Ocean Drilling Research: An Arctic Perspective (1999)

Summary: The organizers of the 1999 Conference on the Scientific Objectives of Ocean Drilling in the 21st Century requested input from the scientific community about the possible objectives, importance, and necessity of a continued drilling program. This report contains comments from the Polar Research Board to provide an arctic perspective. The Polar Research Board believes that the continuation of an organized international program of scientific drilling is valuable because it will continue to provide important insights about Earth's past, present, and future. If such a program is continued, we recommend that it include drill sites in the Arctic Ocean. These would help us understand the origin, age, and history of the only ocean not included in previous drilling programs and fill significant gaps in our knowledge of Earth's ocean basins. Researchers drilling at Arctic Ocean sites will face challenging conditions, but recent technological developments, the considerable experience gained in shallow coring in the Arctic, and advances that are likely in the next few years can provide solutions to many of these problems if there is an international commitment to the task.