Deep Sea Drilling Program - Core Samples, Publications, and Data

Core Samples, Publications, and Data

The ship retrieved core samples in 30 ft (9.1 m) long cores with a diameter of 2.5 in (6.4 cm). These cores are currently stored at three repositories in the USA, Germany, and Japan. One half of each core is called the archive half and is preserved for future use. The working half of each core is used to provide samples for ongoing scientific research.

The scientific results were published as the "Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project", which contains the results of studies of the recovered core material and the associated geophysical information from the expeditions from 1968 to 1983. These reports describe the core materials and scientific data obtained at sea and in shore-based laboratories post-cruise. These volumes were originally prepared for NSF under contract by the University of California, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In 2007, the printed books were scanned and prepared for electronic presentation by the Texas A&M University College of Geosciences.