Recent advances in geoscientific investigations of the ocean floor

The ocean covers 71% of our earth's surface and is much more difficult to access for geoscientific investigations than the land surface. Although scientists have been studying the ocean from research vessels for more than a century, interest in a global understanding of the earth system and its causal loop processes has led to increased efforts in marine research in recent decades. The seabed has been drilled for more than 50 years and the international drilling program (currently the International Ocean Discovery Program - IODP) is constantly leading to a new aspect in understanding of the interaction of the earth's crust, water masses, ice caps, the atmosphere and the living world today and in the past. State-of-the-art research vessels with advanced deep-submergence technology, such as robotic sea-floor drill rigs and giant-piston coring, submersibles, ROVs and AUVs, as well as acoustic and seismic systems are used to investigate various processes on the seafloor and in the sub-seafloor, some in 4D. In this session we would like to encourage all geoscientists to present exciting results from ship expeditions and marine studies over the past few years.