National Research Council, United States

At the request of the National Science Foundation, the National Research Council appointed an expert committee to review the scientific accomplishments of U.S.-supported scientific ocean drilling: Deep Sea Drilling Project, Ocean Drilling Program, and Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. They also assessed the potential for future transformative scientific discoveries from Illuminating Earth's Past, Present, and Future: The International Ocean Discovery Program Science Plan for 2013-2023. The committee identified Deep Sea Drilling Project, Ocean Drilling Program, and Integrated Ocean Drilling Program scientific accomplishments and analyzed their significance. They also examined the fields of inquiry that were enabled due to scientific ocean drilling capabilities. The committee then considered the scientific ocean drilling programs' contributions to capacity building, science education, and outreach activities. In their second task, the committee evaluated the potential for transformative scientific discovery that could result from implementing the science plan for the next proposed phase of international scientific ocean drilling from 2013 to 2023. The assessment included advice on opportunities resulting from stronger collaboration between scientific ocean drilling and other NSF-supported and non-NSF science programs.