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The future of scientific drilling in Antarctic waters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2004

Ian W.D. Dalziel
Affiliation:
Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin
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Over the past twenty years, nine legs of the Ocean Drilling Programme (ODP) and its predecessor the Deep Sea Drilling Project have been conducted at high southern latitudes (>45°S). Only four have taken place near the margins of the Antarctic continent (>60°S), the last off the Amery Ice Shelf in 1988. At present, JOIDES Resolution is drilling on the Chile Rise-Chile Trench triple junction (46°S), but she will return to lower latitudes at the end of this leg (#141). The Planning Committee of ODP has already approved a schedule that precludes a return to the Antarctic prior to the 1994–95 austral summer at the earliest. Few proposals for Antarctic drilling have even been submitted in recent years; none has received high ranking. This should be a matter of considerable concern to the Antarctic earth sciences community. The JOIDES Resolution is an international asset with a unique sampling capability but the lifetime of the ODP may not extend beyond 1998.

Type
Guest editorial
Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 1992