From near or far, the JOIDES Resolution (JR) looks like any ol’ drillship. She has a derrick and pipe rack, a logging shack and helipad. She even has a doghouse and a rathole. Yes, the JR is well and truly a drilling rig that floats, and she has been investigating the Earth’s origin and evolution through scientific ocean coring worldwide. For those lucky scientists selected to sail onboard her for two months out of their year, the JR is both home and research laboratory.

Launched as SEDCO/BP 471 as an oil exploration vessel, the riserless JR was converted for scientific use and began working for the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) in January 1985 as the successor of the Glomar Challenger. Drilling with the ODP continued until September 2003, at which point the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) began. After extensive modernization in Singapore in 2007 to 2008, the vessel resumed operations for the IODP in 2009. In October 2013 the IODP transitioned to the International Ocean Discovery Program.

During her ODP and IODP years, vessel operations extended from north of the Arctic Circle to south of the Antarctic Circle and from the depths of the Marianas Trench to the coastal areas off New Jersey, according to an IODP fact sheet.

Ocean drilling has confirmed the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift, discovered gas hydrates in sediments below the ocean and confirmed that they exist worldwide, and provided insights into the paleoclimate record over the past 100 million years and more.

During normal operations, work aboard the ship never ceases as drilling and science activities continue 24 hours a day. A typical ship’s complement consists of up to 60 scientists and technicians and 70 crew members, the fact sheet noted. About 1,672 sq m (18,000 sq ft) of space onboard the vessel is reserved for scientific operations, including analyses of core samples for geological, physical, chemical and microbiological research. More than 736 cu. m (26,000 cf) of space is used for refrigerated storage of the cores.

To learn more about shipboard activities, visit joidesresolution.org.

Vessel Facts:

Sector: Scientific research

Owner: Overseas Drilling Ltd., subsidiary of Siem Offshore AS

Constructed at: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Last Upgrade: 2009, Jurong Shipyard, Singapore

Launched: 1978

Size (length, breadth): 143.4 m (470.5 ft), 21.3 m (70 ft)

Gross Tonnage: 10,282 st

Net Tonnage: 3,084 st

Transit Speed: 10.5 knots

Water depth (maximum, minimum): 8,230 m (27,000 ft), 91 m (300 ft)

Operating Arena: Worldwide

Classification: ABS A1 E Drilling Unit AMS ACCU

Ice Class: 1B

Accommodation: 129 persons

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