6.7 Pulling Together the Data
Cross-Disciplinary Conversations
Life on board the JOIDES Resolution was busy, with each laboratory team focused on its own specialty. However the real power of ocean drilling science came when the scientific specialties were combined. To make this happen, scientists held daily cross-over meetings, where paleontologists, microbiologists, sedimentologists, petrologists, paleomagnetists and physical properties specialists shared their data. These regular meet-ups ensured that observations across disciplines were discussed and allowed teams to refine questions as drilling continued.
Sharing and Shaping Science
Each expedition’s Onboard Outreach Officers offered a window into the scientific process, making it possible to explore the ship through live, virtual sessions. These online virtual tours connected schools, universities, and science enthusiasts across the world with the drilling operations, scientific laboratories, and the ship’s captain and crew. Scientists shared their experiences working in the laboratories and their daily lives during their two months at sea. The Outreach Officer position is detailed in the Essential Stories of Scientific Ocean Drilling chapter.
At the end of every expedition, the science party produced Initial Reports, a first summary of the results to be published as soon as everyone leaves the ship. These reports provided the broader scientific community with an immediate snapshot of what was discovered, while more detailed analyses were still to come.
A few months later, the scientists reunited on land for a post-expedition sampling and editorial meeting at one of three global core repositories. The science party re-examined cores and collected small portions of the core to bring back to their labs for further analyses. Scientists also reviewed all of the data collected and began to shape the big-picture story.
This research leads to the publication of the expedition’s Proceedings, a comprehensive record of methods, data, and interpretations. The Initial Reports and Proceedings from Glomar Challenger and JOIDES Resolution expeditions are openly available through the Zenodo IODP Community archive. IODP in the News contains stories that made headlines from the last decade of expeditions.
Building on the voyage
Importantly, the story doesn’t end there. Beyond the Proceedings, research continues for years. Scientists review the data, examine their samples in greater detail, and publish journal articles that expand on the expedition’s original findings. Every measurement, every fossil identification, every magnetic reversal is directed toward a single, central goal: to anchor the expedition’s data to Earth’s history. By knowing when sediments were deposited or when rocks formed, altered, or disrupted, scientists can reconstruct the sequence of events—allowing the JOIDES Resolution or any other scientific drillship to transform seafloor cores into a story of Earth’s past.
Even the work of the expedition scientists is not the end of the story! The cores themselves continue to provide new opportunities for discovery. Archived core samples and data remain available for future researchers. New tools and techniques can be applied to these materials, allowing scientists to ask fresh questions, sometimes decades after the cores were first drilled. The next chapter will explore how these repositories work and why they are such a valuable legacy of scientific ocean drilling.
