The JOIDES Resolution has been a stalwart in the earth and ocean science community since 1984. Her retirement is now set for 2024, four years earlier than initially expected.

When the oil exploration drillship Sedco/ BP 471 was converted to a scientific drilling vessel in 1984, a new era in the study of our geological and climatic past was born. Since her first scientific expedition in the Gulf of Mexico in 1985, under the Ocean Drilling Programme (now the International Ocean Discovery Programme (IODP)), the JOIDES Resolution, or JR as she is often called, has taken scientists on hundreds of expeditions in areas such as the Antarctic Ocean, the waters around Costa Rica, the Mariana Arc, and the South China Sea.

“The JOIDES Resolution has a rich and important history of ocean discovery. Research conducted aboard the JOIDES Resolution made significant contributions to our collective understanding of marine geology and the dynamics of Earth’s crust,” says Dr Rick Spinrad, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator and Chartered Marine Scientist at the IMarEST. The core samples taken by the JR, which are collected from the sea floor up to 8.2km below the vessel, have helped answer myriad questions, including those about the Earth’s climate millions of years ago, how volcanoes form, and microbial life which thrives on the deep sea floor.

Although owned by Siem Offshore, the JR is operated by the JOIDES Resolution Science Operator (JRSO) at Texas A&M University. Funding for the JR comes from the IODP partner countries. The USA, via the National Science Foundation, has been the biggest contributor to the programme.

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Read the full story Scientific drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution approaches early retirement at On the Radar.