IODP

It started with the Deep Sea Drilling Program (DSDP), which was succeeded by the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP). ODP finished in 2003, and the next stage, the "Integrated Ocean Drilling Program" (IODP) commenced in 2004. The IODP takes ODP a stage further by using multiple platforms with range of capabilities allowing for drilling and sampling in new regions of the worlds oceans that have previously been inaccessible. As a result of the multiple platforms and increased range of activities, membership of IODP is more expensive than the ODP program. At present Australia is not involved in the IODP. It is one of MARGO's goals to see Australia become a member or part of a membership consortium of IODP.

Prior to this meeting we had advice from Dr Phil McFadden, Geoscience Australia who was also on the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy committee, and Dr David Falvey, ARC.

In attendance at the meeting with Dr Sharples:
Dr Neville Exon, ANU/MARGO
Professor Patrick DeDeckker, ANU/MARGO
Dr Graham Carr, CSIRO Exploration and Mining
Dr Marita Bradshaw, Geoscience Australia
Dr Helen Bostock, MARGO

A half hour presentation was given to Dr Sharples about Australia's history during ODP and the new IODP program and benefits to Australia. She was also given a copy of the Full Fathom Five book, the map of the ODP Legs around Australia and a copy of the IODP science Plan.

At the end of the presentation we discussed new funding mechanisms for Australia to join IODP. It has been recommended that we apply for an ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) Grant in April 2007, in a similar manner to how the Australian CERN membership and Gemini Optical Telescope are presently funded.

It has been recognised by Minister Bishop that there is a gap in funding for international scientific collaboration and there is presently a working group looking in to this that will report to the Prime Ministers Science Advisory Committee in December.

Attended by Professor Dietmar Muller, University of Sydney, who presented key examples of different types of margins from the Australian region.

The IODP is poised to consdier a new type of proposal, tht for a mission, which is an intellectually integrated and coordinated drilling strategy originating from the scientific commnity that:

Workshop participants reached consensus to develop a mission proposal addressing continental rifting and breakup globally that provisionally will target active rifting and breakup in the Gulf of California and Woodlark Basin, high magmatic margins (e.g. conjugate Norwegian-East Greenland and conjugate-less Western Australian) and the hyperextended conjugate margins of Iberia-Newfoundland and the South Atlantic. Spearheaded by John Hopper (Texas A&M University) , the mission proposal will be developed between now and an anticipated 1st April 2007 submission by a team of observational and modeling specialists working on mission component themes. Importantly, however, the mission proposal will not exclude individual proposals on any aspect of continental rifiting and breakup from being developed and submitted to the IODP by interested proponent groups.

The report on the workshop can be downloaded here and has been submitted to EOS.

The workshop was held prior to the Goldschmidt conference in Melbourne to get Australian researchers and several of our international colleagues together to discuss Australia's present situation and desire to join IODP.

A copy of the program and abstract volume can be downloaded along with summary notes from the talks and discussions during the workshop.

The workshop was a useful update on activities and infrastructure related to IODP and even if you were aware of how ODP operated we recommend that you read the notes, as there are some important differences to how IODP is being run and potential Australian involvement even if we are not successful at getting funding to join IODP through an Asian Consortium.

We would like to thank all our international colleagues that gave presentations and feedback during the workshop, and to Professor Janet Hergt for allowing us to hold the workshop at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne.

The aim of this contribution is to make a case for the ongoing participation of Australia in the exploration and understanding of the global oceans. It is relatively easy for scientists to make such an argument on scientific grounds alone, and some of the more important insights to our current understanding of the Earth provided by 35 years of ocean drilling are reviewed below.

Unfortunately, science does not operate in a Utopian vacuum, and it is incumbent upon those of us who wish to continue what we see as a fruitful and co-operative international relationship, to also make the case within the constraints and boundaries of the political and economic paradigms of the day. In accepting this challenge, we do not feel constrained to an economic argument alone, although one can easily be made. Our political leaders have clearly widened the budgetary boundaries to include matters of national interest and security, responsible participation in the global community, at least when it is in our national interest. Even educational and health imperatives, the current hot items on the political agenda, cannot and should not be excluded from the scope of our required justification. An understanding of ocean history and dynamics has direct implications for all of these sectors.

Below we argue that on any grounds, continued involvement in ocean drilling is of benefit to Australia. The only unresolved question is the best and most efficient way to fund this participation.

The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) came to an operational end in September 2003 after 20 years of deep ocean drilling on 110 cruises. Together with its predecessor, the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), the ODP has provided unparalleled insight into our understanding of Earth history, dynamics and has identified considerable untapped resources. The highlights of this intense period of ocean exploration have been well documented. In summary, they include "purely" scientific benefits such as a better understanding of the mechanics of plate subduction, to potentially applied benefits with direct economic potential, such as short and medium term climate prediction from high-resolution palaeoclimate records, improved mineral exploration models from study of mid-ocean ridge thermo- and hydrodynamics, and even more esoteric potential benefits such as energy from gas hydrates to the totally untapped pharmaceutical potential of the deep biosphere. With an export economy still based on primary production from mining and agriculture, the benefits of improved resource exploration models and more accurate prediction of drought extent and duration, must be obvious to all.

With the finalisation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Australia will potentially have rights and responsibilities over an area as large 14.8 M sq km spanning equatorial to polar latitudes. This poorly surveyed and little understood region contains >90% of Australia's hydrocarbon reserves and fisheries - which account for over $2 billion of GDP.

The keys to understanding Australia's marine biodiversity and its evolution are contained in the oceanography and substrate geology of the EEZ. To this end regional marine planning will continue to depend critically on geoscience, oceanography and biological input, both for the characterization of the seabed environment, and for understanding the geologic, climatic, and oceanographic processes that have shaped our marine jurisdiction. Mainly through the activities of the ODP, Australian marine scientists know the types of environments in which these resources exist, but the detailed structure and composition of the marine territory around Australia, tantalisingly, remains virtually unknown. A number of targets identified around Australia are summarised below:

"Over a broad range of temperatures and pressures, where sediments and rock provide apparently meagre life-sustaining resources, vast microbial populations may live. Microbes that characterize these extreme environments are now broadly recognized as a potential source of new bio-materials and are the basis of ideas for new biotechnical applications, such as water treatment and microbially enhanced oil recovery. Little is known about the architecture and dynamics of the vast sub-seafloor plumbing system, where flowing water alters rock, influences the chemical composition of the ocean, lubricates seismically active faults, concentrates economic mineral deposits and may teem with as yet undiscovered life."

Unique fluid-flow environments such as the brines recently encountered in the Great Australian Bight during ODP Leg 182, and hydrothermal brines recovered during Leg 193 in the Manus Basin north of New Guinea provide an opportunity to study microbial communities evolving in isolation in pore waters chemically distinct from other deep microbial habitats. Carbonate platforms such as the Marion Plateau, off Queensland, probably contain similar unique microbial ecosystems; "natural laboratories" in which the processes of evolution can studied due to their long-term isolation. In addition to potential biotechnology applications, many of these microbes probably play a role in mineral formation, and understanding their biology will have direct application to mineral formation and exploration, and to issues of sustainable use of these resources. Similarly, little is known about the connections between sub-seabed fluid reservoirs and terrestrial aquifers; the microbial communities may provide biological tracers for studying the hydrology of Australian subsurface water resources.

The location, characterisation and measurement of marine methane hydrates are important challenges for the future energy needs of Australia. The potential volume of frozen methane locked up in gas hydrates in marine sediments has only recently been revealed. Marine gas hydrates are estimated to contain more energy than all other hydrocarbon sources combined. This methane represent a major pool of carbon that is coupled to the ocean-atmosphere carbon cycle, and as a well-known greenhouse gas, has potential to catastrophically devastate surface climate norms if destabilised. Such a scenario probably happened in the past, during the end-Permian extinction. Apart from the global impact, there is a direct threat to Australia along the submarine landslide-prone parts of our margin.

Several sedimentary basins, such as Fairway Basin on Lord Howe Rise in the Australian region may be significant methane hydrate reservoirs. Several Australian research projects are underway to survey the potential distribution on methane hydrates in our region, but the hydrates themselves can only be recovered by ocean drilling.

"Ocean sediments provide a unique record of Earth's climate fluctuations and permit detection of climate signals on four time scales: tectonic (longer than about 0.5 m.y.); orbital (20 kyr to 400 kyr); oceanic (hundreds to a few thousand years); and anthropogenic (seasonal to century). Studies of drill cores indicate that climate changes have been both gradual and abrupt. Yet to be fully explored, however, is what initiates these changes, how they are propagated, what circumstances amplify or reduce the climatic effects of large and small events and what processes actually effect change in Earth's environment. "

A number of sedimentary basins within Australian and Australian-sector Antarctic waters contain high-resolution records of Holocene and Pleistocene climates.

Antarctic Shelf basin drift deposits record Holocene Antarctic Bottom Water flow variations; the Gulf of Carpentaria and Bass Strait have alternated between marine and lacustrine deposition, and therefore contain high-resolution records of glacial climate as well as sea-level tie points; the Fly River Delta off Papua New Guinea will contains records of variations in fluvial sediment supply and tropical rainfall, a vital source of information for understanding monsoon variability and allowing short-term prediction of climate variability. All feed directly into long term climate prediction in and around Australia.

Coral records from Australian reefs currently provide annual-resolution but discontinuous records of the ocean history of our region, but the holy grail of long, continuous and geographically spread archives has yet to be recovered. Locations of these are known, but many such as low-stand corals like those recovered at Tahiti and Barbados, are not easily accessible. Recovering records that preserve this time scale of variability is required for predicting El Niño/La Niña cycles, a goal of direct economic relevance to Australia. Just as meteorologists would not try to forecast weather based on records from a single station made over a few days, longer-term forecasting requires a suitable length and spread of information.

Australia and its surrounds contain an abundance of such information: Mid-to-high-latitude inter-annual phenomena such as the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave (ACW) can be reconstructed from high-resolution sections in shelf basins and coastal lakes and fjords around Antarctica; data from the Scott Plateau off the Northwest Shelf contain a records of the Neogene evolution of the Indonesian Throughflow, a key component of the balance of global ocean circulation.

Petroleum exploration in and around the Australian continental margin far from complete, with continental slope and rise regions barely looked at. A number of targets around Australia may provide unique records of Cretaceous black shale deposition, including expanded Palaeogene sections on South Tasman Rise, Scott Plateau, and along the Southern margin. Understanding the origin of such deposits will not only provide insights into past ocean dynamics and carbon cycling, but will feed directly into petroleum formation and provide vital information about migration pathways.

"The vast amount of energy stored within the Earth is regularly brought to our attention by transient and often destructive events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. These events punctuate, and are part of, the solid Earth cycle, which involves the creation and aging of oceanic crust, its recycling at subduction zones and the formation and evolution of continents. The rates of mass and energy transfer from the mantle to the crust and back again are not constant through time. The causes of these variations and their influences on the global environment are poorly understood."

In Australia, a number of nationally important resource and hazard issues fall into this category. The southern and eastern margins are ideal settings for the study of continent-ocean crustal transition and the role they play in the evolution of passive continental margins, the main global petroleum setting. Australian continental margin targets are also ideally suited to address questions of sediment supply and fate, and margin architecture in response to sea-level fluctuations. In addition to those mentioned above, examples include the carbonate margins of the Northwest Shelf. Volcanic activity resulting in hydrothermal fluxes in areas such as Manus Basin near New Guinea have allowed an insight to geochemical exchanges between the sea floor and the ocean, but the potential for these to produce renewable mineral resources or geothermal energy for Australia are totally unknown. Finally, understanding the dynamics of sediment transport on continental margins, and in particular the vulnerability of sediments to destabilisation by seismic activity (and the contribution of subsurface methane hydrates to slope instabilities) , is key to assessing tsunami risks.

Despite these achievements, the DSDP and ODP have had technological and operational limitations which mean there is still a lot to learn. The limitations have included:

Sadly, Australia does not currently have either the technology or the range of trained scientists to address the opportunities that are known to exist. Therefore the options are simple:

Australia has participated in the ODP through the auspices of the Pacific Rim consortium (PacRim) comprising Canada, Chinese Taipei and South Korea, in addition to ourselves. The financial contribution for our membership in ODP has been around $US1.4 million per year, contributed by Geoscience Australia, ARC LIEF grants, and a consortium of member Australian Universities.

Analysis of the direct costs of our past involvement in the ODP indicates a real return on investment (see earlier section), with a cost benefit multiplier of approximately 9.3.

Overall, this investment probably represents around 1 percent of the total cost of the ODP over the 15 years of our involvement. In order to really reap the benefits, the expertise and contacts gained must now be deployed in and around Australia for the benefit of Australia.

In return for this contribution, Australian scientists have participated as shipboard scientists, have been involved in scientific proposals and have played a role in the advisory and planning committees. Over 60 Australian scientists have been exposed to shipboard training and the international scientific networking that goes hand in hand. These scientists have been involved in the generation of new knowledge for minerals and petroleum exploration, in the discovery of marine gas hydrates and the deep biosphere, and in unravelling the history and natural variability of global climates, all significant intellectual contributions. Our scientists have had access to equipment and research facilities, including personnel, on a scale and diversity that was and is simply not available through any other means.

As a result, Australian marine scientists have been able to identify a number of areas and types of marine resources in and around our continent and territories. They are there.

The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program represents the next phase of scientific ocean exploration. The deployment of multiple drilling platforms and increased shore-based support will overcome the limitations of the ODP and will accelerate ocean exploration and utilisation.

The IODP will be a multi-platform program based on: a riser vessel capable of drilling more than 4km below the sea floor, a non-riser ship sponsored by the United States, additional drilling platforms for shallow water and ice-covered regions, and enhanced shore-based laboratories

These enhanced capabilities will allow IODP scientists to drill deeper into the crust, achieve better sample recovery in all environments and rock types and install downhole laboratories for short- and long-term experiments. It will be possible to sample the deepest sediment sequences, the deepest oceanic crust, and - a possible first - material from Earth's hot mantle.

Internationally, IODP will provide state-of-the-art ships and shore facilities, enable exploration in previously inaccessible areas, accelerate research with new technologies and enhance scientific co-operation.

The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program will be a multinational partnership similar to the predecessor ODP, to which the United States and Japan have already committed. In addition to a new vessel of similar size and capabilities to the JOIDES Resolution, the IODP will also have a much larger drilling ship. The new ship, now undergoing sea trails, was constructed in and by Japan. It will add deeper drilling capabilities, with a 10-12 km long drill string and the ability to drill greater than 4 km beneath the sea floor. Significantly, the new ship will be riser-equipped, which will allow the control of any oil or gas flows encountered while drilling. The riser will open up research opportunities in basins currently off-limits to the riserless Resolution because of safety and pollution concerns. Many such basins are in areas key to understanding the evolution of Australia's continental margins, and are of relevance to oil and gas exploration.

The IODP will include a variety of smaller drilling platforms for core recovery in shallow-water environments such as coral reefs and other continental shelf settings (such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Northwest Shelf), and in ice-covered areas such as some of the shelf basins around Antarctica (many of which lie adjacent to the Australian Antarctic Territory).

The current proposal for full "membership" of the IODP outside the Japan-USA contribution, is estimated to be about $US5 million per year. Whilst this is a significant increase over the ODP contribution, it still represents less than 1% of the total costs.

The Australian contribution to the ODP has been provided by Geoscience Australia, annual ARC LEIF grant, and funds collected from a continually varying group of Australian universities. Geoscience Australia's contribution has been vital to Australia's ongoing participation in the ODP and in successes to date, and without GA's commitment, Australia would not have been able to maintain participation. Their contribution has been justified by their responsibility for Australia's marine resources. We argue that now however, Australian marine science opportunities are really more strategic and national in scope and importance, to continue to rely on the more targeted mandate of GA.

The ARC has been enormously supportive of Australian participation in the ODP and this is gratefully acknowledged. However, the LEIF mechanism, mainly aimed at acquiring one-off items of large equipment and infrastructure through competitive application, is really not an appropriate mechanism for supporting a long-term involvement in international research initiative. It is akin to asking the Australian Defence Forces and Telstra to compete competitively for government funding with only one winner. Undertakings of national interest are provided for, to a greater or lesser extent, with guaranteed funding.

Finally we come to the university contributions, where a more certain funding model needs to be designed (along the lines, for example of the US NSF-funded "USSAC" support arm of IODP). Originally university support was provided directly from the AVCC, but over the years this has slipped further and further down the chain of command, and in many cases resides at a departmental or individual level, where federal government funding cuts, competing demands and drifting student populations have virtually ensured a declining pool. The human resource endeavour that is annually devoted to collecting the university contribution is both enormous and wasteful, and by no means ensures success.

No one would argue that public funding should not be accountable, but overall, it is enormously wasteful of a declining human resource, to continue funding by such a complicated and uncertain method. Projects of national importance such as the exploration and understanding of our ocean territory must be funded from a central pool with a certainty of commitment.

The university sector, the principal training ground for professional scientists in Australia, is currently funded mainly through a model that relies on "market forces". A central notion of this type of economic driver, is that the market has the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions. The unfortunate paradox is that it is also the universities that provide the required level of knowledge and training.. Sadly, tertiary student enrolments in non-medical sciences have been falling for almost a decade and, because of the link between student numbers and university funding, scientific expertise has also been declining alarmingly. We are now in the situation where a vast, untapped store of potential economic wealth, among other things, is known to exist in and beneath our waters, and we about to be granted responsibility by the international community for a huge additional area of ocean, we know that this zone is important for our national benefit both economically and for security but we will not have the trained scientists, the technology, or the specific knowledge to address these issues.

Australian marine science is clearly in the national interest. There is energy, bio- and geo-resource potential, there are security implications, and there is even the government desire to be seen as a world-leading first world nation. There is the potential to properly investigate global warming scenarios and green house gas emission, and to plan with some certainty for the appropriate use of water and other limited terrestrial resources. There is even the opportunity to do it more-or-less on-the-cheap, because when we have to do it ourselves, in full, in 10 or 20 years time, it will cost a lot more, and the only alternative will be to sell the raw potential to someone else. Australian involvement in the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program will be good economics, good science and even good politics.

It will open the gate to new ways of finding valuable minerals, to exploring massive frozen methane reserves, to bioprospecting of heat-loving bacteria and to export contracts for Australian drilling and research technology.

Our scientists will continue to gain from international networks, knowledge and technology transfer, and to access to top training and research facilities for students and researchers.

Australia's national interest is also served as researchers refine predictions for climate change, test methods for monitoring earthquakes and tsunamis, and gather baseline data to help us manage our marine and coastal environment.

Over the last hundred years Australia has witnessed not only the degradation brought about by unknowing and uneducated use, or even overuse, of our land-based natural resources, but the clear adverse economic impact of this activity. The current remediation bill runs in the hundreds of millions of dollars. It would be a shame to inflict the same fate on our national marine resources for the want of a relatively minor investment.

17. REFERENCES
All quotes taken from the IODP Science Plan - www.iodp.org/pdf/IODP_Init_Sci_Plan.final.pdf

National Strategic Plan for the Geosciences, Australian Academy of Science 2003, http://www.science.org.au/natcoms/earth-strategic.pdf
see article by Simon Marginson in Online Opinion, September 24, 2003.