[meteorite-list] A&M Winning Bidder For Integrated Ocean Drilling Program

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:19 2004
Message-ID: <200310011750.KAA14906_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.theeagle.com/aandmnews/100103iodp.htm

A&M winning bidder for Integrated Ocean Drilling Program
By DAVID GREBE
The Eagle (Texas)
October 1, 2003

A record-breaking infusion of research money will flow to Texas A&M with the
announcement Tuesday that the university's team is the winning bidder for
the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program.

The new IODP replaces the 20-year Ocean Drilling Program, in which A&M also
played a key management role. The 10-year IODP contract will guide a
research effort on the ocean floor to learn about earth's environment and
history.

"If you just look at the scale of the resources involved, it's the largest
earth-science research project on this planet," said Jeff Fox, director of
the Ocean Drilling Program at A&M.

It's also the largest research contract in the university's history,
expected to bring in $450 million over 10 years. Fox said that number could
grow as the project gets under way.

The old contract awarded A&M about $38 million annually. The money for the
project comes from the National Science Foundation, which announced the new
contract Tuesday.

"We have every confidence that they will be able to meet the increased
challenges of the IODP," Bruce Malfait, head of the Marine Geosciences
Section of the National Science Foundation, said in a statement.

The total IODP contract of $626 million will be shared with A&M's partners,
including Columbia University and Joint Oceanographic Institutions Inc.

"This is really good news," said David Prior, A&M's executive vice president
and provost. "Many scientists from all over the world will come to Texas A&M
both to plan drilling activity and do post-cruise scientific analysis."

The announcement represents a continuation of A&M's role in ocean drilling;
the original 20-year contract for the Ocean Drilling Program expired
Tuesday. About 145 employees now working on the project will stay on, and
their ranks will grow by several new researchers, Fox said.

The project is an effort to help science gain a better understanding of what
has changed over time in the deep ocean and beneath the ocean floor. The
first Ocean Drilling Program led to insights about climate change, microbes,
gas hydrates and natural hazards, researchers say, and also revealed much
about the earth's history.

"The record of the earth's history is written in the sediments of the sea
floor [more] than in any other place on our planet," Fox said.

Ocean drilling also can reveal evidence of disastrous events that shaped the
earth.

"An asteroid strike 65 million years ago is recorded on the sea floor -
something that eliminated 75 percent of the flora and fauna on the planet,
including the dinosaurs," Fox said.

A&M and its partner institutions are now responsible for a wide array of
activities related to the research project, including drill-ship operations,
collecting seafloor sediments and crustal rock, analyzing and storing
samples, and science education and outreach.

The A&M campus is one of several places where core samples taken from the
seabed will be stored and analyzed.

Also taking part in the effort is a consortium known as the Joint
Oceanographic Institutes, which includes 18 organizations conducting
research into ocean sciences.

The contract's renewal reflected both the quality of work completed under
the old program and the appeal of new ideas presented by A&M and its
partners, Prior said.

American institutions are not alone in the effort to understand the ocean
floor. The Japanese are working with IODP and are spending $500 million to
build a new ship capable of analyzing the seabed.

The Ocean Drilling Program's current ship also will be renovated at a cost
of $100 million.

Next summer, the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the northeast Pacific Ocean will be
the first place the scientists will study under IODP, examining fluids in
the ocean's crust.

* David Grebe's e-mail address is dgrebe_at_theeagle.com.
Received on Wed 01 Oct 2003 01:50:20 PM PDT