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Deep Sea Drilling 



The International Phase 



G. Ross Heath 



The International Phase of Ocean Drilling (IPOD) is a cooperative 

 program of the United States, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, 

 Japan, and the United Kingdom to investigate the geology and 

 geophysics of the deep ocean basins by means of advanced drilling 

 technology. The field studies have been carried out from a specially 

 configured drilling ship, the Glomar Challenger , owned and operated 

 by Global Marine, Inc., under contract to Scripps Institution of 

 Oceanography of the University of California, San Diego. 



This review focuses on the development of the drilling program and 

 its international aspects. The scientific results are well documented in 

 the Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project and in the scientific 

 literature. 



HISTORY OF THE PROGRAM 



Development of a U.S. Drilling Program 



Van Andel (1968) has reviewed the history of ocean drilling prior to 

 the launching of Challenger . The first part of this section draws heavily 

 on his review. 



Project Mohole, proposed in the late 1950s, was the first serious at- 

 tempt to use advanced drilling technology to penetrate the deep sea 

 floor. This National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported project used 

 the barge CUSS-1, equipped with a large drilling rig, to drill 10 ex- 



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