Major Scientific Achievements of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program

This chapter presents scientific and programmatic highlights of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), including selected results during the IODP time period (2003–2013) that stemmed from drilling during the final years of the previous Ocean Drilling Program (ODP). The chapter is organized by the main themes and initiatives of the IODP Initial Science Plan (ISP), and therefore also provides an initial assessment of IODP performance in meeting the goals of the ISP. This assessment must be considered preliminary in that many of the later IODP expeditions have yet to produce their definitive results. Nevertheless, it is clear that IODP results have made significant contributions in the ISP objectives related to past greenhouse climates, rapid climate change and sea level history in the current icehouse world, subseafloor hydrogeology and biosphere, subduction zone seismogenesis, and accretion of oceanic crust formed at slow and fast spreading rates