© Photo, courtesy of ICDP

To become eligible for funding and support by ICDP, a drilling project must aspire to investigate almost one of these themes: Climate Change and Global Environment, Impact Structures, Geobiosphere and Early Life, Volcanic Systems and Geothermal Regimes, Mantle Plumes and Rifting, Active Faulting, Plate Collision Zones and Convergent Margins or Natural Resources.

• Climate never stayed the same for a long time. Global change is inevitable and has led to many catastrophic events during the Earth's past. The prediction of the consequences of climate change can only be achieved by understanding the permutations of global change during the Earth's history. The sediments have kept traces of the past from which paleoclimatologists can reconstruct the climatic conditions.
• During the 4.5 billion year history of the earth, asteroids and meteorites left behind impact structures on the Earth's surface. But not all the geomorphological remnants of impacts can be recognized as easily, because the debris generated by the enormous heat and pressure during impact is buried under otherwise common soil. This debris is of utmost interest to scientists who study the earliest phases of the Solar System.
• The zone on Earth in which living organisms can exist is called the biosphere. Where humus-rich soil hits bedrock, may be viewed as the lower boundary of the biosphere. But so far nobody has investigated where the lower limit of the biosphere really lies. That will certainly change in the future because microbial investigations can augment practically every drilling project. With such measures, the drilling operations can yield important results, which will add to our understanding of the deep biosphere.
• Volcanic regions may help us to understand the dynamics of the interior of our planet. Volcanic drilling helps not only to mitigate the volcanic hazards. It can also tap the vast reservoirs of geothermal riches and help to understand the information of mineral resources, which are a direct consequence of the fire within the Earth.
• In general, the edges of the big lithospheric plates can be considered to be the perforated seams in the Earth's crust through which magma can ascend to the surface giving birth to islands like Iceland or the Azores. In contrast to these islands, Hawaii is far away from any of these seams. A narrow plume of magma is supposed to rise from deep within the mantle. The plume is called a hot spot. Although the plate above this "Hot Spot" moves, the plume itself is extremely steady and very stable. Drilling is one of the means scientists are using to try to solve the mystery of Hawaii's origin.
• By drilling into an active fault, Earth scientists want to answer fundamental questions about the physical and chemical processes controlling faulting and earthquake generation. By both on-shore and off-shore fault-zone drilling, researchers will be able to monitor fault conditions in the long term and study the mechanisms which generate earthquakes and tsunamis.
• It has been less than half a century since the plate tectonic theory was developed to explain the movement of continents. Subduction of crust materials plays an important role in this process. In the subduction zones, pressure and heat transform some minerals. It is a stated goal of ICDP to drill, not only to excavate rare UHP ("ultra high pressures") minerals, but also to observe the active mountain building processes in collision zones which shape the Earth.
• There is more to ICDP's involvement in drilling for natural resources than just finding technological synergies in cooperating with the business world. By drilling, the phenomena of geothermal energy and supercritical water as another energy source can be studied.

Participation
The cost of drilling is far beyond the scant funding Earth scientists receive, and the logistics associated with operating a rig are so complicated, that they cannot successfully be dealt with by an individual scientist. That is where ICDP comes in. The goal of this program is to encourage Earth scientists to consider drilling as part of their own research program. Projects funded by ICDP should address questions of global importance to the Earth science community-at-large, along the lines of the eight major themes described before. It is important to realize that although a hole is not always successful, drilling is still the only "real" window into the Earth's interior. Drilling into our planet's crust is one of the most compelling frontiers in Earth science today. The adventure of drilling may allow us to solve a few of the many mysteries which have been hiding for millions of years in the dark terra incognita deep below our feet.

List of projects
Unesco's involvement in ICDP aims at promoting the participation of developing countries in deep drilling research projects. From the following list of projects it can be seen that ICDP is not only carrying out projects in industrialized but also in developing countries. The developing countries scientists are active participants in all ICDP activities.

Capacity Building
The International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) is sponsoring Scholarships to allow scientists to attend the Scientific Drilling - Training Course 2007 5. to 9. November in Windischeschenbach, Germany at the former drill site of the German Deep Drilling Project KTB.

The key aspects of this course will comprise:

• Planning and Managing of a Scientific Drilling Project
• On-site Geology o Petrophysical Investigation of Cores and Cuttings
• Basic Borehole Logging and Interpretation
• Log Interpretation in the Non-Hydrocarbon Environment
• Fundamentals of Drilling Technology
• The Principles of Drilling Fluid Technology
• Borehole Stability
• Hydraulic Testing / Fluid Sampling
• Information and Data Management

This ICDP Training is open for advanced students, PhD students, post-docs from ICDP member countries and recommended for managers and scientists from forthcoming ICDP projects. The scholarships will offset costs of registration, travel, meals, and accommodation. Applications should be made to the ICDP office at the GFZ Potsdam. They should consist of a short (1-2 page) curriculum vitae, a max. 1-page covering statement justifying the application, and two letters/references in support of the application.

Deadline: 31st of July (The Training course is an annual event.)

A decision will be made by the ICDP and results communicated by end of August 2007.

Further information can be obtained from the following website: http://www.icdp-online.org

Questions can be addressed to: icdp@gfz-potsdam.de