2.1 The International Continental Scientific Drilling Program

Abstract

The International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) was founded in 1996. Its main goal is to enable geoscientific research by obtaining continuous rock sections through key geological formations which are not accessible by any other means but crucial for understanding Earth’s surface processes and their evolution, and providing direct information on processes operating at depth. ICDP has overseen 15 years of successful coordination of multinational efforts in continental scientific drilling (Harms et al. 2007). Drilling operations are expensive and a series of robust criteria must be met for projects to obtain financial and operational support from the ICDP. Among these criteria, two of the most important are global significance and international impact, which dictate that projects must address geological problems of global significance, utilising world-class geological sites and establishing broad international cooperation by pooling resources from the best possible scientific teams. Other criteria include societal needs, need-for-drilling and depth-to-cost, which are defined explicitly by the ICDP in order to assess and concentrate on topics of high international priorities (Harms and Emmermann 2007).