IODP Lord Howe Rise Drilling Proposal: Tectonics, Climate and Ancient Life

A proposal for deep stratigraphic drilling on the Lord Howe Rise, a submerged continental ribbon in the southwest Pacific. The project, led by Geoscience Australia and JAMSTEC, aims to core Cretaceous and older sediments up to 2500 meters below the seafloor to study tectonic cycles, paleoclimate, and sub-seafloor microbial life. Preparations included a 2016 seismic survey and a planned 2017 geotechnical survey, with drilling proposed for 2019 or 2020.

Use Cases

• Modeling plate tectonic cycles and continental evolution based on recovered Cretaceous and older sediments.
• Reconstructing Cretaceous paleoclimate using high-latitude biomarker and micropaleontology data.
• Studying the evolution of sub-seafloor microbial life over a 100-million-year timeframe from core samples.
• Analyzing crustal structure and sedimentary basin architecture using 2D seismic reflection and refraction data.

Strengths

• Proposal rated 'excellent' by the IODP Science Evaluation Panel in January 2017.
• Planned drilling depth of up to 2500 meters below seafloor, targeting a >100-million-year geological record.
• Preparatory 2016 seismic survey acquired 2D seismic reflection and refraction data across the Lord Howe Rise.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network via data_gov_au.

Collection Method

Proposed International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) drilling project, with preparatory seismic and geotechnical surveys.

Time Range

Proposal submitted October 2015; drilling planned for 2019 or 2020.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-27 20:41:46.807542; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Lord Howe Rise, a submerged continental ribbon in the Tasman Sea, southwest Pacific.