On February 26, 1996, the National Science Foundation and the GeoForschungsZentrum-Potsdam (GFZ) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Implementation , Management and Operation of the ICDP". This MOU is an Annex to the Agreement between the NSF and the Federal Ministry for Education, Science, Research and Technology of the Federal Republic of Germany (BMBF) on Cooperation in Research in the Geosciences". The original MOU was in force for five years and was renewed for an additional five years (until August 31, 2007) in September, 2002 and for an additional five years (until August 31, 2012) in April, 2007.
The purpose of the MOU is to specify the terms by which the NSF and GFZ shall cooperate in the scientific planning, management and operation of an earth science research program of scientific drilling on the continents. One of the terms specifies the funding arrangements agreed to by the parties. In particular, article 5 (1) states that: Each party agrees to provide funding for the overall scientific planning, management, operation and management of the ICDP in the amount of $700,000 per annum, subject to the availability of funds. The annual membership fee shall be paid to the Executive Agency for transfer to the Operational Support Group (OSG) and will be commingled to provide the base funding for the ICDP. The annual contribution of $700,000 shall be paid in US dollars for five years duration of the MOU." The National Science Board in its May, 1996 meeting approved the ICDP.
The ICDP was reviewed by an international group of distinguished scientists in November, 2005. The mandate of the review group was to provide a scientific review of the first eight years of operations, resulting outcomes and scientific plans for the future of the ICDP as defined through four main questions serving as Terms of Reference:
. Assessment of the Organizational Structure and Management . Evaluation of the Past Performance . Impact of the ICDP on the Earth Sciences . Statement on the Future Priorities and Science Plan
The outcome of the Review was overwhelmingly positive. The Review Committee unanimously agrees that the overall performance of the ICDP program has been excellent as shown e.g. by the sixteen (now twenty) successfully completed drilling projects that have tackled the major objectives of the ICDP.
The ICDP currently comprises 13 member countries with other countries about to join or interested in joining. Membership memoranda have already been signed with Spain and have been negotiated with Italy and New Zealand. Sweden, the Netherlands and Argentina have declared that they are ready to join and scientists from Britain, France, Turkey, Chile, Korea and other countries are actively working on internal arrangements for an ICDP membership. The Russian Academy of Sciences has also applied to the Kremlin for authorization to join ICDP.
The ICDP has established cooperation with the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, IODP. The cooperation involves joint panel representation, joint publication of the journal SCIENTIFIC DRILLING and other outreach measures. In addition, a cooperative working group is investigating the possibility of joint proposal evaluation and joint sample curation processes. Furthermore, ICDP and IODP will conduct the first joint drilling project during the New Jersey Continental Shelf Drilling in 2008.
The key members of the ICDP; USA, Japan, and China as well as all other members have, after the successful international review, renewed their membership Memorandum of Understanding. This award provides for continued US funding for five years as agreed to in the Memorandum of Understanding and it's latest extension.
Scientific drilling on continents is an indispensable tool of modern Earth science as it provides the only means of obtaining direct information on processes at depth. Drilling allows for sampling of otherwise not accessible rocks, determination of physical and chemical properties at depth and permits testing of subsurface formation. Moreover, many drill holes are used as observatories for monitoring of active processes. Therefore, drilling plays a critical role in scientific research directed towards improved understanding of the workings of planet Earth. In the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program 23 countries share resources to co-fund cooperative international drilling projects, conduct workshops and provide training measures. The scientific themes of the ICDP include research, on causes of natural disasters such as volcanic eruption and earthquakes, natural resources, past climate and environment and the deep life in the underground. Recent ICDP supported drilling projects include the Snake River Plain in Idaho conducted to shed new light on volcanic eruptions that truncated this area during the passage of the Yellowstone Hotspot. Three almost 2000 m deep holes served to recover volcanic rocks to study the interaction of upwelling mantle material with continental crust. A drilling project in a caldera in Southern Italy, the Phlegrean Fields, was started with a 500 m pilot borehole to test conditions for a deep, deviated well towards the center of seismic unrest and ground uplift. This project aims to contribute to a better understanding of the volcanic risk near the City of Naples and the potential for geothermal utilization of underground heat. Both projects complement ICDPs volcanic and geothermal research on Iceland, Hawaii and in Japan. Earthquake activity and the governing physical and chemical processes in active fault zones have been investigated in the San Andreas Fault of California, the Gulf of Corinth in Greece and in Taiwan by sampling fault rocks and measuring stress and fluid properties. In the North Anatolian Fault Zone offshore the City of Istanbul, Turkey, microseismicity is observed with a set of boreholes equipped with state-of-the-art instruments. Past climate and environmental changes have been studied using continuous cores from lake sediments. Lakes have the potential to be sensitive recorders of climate signals from their surroundings. Deposits in the lake bottom provide a datable high-resolution archive. Lake Elgygytgyn in NE Siberia showed extreme warmth during some interglacials which is possibly connected to a waning West Antarctic ice shield. Thick salt layers from the Dead Sea showed an extreme dry phase about 100.000 years ago, while Lake Van in Turkey is an about half a million years old archive of environmental evolution. Earth´s early development towards a habitable planet during the Archean and Proterozoic times was investigated with drillcore from NW Russia and South Africa. One of the critical time windows is the oxygen enrichment in the atmosphere about 2.2 billion years ago. Altogether, about 60 workshops and 30 drilling projects have been conducted with support of the ICDP. Several drilling proposals addressing questions of international societal importance will be conducted in the forthcoming phase of the program.
