The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) archives a large collection of deep-sea samples, both in actual number of sites and in spatial coverage. The collection provides a service to national and international researchers who study ocean floor sediments. Total size of the collection is ~19,000 cores and 3,750 dredges and grab samples. During the past three-years over 20,000 samples from the collection were distributed to 75 scientists and 85 teachers. During the last five years there have been 109 publications based upon samples from this repository that cover topics related to our present and past climate, other environmental studies, and studies of cosmic impacts. We anticipate that during the year of this award the repository will distribute some 7000 samples to the global research community, describe and archive 500 dredge/grab samples, and describe and store, in refrigerated containers, over 100 piston cores. A continuing goal is to upgrade accessibility to the collection. In the past year LDEO was offered an opportunity to upgrade its collection of analog deep-sea core photographs, dating back to 1947, into digital format for availability on the web. With funds provided by this award we will be able to digitize some 14,000 sheets of core photographs. We are confident this will help researches better select sampling depths. The LDEO core repository is a resource for research and teaching in every field of marine science. This award will also support weekend workshops.
