an international team of scientists will embark on an expedition to take a closer look at and take samples from this freshened water stored beneath the ocean floor. Prof Karen Johannesson of University of Massachusetts Boston and Prof Brandon Dugan of Colorado School of Mines are the co-chief scientists of this international expedition. Samples will be collected using the lift boat L/B Robert, which departed from the port of Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA, on May 19.

Seventy per cent of the Earth’s surface is covered with water, but water also flows beneath its surface. Most coastal communities rely on traditional onshore aquifers for fresh water; however, in many locations worldwide, onshore aquifers may have an offshore component where freshened water exists under the ocean floor. Even though the existence of these waters has been known for decades, they remain virtually unexplored. This will change through the groundbreaking research to be completed during this expedition, which is a collaboration between the International Ocean Drilling Programme (IODPΒ³) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF). For the first time, scientists on IODPΒ³-NSF Expedition 501 ‘New England Shelf hydrogeology’ will take water and sediment samples from beneath the ocean on the New England Shelf with the intention of understanding this offshore aquifer system.

Aim: validate hypotheses about water origin

The key priority for researchers is to gain more knowledge about the origin of freshened groundwater in offshore aquifers so that they can confirm or dismiss existing hypotheses. For example, current hypotheses are that the water could have charged the aquifers at a time when sea level was 100 m lower than it is today, or perhaps it was generated under an ice sheet or pro-glacial lake during a glacial period such as existed approximately 450 000 and approximately 20 000 years ago.

We have anecdotal evidence of offshore freshened groundwater from samples and marine geophysical surveys. We have used this evidence to develop hypotheses on timing and mechanism of emplacement. It is exciting to use established scientific ocean drilling approaches with modern data analyses to provide direct tests of our hypotheses. Overall, this work offshore New England will help us better understand offshore freshened groundwater around the world.

Prof Brandon Dugan, hydrogeologist, Colorado School of Mines.

To date, we know very little about the dynamics of these shoreline-crossing groundwater systems and the age of the water in these systems, and even less about their influence on cycling of nutrients and trace elements and their isotopes.

Prof Karen Johannesson, environmental geochemist, University of Massachusetts Boston.

The expedition is managed and technically supported by the team at BGS. A special platform, the L/B Robert, equipped with a small drilling rig, will be used to access the sediments below the ocean floor at up to three locations on the New England Shelf offshore from the coast of Massachusetts, USA. The locations are in relatively shallow water and were identified through numerous preliminary geoscientific investigations. Sediment cores and water samples will be taken down to a maximum depth of 550 m below the ocean floor and will be examined by researchers from various disciplines drawn from across the international scientific community.

High societal relevance: to better understand aquifers around the world

The team believes that the data acquired will help to better understand the processes that lead to the emplacement of freshwater lenses in offshore coastal plain sediments and why this freshened water is present. The findings will be relevant for the hydrogeology of the New England Shelf and for multiple similar settings elsewhere around the world.

The research is essential for a better understanding of the biogeochemical and elemental cycles in the continental shelf environment and will support a focus on the protection and sustainable management of offshore freshwater systems.

Staff from BGS have critical roles in the expedition, including offshore operations management (Leonardo Barbosa; Graham Tulloch), offshore project management (Jeremy Everest; Margaret Stewart; Raushan Arnhardt), IT and data management (Mary Mowat; Alan Douglas; Julian Gray), and onshore project management and leadership (David McInroy). With the expedition extra focus on groundwater fieldwork, BGS is providing extra hydrogeology and geochemistry technical support (Chelsea Bambrick, Rachel Bell, Bentje Brauns, Jack Brickell, Rebecca N Chonchubhair, Antonio Ferreira, Alex Mulcahy, Kyle Walker-Verkuil).

The team is incredibly excited to be finally heading out to sea to begin field operations, after many years of planning with project partners. We hope to recover invaluable core material and groundwater samples to improve our understanding of the development of the New England Shelf and the freshened water reservoirs underlying it. Scientific ocean drilling is technically challenging, expensive and therefore infrequent, which makes it a privilege to be part of such a project. We have a reasonable idea of what to expect in our boreholes, but there always the chance of discovering something unexpected scientifically, and that what makes offshore fieldwork so exciting.

David McInroy, BGS project lead.

The expedition aims to find answers to the following questions:

• how old is the freshened groundwater and when was it emplaced?
• how much fresh water is there?
• how does the fresh water interact with sea water?
• what microbial communities are involved?
• what sources of carbon do microbes use?
• what is the general cycling of nutrients and energy in the shelf sediments?
• how might these fresh waters influence nutrient, carbon and metal concentrations in sea water?

International approach

Forty-one science team members from 13 nations (Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, USA) will take part in the expedition, which consists of two phases: offshore and onshore operations. Offshore operations will take place between May and early August 2025. The entire science team will meet for the onshore work at the Bremen Core Repository, at MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen (Germany) in January 2026 to split, sample and analyse the sediment cores and interpret the data collected. The cores will be archived and made accessible for further scientific research for the scientific community after a one-year moratorium period following an onshore operations phase of the expedition. All expedition data will be open access and resulting outcomes published.

The expedition is conducted by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) as part of the International Ocean Drilling Programme (IODPΒ³), funded by IODPΒ³ and NSF. IODPΒ³ is a publicly funded international marine research program supported by 16 countries, which explores Earth’s history and dynamics recorded in sea-floor sediments and rocks and monitors subsea-floor environments. Through multiple platforms β€” a feature unique to IODPΒ³ β€” scientists sample the deep biosphere and subsea-floor ocean, environmental change, processes and effects, and solid-Earth cycles and dynamics.

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• ΜύΜύ

The (CSF) at BGS has successfully completed the largest computed tomography (CT) core scanning project at this facility to date. Approximately 400 m of core from the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 389: project was scanned through the rotating X-ray CT (RXCT) core scanner to produce a three-dimensional X-ray image of the core.

IODP is an international marine research programme that explores Earth history and structure that has been recorded in sea-floor sediments and rocks, and monitors sub-seafloor environments. Expedition 389 focuses on the submerged fossil reefs off the coast of Hawai’i where changes in sea level and global climate are preserved in a greatly expanded and near-continuous fossil coral record covering the last half a million years.

The core samples from the expedition were transported in large, refrigerated containers and kept at 4Β°C. A coordinated operation involving BGS’s estates, goods-in and Core Store teams, in addition to a telehandler and forklifts, were deployed on arrival to unload the core and move the stillages prior to being scanned.

The CSF staff and 21 volunteers worked 24/7, covering two shifts over the course of a two month-period. The team successfully delivered a unique dataset that will be used for years to come. Core was scanned at a resolution of 93 Β΅m for high-priority core and 186 Β΅m for the rest. The priority order was set out by the offshore science party and was based on core condition and scientific importance.

Seeing the core scanner run non-stop for 516 hours without any downtime is truly astonishing. This highlights the importance of regular maintenance activities and functionality and safety tests of the machinery we host at BGS.

Magret Damaschke,51ΑΤΖζ Core Scanning Facility Manager.

CT produces large amounts of data (both raw and reconstructed), with terabytes of data being generated every couple of days. Data management was therefore at the forefront of core-scanning workflows. This helped the team to avoid overloading transfer and archiving of data drives, which could result in bottlenecks when handling such a large dataset.

This CT dataset provides the scientists with a three-dimensional X-ray image of the core. The resultant CT imagery was used by the IODP onshore science party in Bremen to gain detailed insight into the inner structure of the core collected during the Hawai’ian Drowned Reefs expedition. It provided the opportunity to make an informed decision where to split the core to preserve coral structures and growth patterns for future scientific analysis. In addition, CT scans can be used to generate downhole radiodensity profiles to identify potential lithological or facies changes. Specialised CT image segmentation tools allow coral species and populations to be characterised, as well as basalt porosity analysis to be performed.

The onshore science party found the CT data to be incredibly useful during sampling and commented that the images were far more informative and detailed than anticipated. Post-sampling, scientists have already discovered more coral species β€˜hiding’ within the cores, which were not visible during core description.

Dr Hannah Grant, BGS Marine Geoscientist and expedition project manager.

Many thanks again for all your team’s hard work with the X389 samples. The CT scan data is already proving to be incredibly valuable. One of my colleagues just sent me an image of a particular coral genus that is not supposed to be in Hawai’i! It only revealed itself after examination of the CT scan data.

Jody Webster, co-chief scientist on IODP Expedition 389.

The two-month long International Ocean Discovery Programme (IODP) Expedition 389: Hawai’ian drowned reefs, managed by a team from BGS, aimed to get a better understanding of sea-level changes by recovering samples of fossilised coral reefs. A total of 29 scientists from across the world participated in the expedition, with 10 scientists on board the MMA Valour, which set sail from Honolulu, Hawai’i, on 31 August 2023.

A total of 426m of core was recovered from below the seabed at water depths from 130 to 1240m. The core has now been opened, analysed and sampled by the scientific team, following almost a month of intensive work at the University of Bremen during February 2024.

The next phase of the research will involve scientists using cutting-edge methods in their laboratories to extract information about sea level and climate change from these tremendously important, high-resolution archives. The ability to look back at Earth history will provide valuable insights into the mechanisms that cause climate change, including abrupt events, and the impact of these changes on reef growth and health.

We are extremely proud to have coordinated this expedition with our UK and international partners, and to have successfully recovered high-resolution records of sea level and environmental changes over the last few hundred thousand years. Our team is now supporting the international science party to initially analyse the cores and create foundational datasets to support research on this important topic for many years to come.

David McInroy, BGS Marine Geoscientist.

About the expedition

The expedition is conducted by the (ECORD) as part of the (IODP). IODP is a publicly funded, international marine research programme, supported by 21 countries, which explores Earth’s history and dynamics recorded in seabed sediments and rocks, and monitors sub-seabed environments. Through multiple platforms β€” a feature unique to IODP β€” scientists sample the deep biosphere and sub-seabed ocean to study environmental change, processes and effects, and solid-Earth cycles and dynamics.

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A two-month expedition, running from 31 August 2023 to 31 October 2023 and managed by a team from BGS, has set sail from Hawai’i. The aim of the expedition is to better understand sea level and climate sea change by recovering and researching ancient fossilised coral reefs.

There is a series of twelve fossil coral reefs off the coast of Hawai’i that may reveal the history of sea level change in the region and beyond. The International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) will sample these fossil coral reefs, giving scientists the first opportunity to investigate such high-resolution sea level, climate and reef response records from the past half a million years.

The international team will sample the ancient reefs at water depths up to 1155 m to study how sea level and climate have changed, how coral reefs respond to these changes, and the links between global sea-level changes and global climate change. The high-resolution records will also provide a framework for evaluating the effects of climate change originating from human activity.

A total of 29 scientists from across the world will participate in the expedition, with 10 scientists onboard the MMA Valour, which set sail from Honolulu on 31 August 2023.

Previous mission-specific platform expeditions around Tahiti () and the Great Barrier Reef () currently provide us with a record of past conditions over the past 30000 years, but the Hawai’i expedition will greatly extend this over the past 500000 years.

Due to the rapid subsidence of the island, Hawai’i is a perfect location for us to conduct this research, becausechanges in sea level and global climate are preserved in a greatly expanded and near-continuous fossil coral record covering the last half a million years.

It should also help us to reconstruct sea-level change at a much higher resolution than previously possible, as well as investigating the volcanic evolution of Hawai’i itself.

Dr Hannah Grant, BGS Marine Geoscientist and expedition project manager

Hannah is joined on board by two other BGS staff members, Graham Tulloch (operations manager) and Mary Mowat (data manager). Initial analysis of the recovered coral cores will begin on the ship and continue at the onshore science party, which will take place in February 2024 in Bremen, Germany.

Expedition organisation

The expedition is organised by the ECORD Science Operator (ESO) under instruction from the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) as part of IODP. IODP is an international marine research collaboration that explores Earth history and dynamics using oceangoing research platforms to recover data recorded in sea-floor sediments and rocks, and to monitor subsea-floor environments.

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In November and December 2022, a team of four BGS scientists helped lead and coordinate the final phase of the International Ocean Discovery Programme (IODP) latest expedition, . Our role as the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) science operator (ESO) was to make sure the wider team was able to work with our colleagues from the (MarE3) and the (JAMSTEC) in Japan to extract samples from sediment cores collected from the Japan Trench in 2021. The team consisted of 24 scientists from all over the world, including operator staff from the Bremen Core Repository in Germany and the European Petrophysics Consortium at the universities of Leicester and Montpellier.

Disruption caused by COVID-19 meant that this expedition was particularly challenging to manage and complete. We encountered delays caused by travel restrictions, international shipping difficulties, visa applications and troublesome currents, to name just a few. These led to further knock-on complications; looking back now, it amazing that we managed to complete this expedition! Following a busy four weeks on board the ship, working 24 hours a day to get the job done, it especially satisfying that it finished so successfully.

The reason we were all in Japan was to complete the sampling from 831 m of cores that had already been retrieved from 8 km below the sea surface at the bottom of the Japan Trench. These cores contain valuable records of ancient mega-tsunamis, triggered by the rare but devastating, huge earthquakes that shake this part of the world. The last was the Tōhoku Oki quake in 2011, which measured 9.1 Mw. This triggered a 40 m-high tsunami that swamped the Japanese coast, causing the deaths of over 18 000 people.

The scientists working on our cores use a variety of different techniques to try and determine how, why and when these massive quakes happen, and to understand more about them. Hopefully people who live in earthquake-prone regions around the world can benefit from this knowledge and help prepare for further events in future.

Over the course of the expedition we were based on a ship, the Drilling Vessel Chikyu , which stayed docked in the port of Shimizu for the duration of the personal sampling party (PSP). Our job was to take all the samples for the many different research projects. In total, 18 192 individual samples were taken from the cores in the dedicated laboratories on board the ship. We worked 24 hours a day in 12-hour shifts, carefully inserting the sample tools into the soft, muddy sediments, removing the intact samples and bagging and labelling them for shipment to labs around the world.

Every day the scientists and ESO staff, working with MarE3 and Marine Works Japan staff, took their places at the four sampling tables in the lab, with space for two or three people at each table. There was a lot of laughter and smiles from the teams, most of whom had never met before. The atmosphere was always fun and positive, despite the careful and methodical nature of what we had to do.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, we had to remain on the ship for the duration of the PSP, only being able to take a short stroll or run on the dockside for exercise. Unfortunately no trips β€˜ashore’ for us! Off-shift opportunities were fairly limited, but everyone made the most of their time. Sunrises and sunsets were spectacular from the heli-deck and a welcome excuse to get outside, talk to colleagues and soak up the beautiful scenery as the day changed over this part of eastern Japan.

During meals, COVID-19 restrictions meant we were not able to linger to discuss the delicious menu put in front of us every day, but that didn’t stop early diners getting the word out to friends that β€˜Tantanmen is amaaaazing today!’ or β€˜You have to get the spicy udon before it all goes!’ The food was spectacularly good and provided a talking point during every shift.

Despite the busy schedule, the BGS team helped our fellow scientists talk to the rest of the world as well. Our Taiwanese colleagues gave a guided virtual video tour through the labs to schools and university students back home; various researchers continued their normal lectures, now old hands with Zoom due to months of lockdown, and the BGS team and co-chief scientists spoke to loads of schools across Scotland, taking pupils behind the scenes of the expedition and providing a taste of life on board.

The final sample was extracted on 24 November 2022 and, after a few days of tidying, packing and generally organising everything, the scientists and most of the operator staff left the ship. Margaret Stewart and I stayed on board to help complete the reviews of the huge report that has to accompany every sampling party and conclude every IODP expedition. It has been a massive undertaking, involving dozens of operator staff in the UK, Germany and of course Japan, plus scientists from every part of the globe.

We coordinated the expedition during one of the most challenging periods in modern times. It wasn’t easy, but we made it, and we know that the resulting research will enhance our understanding of earthquake and tsunami science and bring huge benefits to millions of people who live in these unstable regions of the planet.

About the author

51ΑΤΖζ scientists are taking part in a ground-breaking expedition to core the seabed in the ultra-deep waters of the Japan Trench, learning more about powerful earthquakes associated with the subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath Japan.

Subduction is a geological process that takes place in areas where Earth tectonic plates collide, such as at the Japan Trench. It has led to disastrous megathrust earthquakes like the 2011 Tohoku-Oki quake. A magnitude-9 earthquake shook the region, unleashing a devastating tsunami with waves up to 38 m high.

Currently, scientists have no way of knowing whether a large-scale earthquake or tsunami, triggered by movement on major faults in the Pacific Northwest, will happen today, tomorrow or hundreds of years from now. The International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP)‘s Expedition 386: Japan Trench Paleoseismology is searching for answers to some of the most important questions about earthquake cycles and their characteristics, work which could help inform the probability of major events in future. 

The IODP is an international marine research collaboration that explores Earth’s history and dynamics using ocean-going research platforms to recover data recorded in sea-floor sediments and rocks, and to monitor subsea-floor environments.

Experts in marine geoscience at BGS are supporting operations for a personal sampling party (PSP), taking place from November to December 2022 in Japan international port of Shimizu. The PSP is being attended by 23 of the expedition 33 global research scientists, who have come to use a dedicated core laboratory uniquely located aboard the drilling vessel DV Chikyu. They are collecting personal samples from giant piston cores to support their personal research ambitions.

It is organised and supported by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) Science Operator (ESO) and the Institute for Marine-Earth Exploration and Engineering (MarE3) within the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC).

51ΑΤΖζ’s marine geoscientists Dr Jeremy Everest, Dr Hannah Grant and Dr Margaret Stewart and data manager Mary Mowat are helping to project manage and coordinate the science party, taking responsibility for myriad tasks including logistics, sample planning, data management, data dissemination and report compilation. They will be working alongside technical and research staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until the last section of the last core is sampled.

Our staff are thrilled to be once again working face-to-face with our operational partners and the science party, to deliver our ninth expedition for IODP.

This expedition is focused on developing the field of palaeoseismology, essentially using key locations in the sediments deep in the Japan Trench as β€˜palaeoseismometers’ to create a long-term geological record of giant earthquakes. The scientists hope to extend the 1500-year historical record by 10 or even 100 times. The work is, of course, extremely relevant to the people of Japan and everyone living in other earthquake-prone regions of the world.

David McInroy, BGS Marine Geoscientist and ESO Project Manager.

51ΑΤΖζ is well placed to provide project support to the expedition, having delivered expertise in marine geoscience over a number of decades, providing independent and expert geological advice, research and data acquisition to anyone working in the marine environment.

Offshore operations to collect the core began in late April to early June 2021, after some delays due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The JAMSTEC research vessel RV Kaimei sailed the length of the Japan Trench, with a Japanese giant piston coring team breaking records for the deepest cores and deepest samples ever recovered from below the sea surface, in water depths of more than 8 km. 

The cores were split and research plans consolidated during an onshore science party, led by Japan science team and remotely supported by BGS and its ESO partners, between February and March 2022. Despite COVID-19 continuing to present considerable challenges, they collaborated with the rest of the international science team to successfully provide a framework from which to hang data and drive research. 

The PSP is a very important part of the expedition journey, which will enable the science of Expedition 386 and its exciting discoveries to begin.

Follow the on the blog or follow #IODP #Exp386 on Twitter.

51ΑΤΖζ is pleased to be part of a joint expedition of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), focused on the Arctic Ocean – a key location in global climate change.

Despite its global importance, the Arctic Ocean is the last major region on Earth where the long-term climate history remains poorly known.

IODP Expedition 377 Arctic Ocean Paleoceanography – or ArcOP – will represent a step-change in reconstructing the detailed history of climate change in the central Arctic Ocean over the last 50 million years.

A joint expedition, it will involve expertise from the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD), the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat (SPRS) and Arctic Marine Solutions (AMS) and is planned to take place in August and September 2022.

Science behind the ArcOrp Expedition

The Arctic Ocean is a very sensitive and important region for global climate change, and is unique in comparison to the other oceans on Earth. Due to complex feedback processes (collectively known as β€œArctic amplification”), the Arctic is both a contributor to climate change and a region that is most affected by global warming.

Major advances in understanding were achieved in 2004 when the successful completion of IODP Expedition 302: Arctic Coring Expedition – ACEX, also implemented by ECORD, marked the start of a new era in Arctic climate exploration.

The ArcOP expedition will explore a critical time interval, spanning the period when prominent changes in global climate took place during the transition from the early Cenozoic Greenhouse world to the late Cenozoic Icehouse world.

An international team of scientists will collect about 900 m of sediment cores at two sites along the Lomonosov Ridge.

We anticipate that the sedimentary record that the Arc-OP expedition is targeting will provide critical puzzle pieces enabling the scientific community to better understand the drivers, feedbacks, consequences, and varying rates of Cenozoic climate change at both regional and global scales.

Prof Kristen St John, ArcOP Co-chief Scientist.

A unique and challenging expedition, a fleet composed of a scientific drillship supported by two icebreakers will be used to make drilling possible in this permanently ice-covered region.

Such a multi-vessel approach was employed by ECORD for the first time during the ACEX Expedition in 2004.

The expedition will last for about seven weeks offshore and will be followed by intensive investigation and sampling of the cores onshore to unlock their climate secrets.

51ΑΤΖζ will help to lead the implementation of the expedition through its role as the co-ordinator of the ECORD Science Operator (ESO), in close collaboration with SPRS and AMS.  

51ΑΤΖζ staff are excited to be part of this ambitious IODP expedition that will see us manage, co-ordinate and support an international team of scientists through our role as the coordinator of the ECORD Science Operator.

Our role is very much to support the team efforts to uncover and understand the history of climate change in the central Arctic Ocean over the last 50 million years.

We will provide expedition management and coring oversight, and work with our partners to provide facilities and services for the curation, databasing, archiving and analysis of collected cores and samples, and downhole logging services.

David McInroy, BGS Geoscientist.

Further details of the expedition can be found on the .

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