About

The expedition is conducted by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) as part of the International Ocean Discovery Program.

ECORD, the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling, is a management structure of 15 members (14 European countries and Canada) for scientific ocean drilling as part of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) “Exploring the Earth under the sea” and previously the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program – IODP from 2003 to 2013.

Since the start of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) in 2003, the ambitious expansion of scientific exploration beneath the oceans has been made possible by the increased drilling capability provided by multiple platform operations. The IODP Platform Provider in Europe is the ECORD Science Operator (ESO). ESO conducts mission-specific platform (MSP) expeditions for the IODP.

IODP is an international marine research program supported by currently 21 countries, which explores Earth’s history and structure recorded in seafloor sediments and rocks, and monitors sub-seafloor environments. Using multiple platforms – a feature unique to IODP – scientists sample the sub-seafloor of the world’s oceans to study environmental change, marine processes and their effects, the deep biosphere and solid Earth cycles and dynamics.