Closeout of JOIDES Resolution IODP Expedition Obligations and Operation of an Instrumented Gulf Coast Repository

This award will enable Texas A&M University (TAMU) to close out all post-expedition International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) obligations that will not be completed by the end of the current award to the JOIDES Resolution Science Operator (JRSO). Obligations include post-expedition editorial and science meetings, programmatic XRF scanning, sampling parties, data migration, legacy documentation, property disposition, and publications.

Publication obligations also include four expeditions for the two other IODP operators, whose reports the JRSO has published during IODP. In addition, TAMU will continue operation of the Gulf Coast Repository (GCR) core collection (>150 km of core) with significantly enhanced analytical capabilities, which will be achieved by relocating instrumentation from the JOIDES Resolution (JR) to laboratories currently being renovated in the GCR.

The intellectual merit is that this project will provide critical access to cores, data, and related services to U.S. and international scientific communities to pursue the objectives outlined in the Framework during a transitional period when there will not be a dedicated U.S. riserless vessel. The principal broader impact is the relocation of laboratory instrumentation from the JR that will allow the GCR to serve as a training and outreach facility for the U.S. scientific drilling community.

In particular, the GCR will provide an environment for training, education, and outreach activities similar to the JR’s shipboard laboratories. The instrumented GCR will have the benefit of broadening access to cohorts that were rarely part of the shipboard party, including non-R1 institutions and 2-yr colleges.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.