Summary

No major region of the world ocean has been so sparsely drilled as the South Pacific. Previous drilling in the South Pacific, including the Antarctic margin, by the DSDP-IPOD program was confined to the low latitudes, western margins, and southeastern margin near the Antarctic Peninsula. Due to the remoteness of much of the South Pacific, our knowledge of its sedimentary history, paleoceanography, and lithospheric characteristics in vast regions is based solely on a sparse record from piston cores and rock dredges. Additional ocean drilling in the South Pacific is needed if an adequate global representation of drill sites is to be obtained for evaluation of temporal changes in global characteristics and dynamics of climatic, oceanographic, sedimentologic, tectonic, and lithospheric systems.  This workshop was held to provide the U.S. scientific community with an opportunity to express their interest in future drilling in the South Pacific.

Workshop Report (pdf)

Convener

Paul Ciesielski, University of Florida