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After a two-year delay ICDP celebrated ICDP's 25+2 anniversary in July with the strategy conference "ICDP in the Second Quarter of its First Century". 139 participants from 23 countries attended the meeting – from early-career dynamos to acknowledged experts – discussing the future scientific and programmatic orientation of ICDP. Regrettably, we were not able to invite all of you, but we will keep you all informed about the results of the conference and the next steps in more detail soon. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who attended the conference for the substantial input. The presentations and discussions were truly inspiring and will help shape the future of ICDP.
On the operational side, ICDP-sponsored drilling in Brazil (TADP) started in June and drilling projects in South Africa (Bushveld), Italy (DIVE) and Antarctica (SWAIS-2C) cast their shadows ahead. We had a successful workshop in Malawi in May (REEDRILL) and four in-presence workshops (ADD-ON in Ethiopa, FACET in New Zealand, MEME in Italy, and EIFEL in Germany) and one virtual workshop (GRIND-CRY) to come in the second half of this year. I look forward to the drilling proposals that emerge from these workshops and wish the best possible success to all involved in ICDP activities.
Keep the drill bit rotating!
Best regards, Marco Bohnhoff (ICDP Executive Director)
The IV. International Conference of Continental Scientific Drilling "ICDP in the Second Quarter of its First Century" was convened at the German Research Center for Geosciences GFZ in Potsdam, Germany, July 21-23. 139 invited attendees from 23 countries took part in representing the entire range of Earth science disciplines and career stages, including PIs of completed, ongoing and future ICDP drilling projects, members of ICDP panels, representatives from partner organizations and funding agencies, as well as 30 international early-career researchers. Highlights of the past years were presented and the future scientific and programmatic orientation of ICDP was discussed.
The conference program was divided into nine sessions with a mixture of contributions on the four core research themes of the ICDP (geodynamics, geohazards, georesources, environmental change) with outlines of achievements and short presentations on new plans and projects, as well as five 'cross-topics' on the future organizational direction of the ICDP, funding of major drilling projects, organization of operational support, major new research initiatives related to ICDP, and outreach activities with a focus on early career researchers.
The conference aimed to highlight achievements of the past years and to discuss the scientific outlook and the organization of our program, which included (1) actions to implement the objectives defined in the ICDP Science Plan 2020-2030, (2) strengthening and expanding ties among member countries and partner organizations, and (3) initiating new measures for a better integration and involvement of early-career researchers in ICDP.
At this time, the recommendations of the conference discussions are still being compiled, and key suggestions will be brought up at forthcoming ICDP board meetings. We will keep you in the loop about further steps via ICDP newsletters, Town Hall meetings at AGU and EGU, and ICDP Social Media.
The Trans-Amazon Drilling Project (TADP) started drilling the first of two boreholes in June this year. The overarching goals of TADP are to document the evolution of biodiversity of the Amazon forest across most of its entire reach throughout its entire history, and to determine how the evolution of the physical environment has shaped the generation, distribution, and preservation of neotropical biodiversity. The current drilling depth is more than 660 meters, i.e. more than 25% of the borehole has already been completed. TADPs outreach is impressive and the project receives a lot of positive coverage in the Brazilian media.
