Deepwater Technology in the International Ocean Drilling Program
Authors: Moran K. 
Published: October 2008

The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) and its predecessor, the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), have completed over 30 years of scientific ocean drilling. In the early days of DSDP, drilling began in the deepest parts of the oceans, in water depths to which the oil industry is just now moving, 30 years later. ODP/DSDP technology developments have continued over the years with a special focus on high quality sampling tools and the development of seafloor observatories. One of the most successful tool developments is the advanced piston corer. This wireline tool can recover 10 m long samples and has been used successfully to recover high quality core samples in deep water (&gt;3000 m) to 300 meters below seafloor. Other deep water coring tools have been developed to sample sedimentary and igneous rocks. Complimenting the core sample tools, ODP has developed wireline-deployed tools that measure in situ physical properties, such as pressure and temperature. The seafloor observatories have been developed for deep water science applications. These observatories are installed into boreholes, sealed from the overlying ocean water, and left to collect a variety of physical data (temperature & pressure sensors, seismometers, pore fluid samples) as time series.

These ODP technologies can be used for deep water site investigations, shallow water flow assessments, and to establish fluid flow and pressure monitoring stations at deep water sites. These tools and techniques may be applied to deep water site investigations at reduced costs with high quality results.

Background

The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) and its predecessor, the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), have completed over 30 years of scientific ocean drilling. These two Programs have circumnavigated the globe many times, drilling in all regions of the global ocean (Fig. 1).

The Deep Sea Drilling Project officially began in 1968 when the drill ship, Glomar Challenger, sailed on its first scientific drilling expedition to the Gulf of Mexico and the Bermuda Rise. In addition to the major engineering feat of this first voyage - drilling in water depths greater than 5000 m and penetrating 700 m into the seafloor - the science successes were outstanding. Scientists recovered the oldest rocks ever found in the deep ocean and discovered deep water petroleum and salt dome cap rock. Yet scientific ocean drilling began even earlier than the Deep Sea Drilling Project. In 1961, the vessel, CUSS I, was chartered and drilled 200 m into the seafloor in 3,800 m of water off Guadeloupe Island. The recovery of basalt in this first ever deep sea borehole verified the composition of ocean crust Layer 2, and demonstrated that ocean drilling was indeed critical to the advancement of science.

Drilling during the early years of the Deep Sea Drilling Project took place in the deepest parts of the oceans, in water depths to which the oil industry is just now moving, 30 years later. In addition to achieving this deep water challenge, the Project developed sampling tools to recover high quality samples of deep sea sediment, sedimentary rock, and igneous rock.