The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program,
IODP is an international scientific research endeavor scheduled to begin
in 2003. IODP is expected to build upon the legacies of the early ocean
drilling voyages of the Cuss 1 in 1961, the Deep Sea Drilling Project,
DSDP(1968-1983) and the Ocean Drilling Program, ODP(1983-2003). The past
and present programs have demonstrated significant achievements on
verification of the plate tectonics theory, chronicling of past climate
change in Cretaceous period; greenhouse era of 100 million years ago and
many other discoveries in earth science.
Although the current drilling program,
ODP, is scheduled to end in 2003, members of the international
scientific community, recognizing the great and continued importance of
the endeavor, have joined together in a concerted effort to plan and
implement IODP as a successor program.