ESO - ECORD Science Operator


ESO is a consortium of European scientific institutions formed to undertake Mission-specific platform (MSP) operations for ECORD on behalf of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. To date, ESO has undertaken two MSP operations, the Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX) and the Tahiti Sea-Level Expedition. A third MSP expedition will be conducted off the coast of New Jersey.

DP Hunter on Tahiti expedition Vidar Viking on Arctic expedition

ESO is made up of :

The British Geological Survey - BGS, which acts as the consortium co-ordinator responsible for overall ESO management. BGS provides the Science Manager (see link below for the ESO management structure), who acts as the main contact with both the ECORD Management Agency (EMA) and ECORD Council. BGS also provides the Operations Manager (BGS Marine Operations), Data Manager and Outreach Manager for the consortium, as well as the Staff Scientist and Administrative Support for each MSP.

The Bremen University provides the ESO Laboratory and Curation Manager, who is responsible for analytical facilities during offshore MSP operations and the onshore science party. The Bremen Core Repository (BCR) is the ESO facility for core curation and management. The University is also involved in data management tasks provided by WDC-MARE/PANGAEA (IODP-MSP data portal), and provides the Public Relations Manager for ESO. GFZ Potsdam additionally supports ESO by contributing the Drilling Information System (DIS) for offshore data acquisition.

The European Petrophysical Consortium carries out all logging and petrophysical activities for ESO. This consortium comprises the University of Leicester (co-ordinator), U.K, the Université de Montpellier, France and RWTH Aachen, Germany.

Management structure