On September 22, local time, the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) 385 voyage set off for the Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California, Mexico. Associate Researcher Ran Lihua from SIO participated in this voyage. IODP was launched in 2003, and was developed from the International Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) implemented from 1985 to 2003 and its predecessor, the Deep Sea Drilling Program (DSDP) implemented from 1968 to 1983. It is currently the largest cooperative research program in the field of geoscience. China joined the IODP in 1998 and formally established the IODP China Office in Tongji University in 2004.
      The IODP385 voyage project is carried out in the Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California. The voyage is based on the IODP 833 Proposal. The main scientific goal is to study the interrelationship between deposition, magmatism, fluid and microbial processes and the carbon cycle through high-resolution sedimentary records, in combination with seismic profiles and well log data, and to help understand similar marginal sea correlation processes in other areas.
      This time, Ran Lihua, an associate researcher of our Institute, was invited to participate in the IODP 385 voyage as a micropaleontologist. Her main work is to quickly and accurately determine the age of the sediments by identifying the fossil diatom species in the deep sea borehole sediments and combining the time of occurrence or disappearance of different types of fossil diatoms in geological history. This work is one of the most important and basic tasks in the ocean drilling voyage, and has high professional requirements.
      The IODP 385 voyage will carry out the offshore drilling for nearly two months and is expected to return to the Port of San Diego in mid-November.