³
ESSAC and J-DESC announce a call for expressions of interest in hosting the International Ocean Drilling Programme (IODP³) Science Office
Download the call here
The International Ocean Drilling Programme (IODP³) will begin in January 2025and will succeed the current International Ocean Discovery Program which ends in 2024.
 
IODP³ will be led jointly by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) and Japan as Core Members and involve collaboration and partnership with other non platform-providing ocean drilling research programmes/consortia as Associate and Temporary Members. This is a call for expressions of interest from senior scientists based in IODP³ Core Member nations (i.e., current ECORD member nations and Japan) to lead and host the new IODP³ Science Office (IODP³-SO) to deliver the mandate described below.
Mandate | The main tasks of the IODP³-SO will be:

to develop and maintain a database management system for community-led drilling proposals and their evaluation, together with an associated site survey data bank, accessible to Science Evaluation Panel (SEP) members and other IODP³ entities.
to provide logistical support for the Science Evaluation Panel, the Mission-Specific Platform Facility Board (MSP-FB), and the Scientific Drilling Forum.
to gather and analyse data (statistics and metrics) aimed at monitoring and improving equality, diversity and inclusion within IODP³, and propose measures to further facilitate an inclusive culture in scientific ocean drilling.
 to design and maintain the IODP³ website that will act as the primary source of programmatic information for the international scientific ocean drilling research community.
 to implement a programme-wide application portal for all aspects of IODP³ activities including calls for expedition participation, panel and board membership, training events, scholarships and grants.
 to develop and implement an online, open-access publication system for IODP³ expedition-related reports (Scientific Prospectuses, Preliminary Reports, Scientific Proceedings, Data Reports), including associated editorial and reviewing processes, and maintain an expedition-based bibliographic database.

Leadership, staffing, budgets and location
The IODP³-SO will be led by a Director or two Co- Directors who are leading scientists with substantial experience of scientific ocean drilling and are based in IODP Core Member nations. The level of salary support for the Director/Co-Directors will be negotiable and subject to approval of an overall IODP³-SO annual budget. Three to five full-time equivalent additional staff may also be employed (on either a full or part-time basis) to perform the key tasks of the IODP³-SO, with salary support defined in advance in the annual IODP³-SO budget. The annually approved budget will also include travel and subsistence support forIODP³-SO staff, support for organization of SEP, MSPFB and Scientific Drilling Forum meetings, IT costs, and funding for the suite of IODP³-SO expedition related publications.
The IODP³-SO may be located in any IODP³ Core Member nation or may adopt a distributed model across more than one Core Member nation. In the latter case, however, financial management of the IODP³-SO should be provided by a single institution contracted to the ECORD legal representative. Servers for related IT support and databases must also be located in an IODP³ Core Member nation to comply with data protection legislation.
Contracting
A contract between the host institution of the IODP³-SO and the ECORD legal representative will facilitate transfer of the IODP³-SO budget, which must be agreed annually. The contract will initially be from 1 May 2024 to 31 December 2029. The first eight months of the contract will cover a start-up period to allow IT systems, workflows and protocols to be established prior to the start of IODP³ on 1 January 2025. A review of the IODP³-SO will be conducted in the first quarter of 2029 by the ECORD Council and JAMSTEC and the results will guide a decision to either re-compete or renew the contract for a second five-year period (1 January 2030 – 31 December 2034).
Submission of Expressions of Interest
Senior scientists based within IODP³ Core Member nations (i.e., current ECORD member
nations and Japan) interested in leading the IODP³ Science Office as its Director/Co-Director
are invited to submit expressions of interest consisting of the following elements:

 two-page CVs for the Director or Co-Directors outlining their prior experience in scientific ocean drilling and relevant international leadership and management experience.
a two-page statement of their vision for implementing the mandate of the IODP³-SO, including information on proposed staffing levels required to deliver this mandate.
a provisional, indicative annual budget statement indicating estimated staffing, travel and subsistence and all other support costs. This should also provide information on expected institutional overheads if applicable. Note that actual budgets will be finalised annually by negotiation if an award is made.
a letter of support from their institution(s) confirming that they agree to host the IODP3-SO and associated staff members and administer the annual IODP³-SO budget.

 
This package of documents should be submitted as a single PDF document by email
to Dr Gilbert Camoin (Director of the ECORD Managing Agency) at ema@cerege.fr
by 17.00 CET on 30 November 2023.
Informal email enquiries should be directed to both Dr Angelo Camerlenghi (essac@ogs.it)
and Dr Sanny Saito (jdesc@jamstec.go.jp).
 

Press Release: Scientific ocean drilling discoversdynamic carbon cycling in the ultra-deep-water Japan Trench
We are pleased to announce that the first major results of the IODP Expedition 386are now published in Nature Communications (11 September 2023)
The IODP Expedition 386: Japan Trench Paleoseismology (2021) was jointly conducted byEuropean Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD)and Institute for Marine-Earth Exploration and Engineering (MarE3) /Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC).

Scientific ocean drilling discovers dynamic carbon cycling in the ultra-deep-water Japan Trench
Hadal trenches, with their deepest locations situated in the so-called hadal zone, the deepest parts of the ocean in water depth >6km, are the least-explored environment on Earth, linking the Earth’s surface and its deeper interior. For the first time, an international team conducted deep-subsurface sampling in a hadal trench at high spatial resolution during IODP Expedition 386: Japan Trench Paleoseismology. The first major results of this Expeditions reveal exciting insights on the carbon cycling in the trench sediment and is now published in Nature Communications.

Unprecedented access to deep-subsurface samples reveals first-ever long radiocarbon record of dissolved carbon in the hadal trench sediments.
The Japan Trench is located on the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a region of special interest in earthquake and deep-water research.

“It is here that oceanic plates bend, form ultra-deep-water trenches and move below overriding plates in so-called subduction zones, while accumulating long-term global plate tectonic strain.
This energy is released cataclysmically during so-called megathrust earthquakes, like it happened in 2011 during the devastating Tohoku-oki Earthquake.”
Dr. Ken Ikehara, IODP Exp. 386 Co-chief Scientist,National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan

Earthquake-related seafloor deformation and shaking can remobilize large amounts of sediments and fresh organic carbon that is subsequently transferred by gravity flows into the terminal sink of hadal trench basins. In order to study the long-term history of megathrust earthquakes and investigate the roles of earthquakes in the ultra-deep-water environment, the IODP Expedition 386 team has collected and analysed 58 sediment cores taken from holes cored up to 37.82 meters deep in the sea bed at 15 sites along the 500-km-long trench axis.

“These operational expedition achievements of successful deep-subsurface sampling at water depths between 7445-8023 m below sea level set two new records in over 50 years of scientific ocean drilling and coring. We have cored the deepest water site at a water depth of 8023 meters and recovered the deepest sub-sea level sample from 8060.74 meters below sea level.”
Prof. Michael Strasser, IODP Exp. 386 Co-chief Scientist,University of Innsbruck, Austria

Analyses of such unprecedented samples and research led by Prof. Rui Bao at Ocean University of China has found large amount of labile dissolved carbon stored in the sediment interstitial water. The dissolved carbon storage implies active organic carbon remineralization in the hadal trenches that is much greater than in other deep-water environments of the open ocean. Using advanced radiocarbon techniques, the team discovered aging and accumulation of the dissolved organic and inorganic carbon in the deep subsurface sediments.

“These are exciting results, because these dissolved carbon fractions may have great impacts on the deep carbon cycle as they are buried still deeper into the trench sediments and the subduction zone”
Mengfan Chu, PhD candidate at Ocean University of China,lead-author of the study now published in Nature Communications

 
Active microbial-mediated dissolved carbon cycling in the deep subsurface sediments
A comprehensive geochemistry investigation on the sediment interstitial water based on IODP Expedition 386 results supports the hypothesis. Huge storages of methane are found in sediments along the whole Japan Trench, together with other outstanding geochemical characteristics of the interstitial water. This points to intensive microbial methanogenesis in the hadal trenches and is interpreted as an enhancement effect of repeated large earthquakes along the subduction zone. Through increasing organic carbon fluxes and regulating the physical and chemical characteristics of the sediment deposits, earthquakes serve as a powerful modulator in the trench carbon cycle and the deep biosphere metabolisms in these extreme environments.

“These discoveries provide strong evidence that the hadal trenches are not ‘tranquil’ deep-sea environments as previously considered. We’re excited to say that more discoveries about the hadal trench carbon cycle are bound to be made in the future.
For instance, in our study we also report the occurrence of authigenic carbonates in the deep subsurface of Japan Trench sediments, which suggests active transformation of carbon between its different forms (sedimentary, dissolved, gaseous and mineral) and implies that hadal trench environments host dynamic carbon cycling, which link the Earth’s surface and its deeper interior along subduction zones, providing great opportunities for future studies”
Prof. Rui Bao, Ocean University of China

 
Further perspectives of research in the Japan Trench
The new discoveries of a dynamic carbon cycle in the Japan trench represent the first major scientific achievement resulting from the novel high temporal and high spatial resolution subsurface sampling and investigation of hadal oceanic trench achieved by Expedition 386 in the Japan Trench. Alongside this first scientific IODP-Expedition 386 related publication, the preliminary results of the entire expedition are now released by IODP. Along with the new perspectives and further potential to advance our understanding of deep-sea elemental cycles and their influence on hadal environments, samples and data from this expedition also reveal fascinating event records ranging back more than 24000 years. This enables now-ongoing research and new perspectives for the discussion on long-term recurrence and hazards of major megathrust earthquakes. Thirty-six scientists with expertise in different geoscience disciplines from Austria, Australia, China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Japan, UK, and the United States are now conducting further researches using the samples acquired by the advanced ocean drilling platform of IODP. More substantial scientific advances are expected to push the frontier of ultra-deep-water, subduction zone and earthquake researches.

Citation:
Chu, M., Bao, R.*, Strasser, M., Ikehara, K., Everest, J., Maeda, L., Hochmuth, K., Xu, L., McNichol, A., Bellanova, P., Rasbury, T., Kölling, M., Riedinger, N., Johnson, J., Luo, M., März, C., Straub, S., Jitsuno, K., Brunet, M., Cai, Z., Cattaneo, A., Hsiung, K., Ishizawa, T., Itaki, T., Kanamatsu, T., Keep, M., Kioka, A., McHugh, C., Micallef, A., Pandey, D., Proust, J. N., Satoguchi, Y., Sawyer, D., Seibert, C., Silver, M., Virtasalo, J., Wang, Y., Wu, T. W., Zellers, S., 2023. Earthquake-enhanced dissolved carbon cycles in ultra-deep ocean sediments. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41116-w.
Ikehara, K., Strasser, M., Everest, J., Maeda, L., Hochmuth, K., and the Expedition 386 Scientists, 2023. Expedition 386. Preliminary Report: Japan Trench Paleoseismology. International Ocean Discovery Program. https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.pr.386.2023

The International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) is a publicly-funded international marine research program supported by 21 countries, which explores Earth’s history and dynamics as recorded in seafloor sediments and rocks. IODP Expedition 386 – Japan Trench Paleoseismology – was jointly implemented by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) and the Institute for Marine-Earth Exploration and Engineering (MarE3) within the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC).

More information:
Official webpage of Expedition 386:
https://www.ecord.org/expedition386
Expedition 386 blog:
https://expedition386.wordpress.com/
Chu, M., et al., 2023, Earthquake-enhanced dissolved carbon cycles in ultra-deep ocean sediments. Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41116-w
Download official Press Release:

English

German

About the research programme: http://www.iodp.org/
About the European part of the programme: https://www.ecord.org/
About ECORD Science Operator (ESO): https://www.ecord.org/about-ecord/management-structure/eso/
About the Japanese part of the program  (J-DESC): http://www.j-desc.org/

Contact / interviews / images

Rui Bao (corresponding author)
Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory &Technology, Ministry of Education
Ocean University of China
Qingdao, China, 266100
E-mail: baorui@ouc.edu.cn
Tel: +86 15908934005
Michael Strasser (IODP Expedition 386 Co-chief Scientist)
Department of Geology
University of Innsbruck
6020 Innsbruck, Austria
E-mail: michael.strasser@uibk.ac.at
Tel +43 512 507 54213
Ken Ikehara (IODP Expedition 386 Co-chief Scientist)
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
Geological Survey of Japan
Tsukuba Central 7, 1-1-1 Higashi
Tsukuba Ibaraki 305-8567, Japan
E-mail: k-ikehara@aist.go.jp
Jez Everest
Expedition Project Manager
ECORD Science Operator
British Geological Survey
Email: jdev@bgs.ac.uk
Phone: +44 131 650 0203
Natsumi Okutsu
Expedition Management Group,
Operations Department, MarE3, JAMSTEC
Email: okutsun@jamstec.go.jp
Phone : +81 46 867 9865
Ulrike Prange
ECORD Science Operator
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences
University of Bremen
Email: uprange@marum.de
Phone: +49 421 218-65540

The research vessel R/V Kaimei. (Image: ECORD/IODP/JAMSTEC)

The core samples collected from the Japan Trench on R/V Kaimei. / Post-expedition Science Party splitting the samples. (Image: ECORD/IODP/JAMSTEC)

The core samples collected from the Japan Trench on R/V Kaimei. / Post-expedition Science Party splitting the samples. (Image: ECORD/IODP/JAMSTEC)

Retrieving the interstitial samples from the cores onboard. (Image: ECORD/IODP/JAMSTEC)

Ocean Drilling Legacy Assets Projects (LEAPs)
Call for Proposals
Deadline: November 1, 2023
Ocean Drilling Legacy Assets Projects (LEAPs) are a new type of project for international and interdisciplinary collaborations under the umbrella of the scientific ocean drilling programs. They are standalone research endeavors that: (1) address at least one aspect of the 2050 Science Framework, and (2) have objectives that maximize the return on the legacy assets of current and past scientific ocean drilling programs without new drilling. Examples of legacy assets are cores, samples, data, open boreholes, and downhole observatories from current and past scientific ocean drilling programs.
Avenues of LEAP research could include, for example, the production of new data from samples, integration of data across multiple expeditions and/or multiple boreholes, incorporation of legacy borehole data with new data, application of a new method or technology that was not available when the legacy assets were collected, or measurements in legacy drillholes to address
new problems in innovative and creative ways. LEAPs do not replace other research mechanisms (e.g., individual proposals to funding agencies for sample requests or data analysis); instead, they are intended to provide a new avenue to facilitate collaboration at scales larger than conventional single or multi-proponent research projects.
The definition for LEAPs is deliberately broad to provide flexibility for new approaches, integrations, and technology uses that foster coordinated multidisciplinary and international research efforts. LEAPs also provide an opportunity through which researchers can increase the visibility of their research and results.
Important Dates:
Informational Webinars:

September 12 at 11:00 EDT (September 12 at 15:00 UTC)
September 13 at 23:00 EDT (September 14 at 03:00 UTC)
October 4 at 16:00 EDT (October 4 at 20:00 UTC)

Proposal Submissions Open: October 4, 2023
Proposal Deadline: November 1, 2023

For more information on LEAPs and the proposal process and to register for the webinars,
please visit: https://www.iodp.org/call-for-leap-proposals

IODP Expedition 389: Hawaiian Drowned Reefs
Fossil coral reefs as a window into the past and future
Start of an international expedition off the coast of Hawai’i
The offshore phase of the IODP Expedition 389will be conducted from 31 August till 31 October 2023by the ECORD Science Operator (ESO).

Fossil coral reefs as a window into the past and future
A look back at environmental change throughout geologic history can tell us a lot about the future – especially when it comes to globally and societally important topics such as sea level, climate change and coral reef ecosystem health. An international scientific research expedition, carried out on behalf of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), aims to recover a record of past climate and reef conditions off the coast of Hawai’i (USA). The two-month research expedition will leave the port of Honolulu at the end of August.
Coral reefs are very sensitive to sea level and other changes in environmental conditions. As fossils they provide a record of past conditions over hundreds, thousands and millions of years of Earth’s history. There is, however, a discontinuity in the global record over the past 500,000 years, especially during periods of major and abrupt climate instability. The IODP Expedition 389: Hawai’ian Drowned Reefs focusses on this missing link and is led by Co-chiefs scientists Professor Christina Ravelo (Ocean Sciences Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA) and Professor Jody Webster (School of Geosciences, the University of Sydney, Australia).

“The Hawai‘i fossil reefs are storytellers of the past climate and ocean changes and of the reef ecosystem responses to those changes. These stories can be unlocked through careful study of the fossils that we hope to recover.”
Prof. Christina Ravelo, IODP Exp. 389 Co-chief Scientist

“We hope that information recorded in the fossil reefs will help scientists make improved predictions about the rate and magnitude of sea-level rise, what impact global warming and cooling has on short-term climate phenomena like droughts, floods and marine heat waves, and how coral reef ecosystems respond to these changes.”
Prof. Jody Webster, IODP Exp. 389 Co-chief Scientist

 
The expedition aims to recover cores from water depths between 134 and 1,155 meters at a maximum of twenty locations. Even though this will be the first time that a seafloor coring system will be deployed in this area, the anticipated sites are well studied.

“We have a very good idea of what the seabed looks like off the coast of Hawai’i based on extensive mapping using underwater sonar, as well as footage and surface samples collected using submersibles and remotely operated diving robots by scientists over the past four decades.”
Prof. Jody Webster, IODP Exp. 389 Co-chief Scientist

“This information has helped us select the best places to carefully collect the cores that will deepen our understanding of the history of the reef system.”
Prof. Christina Ravelo, IODP Exp. 389 Co-chief Scientist

The University of Hawai’i is a partner institution for this expedition and has a strong tradition of science in coral reefs, littoral phenomena, and shoreline geology. Hawai’ian scientists have been studying sea level change and its impacts and have highlighted how this knowledge is important for formulating a mitigation and resilience strategy for the future. Professor Kenna Rubin, Inorganic Geochemist at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Department of Earth Sciences, has been involved in planning of the expedition from the beginning and will be a key participant.

“These detailed, high-resolution temporal and compositional records anticipated from this expedition will add greatly to our knowledge of responses to climate change, as well as helping scientists to better understand the volcanic subsidence history of the Big Island. The impacts of this research in Hawai’i will contribute to existing studies of sea level change as recorded here by coral reefs.”
Prof. Kenna Rubin, IODP Exp. 389 participant

The scientific objectives of the expedition aim to address questions on four main topics:

To measure the extent of sea level change over the past half a million years
To investigate why sea level and climate changes through time
To investigate how coral reefs respond to abrupt sea level and climate changes, and
To improve scientific knowledge of the growth and subsidence of Hawai’i over time.

The planning phase of the expedition includes intensive environmental observations and a comprehensive risk assessment.
In order to recover the material that scientists will use for their analyses in the coming years, a seafloor corer will be deployed off the multipurpose vessel MMA Valour during the expedition. The seafloor corer will be provided and operated by a renowned geotechnical industry specialist, to be lowered to the ocean floor to recover up to maximum 110-meter-long cores beneath the seabed.
The MMA Valour is a versatile multi-purpose platform supply vessel, owned and operated by MMA Offshore, a leading provider of marine and subsea services globally. Headquartered in Perth, Australia, MMA is committed to protecting the world’s marine ecosystems and supporting critical scientific research in this area.
29 scientists from Australia, Austria, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Great Britain and the USA will participate in the expedition. Ten of them will sail onboard the MMA Valour, leaving Honolulu port on August 31. The offshore phase of the expedition will end on October 31. All science party members will meet for the onshore phase at the IODP Bremen Core Repository, located at MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen (Germany) to split, analyze and sample the cores and interpret the data collected in February 2024.
The cores will be archived and made accessible for further scientific research for the scientific community after a one year-moratorium period following the onshore 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 Discovery Program (IODP). IODP is a publicly-funded international marine research program supported by 21 countries, which explores Earth’s history and dynamics recorded in seafloor sediments and rocks, and monitors sub-seafloor environments. Through multiple platforms – a feature unique to IODP – scientists sample the deep biosphere and sub-seafloor ocean, environmental change, processes and effects, and solid Earth cycles and dynamics.
ECORD Science Operator has great experience working in sensitive ecosystems such as coral reefs, following seagoing expeditions to the Great Barrier Reef (Australia, 2010) and Tahiti (2005).

More information:
Official webpage of Expedition 389:https://www.ecord.org/expedition389
Expedition 389 blog: https://expedition389.wordpress.com/
Download official Press Release:

English
 

 
About the research programme: https://www.iodp.org/About the European part of the programme: https://www.ecord.org/About ECORD Science Operator (ESO): https://www.ecord.org/about-ecord/management-structure/eso/

Contact / interviews / images

IODP Exp. 389 Co-chief Scientists:
Professor Christina RaveloOcean Sciences Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USAEmail: acr@ucsc.edu
Professor Jody WebsterGeocoastal Research Group, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, AustraliaEmail: jody.webster@sydney.edu.au
Contact University of Hawai’i: Professor Kenna RubinEmail: krubin@hawaii.edu
IODP Exp. 389 Operations:
Dave McInroyECORD Science OperatorBritish Geological SurveyEmail: dbm@bgs.ac.ukPhone: +44 7792 565 801
ECORD Outreach:
Ulrike PrangeECORD Science Operator – Outreach and Media RelationsMARUM – Center for Marine Environmental SciencesUniversity of BremenEmail: uprange@marum.dePhone: +49 421 218-65540

Photo: MMA Valour – vessel for IODP Expedition 389.

Workshop on the future of Scientific Ocean Drilling with MSPs and Chikyu – Phase 2
ECORD and Japan entities are finalising the launch of the International Ocean Drilling Programme – IODP³ (IODP-cubed) after 2024, open to international members and based on the implementation of mission-specific scientific drilling expeditions.
Following the online-only Phase-1 Workshop in January 2023, the Phase-2 Workshop will be held inperson (hybrid). The is aim to gather researchers representing promising drilling ideas that emerged during and after Phase-1 Workshop to present and discuss their scientific and operational plans to prepare for MSP and Chikyu drilling proposals to be submitted for IODP3. The Workshop is open to~ 100 participants from any country.
Dates and location of the Phase-2 Workshop:
18 – 20 March 2024
followed by a 2-day field trip
Nachikatsuura, Kii Peninsula
 

„ 6 hours by train from Tokyo, 4 hours by train from Osaka.
„ Far from major cities, aimed at fostering focused discussions
(a retreat-like event).
3 full days of workshop and a 2-day field trip (either 1 day or 2 days),
allowing ample time for discussions. Participants on site will require a full
week.
We plan to recommend several hotels within walking distance of the
workshop venue, for each respective budget (TBD).
Notable local geology includes Neogene accretionary prism, forearc
basin, and plutonic rocks. The region’s designation as a Geopark and World
Heritage site. Lovely in-house hot springs in some hotels.
PMOs may provide support for travel expenses on a limited basis. (TBA)

Download the flyer here