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38 Launching into Chapter 5: Drilling at Sea

Three people wearing red coveralls and safety gear working with pipe
Siem personnel guiding the threads to connect the pipes. (Credit: Sarah Kachovich, IODP JRSO,  MerlinOne photo archive, CC BY 4.0)

 

This page serves as a guide to help you apply the technical knowledge presented in this chapter as it relates to drilling activities carried out by the drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution.

To begin, drilling safely into the ocean floor requires a specialized vessel—a challenge met by the JOIDES Resolution. Originally an oil drilling ship, the JR was retrofitted with the necessary machinery and equipment to support scientific ocean drilling.

Scientific ocean drilling focuses on collecting real-time data and seafloor specimens through coring and downhole measurements. The first two sections of this chapter, Coring Equipment and Tools and The Coring Process, introduce the technical terminology and essential knowledge needed to understand the tools used for coring and the general coring process. Keep in mind that all coring-related equipment was located on or around the ship’s rig floor. To enhance your understanding, be sure to explore the videos and photos provided, as visuals make these concepts much easier to grasp.

two people standing over and looking down at a metal circular object, referred to as drill bit.
Driller and Tool pusher looking at a drill bit on the rig floor (Credit: Tessa Peixoto) ( For more about the tool pusher’s job, see the SciOD Spotlight  in The Coring Process section of this chapter.)

 

The next section, Core on Deck: Examples, showcases images of cores retrieved from different expeditions. Additionally, we encourage you to explore the LIMS website, where expedition data and images are publicly available (as of 2025). This centralized online database allows anyone to access detailed records of the ship’s research activities.

Hard rock samples are laid out on a table in plastic tubes.
Hard rock samples laid out on plastic liners before being cut in half (Credit: Tessa Peixoto)

 

The next section, Reentry Systems: Tools for Returning to Boreholes, covers two essential tools designed to facilitate reentry into existing boreholes after drilling has stopped.

 

Stack of large metal funnels
Tools for reentry into boreholes: free-fall funnels and reentry cones stored on a JOIDES Resolution deck (Credit: Tessa Peixoto)

 

The final two sections, Downhole Logging and CORKs focus on methods for collecting real-time data from within the borehole—separate from core sampling. While coring provides physical samples of the seafloor, downhole measurements offer continuous data that help build a more comprehensive understanding of subsurface conditions.

 

a collection or pile of metal sticks
A pile of different logging tools, most are reserve or back up tools for down hole measurements (Credit: Tessa Peixoto)

 

This diagram shows the location of key components of the drilling and data collection processes on JOIDES Resolution. 

 

schematic of JOIDES Resolution with a drill string deployed. Many parts are labeled.
Schematic of JOIDES Resolution with drill string deployed, and a reentry cone at a borehole site. If the ship was starting a new drilling site, imagine the schematic without the cone at the borehole entry (Credit: Ocean Drilling Program, CC BY 4.0)

 

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Scientific Ocean Drilling: Exploration and Discovery through Time Copyright © 2024 by Laura Guertin; Elizabeth Doyle; and Tessa Peixoto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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