Two different mission-specific platforms. Top: L/B Kayd, EXP 313. Bottom: Greatship Maya, EXP 325. (Credit: ECORD/IODP, public domain).

Since 2003, mission-specific platforms (MSPs) continue to offer the opportunity for scientists to access records from the deep sea by increasing the drilling capacity from academic vessels or commercial ships and platforms placed under contract. These MSPs are smaller in size than the ships JOIDES Resolution and Chikyū, which allows them to collect material from shallower water depths and ice-covered waters. However, as MSPs do not have the onboard research facilities that exist on the scientific drilling vessels, MSP expeditions will have an onshore component for collecting materials and doing some initial analyses on core material. The majority of the measurements are completed during a post-expedition onshore sampling session with the land-based expedition scientists at the Bremen Core Repository in Germany.

Learn more about mission-specific platforms from this article published in Oceanography (note that the article was published in 2019 – MSP missions still continue today (see the schedule)). Below are detailed examples of two MSPs used during prior expeditions.

Fugro Synergy

The offshore component of IODP Expedition 381 (Corinth Active Rift Development, October 22 – December 18, 2017) was carried out on the mission-specific platform Fugro Synergy. View the first video to hear from one of the co-chief scientists of the expedition explain the ship’s location and the expedition’s scientific objectives. The second video shows more of the drilling process and what happens when the core arrives on deck. The third video has additional information about this MSP and has drone footage for you to be able to view the ship while at sea.

Interested in seeing more of the drilling process? View this short video before watching the final video below with the visual overview of Fugro Synergy.

The Expedition work continues with the onshore scientists coming together at the Core Repository in Bremen, Germany, to photograph, describe, and sample the material. For Expedition 381, the onshore scientists gathered approximately one month later for one month of work (January 31 – February 28, 2018). This video is a quick walk-through of the “core flow”, the pathway of what happened to the core and the analyses that took place.

Liftboat Myrtle

For the offshore portion of IODP Expedition 364 (Chicxulub K-Pg Impact Crater, April 5 – May 31, 2016), the mission-specific platform Liftboat Myrtle was used as the drillship. One of the co-chief scientists was from the University of Texas at Austin, and a writer from UT News was able to join part of the Expedition and wrote a series of articles describing the research and its significance. Click on the arrow below to open a listing of these articles.

This video was recorded during the Expedition and shows images of L/B Myrtle and describes the coring process. Note how the core flow and laboratory spaces are different than what you viewed on the pages describing JOIDES Resolution and Chikyū, and even how this MSP is set up differently than Fugro Synergy.

As with all MSPs, there was a follow-up onshore component for Expedition 364 that took place at the Bremen Core Repository. Scientists gathered September 21 – October 15, 2016, to continue the data gathering from the core sections.