Click here to access the web version or the PDF version ( ~2 MB).
The drill bit is currently rotating under the ICDP flag in the Alps in Northern Italy and in Western Amazonia in Brazil. Furthermore, ICDP-funded drilling projects in South Africa (Bushveld BVDP) and Antarctica (SWAIS 2C) are almost ready to kick off drilling operations, and there are also activities to increase the ICDP membership, which we look forward to report on soon.
In the second half of this year three in-presence ICDP workshops (ADD-ON in Ethiopia, FACET in New Zealand, and MEME in Italy) were attended in total by 132 scientists from more than 15 countries, and one more workshop is scheduled for early December in Germany (EIFEL). ICDP workshops are a key element in developing proposals and pave the road to future drilling projects. In this context it is noteworthy that these workshops were attended by so many participants from various countries including many early-career researchers. We look forward to exciting drilling proposals that emerge from these workshops and wish the greatest possible success to all science teams involved in current and upcoming activities!
Keep the drill bit rotating!
Marco (Bohnhoff) - ICDP Executive Director
After successful drilling of the first DIVE (Drilling the Ivrea-Verbano zonE) borehole last year, scientists have initiated drilling the second DIVE borehole at Megolo (Italy). The Ivrea-Verbano Zone provides a truly unique natural laboratory to fundamentally advance our understanding of the continental lower crust and the crust–mantle transition zone (the "Moho"). Research in the Ivrea-Verbano Zone includes a combination of different geoscientific approaches applying scientific drilling.
The Trans–Amazon Drilling Project (TADP) is currently drilling its first borehole in the Acre region in western Brazil, which will be complemented by a second one in eastern Brazil. At both sites it is planned to truncate and sample the entire Cenozoic into the underlying diabase sequence. 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 drilling depth as of November 1st is 920 meters, i.e., almost half of the projected total depth has been completed!
ICDP training actions
ICDP invites scientists envisioning to develop scientific drilling projects to apply for the 'ICDP Training Course on Continental Scientific Drilling' to be held from May 12-17, 2024 at the Geocenter KTB in Windischeschenbach (Germany). The training course will address all relevant aspects of continental scientific drilling, including drilling and coring techniques, sample types and sampling methods, data and sample management, downhole logging and testing, seismic monitoring, outreach, and project planning and management. The training course is especially recommended for early-career researchers, including master students, doctorate students and post-docs. Deadline for application is January 1st, 2024 to be submitted to icdp-outreach@gfz.de. Applications should include a letter of interest, CV, and at least two letters of support.
Speaking
of training courses: At the ICDP conference in summer 2023
participants expressed interest in various topic-specific training
courses, including
(A)
Borehole data interpretation (logging + borehole
seismology + strainmeter)
(B)
Integrated Scientific Drilling and Project
management course for ECRs
(C) Geomicrobiology
We take these suggestions serious and would like to prioritize them, so please let us know which of these training courses you are most interested in by simply replying to this e-mail with the corresponding letter (A), (B), or (C) in the header.
ICDP
at international conferences
We
are looking forward to welcome you at the upcoming AGU Fall Meeting
in San Francisco (December 11-15) to discuss ICDP-related topics at
the Scientific Drilling booth # 1031/1033/1130/1132 (Monday-Thursday)
and during the joint
ICDP-CSD
Facilities Town Hall meeting
.
The Town Hall meeting will be held on Monday, December 11, 7:00 pm at
the InterContinental San Francisco Hotel, just one block away from
the AGU at Moscone Center. The Town Hall Meeting will provide an
opportunity to meet and network with representatives and scientists
from ICDP and CSD.
The abstract submission deadline for the EGU General Assembly (April 14-19 in Vienna, Austria) is Wednesday, 10 January, 13:00 CET. Please consider to submit your latest results as we would like to continue this year's success with 48 contributions to the session "Achievements and perspectives in scientific ocean and continental drilling" , jointly organized by ICDP and IODP.
Proposal
calls
We kindly remind you about the deadline for the
submission of ICDP proposals, which, as always,
is on January 15th. ICDP is very much looking forward to receiving
exciting pre- workshop-, and full proposals.
January 15th is also the deadline for submitting MagellanPlus proposals . The joint ECORD/ICDP MagellanPlus Workshop Series Program aims to foster the development of new IODP3/ICDP drilling projects, and invites scientists from ECORD/ICDP member countries to propose workshops for the elaboration of compelling drilling proposals.
