Southampton scientist Dr Roz Coggon leads 30-year vision for international scientific ocean drilling
Scientific ocean drilling is one of the world’s most enduring international scientific collaborations and has now been running for more than 50 years, through the legendary voyages of the Glomar Challenger in the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), the Ocean Drilling Program and the ongoing International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) that uses the drill-ships JOIDES Resolution and Chikyu as well as other specialist platforms. Ocean drilling has recovered critical evidence to prove plate tectonics, essential records of past climate, sea-level fluctuations and the stabilities of icesheets and monsoons, and explored the thermal and chemical limits of life on our planet. The University of Southampton has a proud record of engagement and leadership in all aspects of scientific ocean drilling. In the past, science efforts have been guided by 10-year plans (e.g., 2013-2023 Illuminating Earth) but the large community of Earth and environmental scientists involved in ocean drilling has developed a 30 year framework to 2050 “Exploring Earth by Scientific Ocean Drilling”. Southampton Royal Society University Research Fellow Dr Roz Coggon, based in the School of Ocean & Earth Science, is Co-Editor of this formidable science plan that has been formulated following a series of international community horizon-scanning meetings but mostly pulled together virtually during the Covid-pandemic lockdown.
SMMI Director Professor Damon Teagle says, “This is a remarkable achievement by Dr Coggon, her Co-Editor Anthony Koppers (Oregon State) and their team, to write this visionary 30 year guiding plan. Scientific ocean drilling currently has an annual budget of >$130 million per year and more than a billion dollars of floating assets (ships!) – it is not often that any researcher gets to foresee future investments on the scale.”
For more information on Dr Coggon’s career to date and her engagements in scientific ocean drilling visit the downloadable file.