U.S. Science Support Program, IODP
The dynamic Earth, its climate and environment, and all life that emerged and evolved on this planet are linked in myriad ways. To investigate how the interconnected Earth system works and to provide the ground truth needed to test Earth models, scientists rely upon highly specialized ocean drilling platforms equipped to collect continuous cores of sediment and rock and samples of fluids and microbes from beneath the seafloor, as well as deploy state-of the-art instruments and long-term observatories within subseafloor boreholes.