The Ocean Drilling Program is the largest international geoscience
project in the world, and the state-of-the-art drill ship, the JOIDES
Resolution, is permanently at sea. Each year there are six scientific cruises
(Legs) which each last approximately two months. These legs are
designed by geoscientists from the 19 countries that subscribe to ODP.
Australia and Canada share ODP membership under the banner of the
AUSCAN Consortium. The Australian Secretariat of the ODP is housed at the Department of
Earth Sciences at James Cook University, along with the AUSCAN
Consortium office. The Canadian Secretariat is presently based at the
University of Toronto. Both secretariats have major research interests in
the ore deposits, both ancient and modem, and so there is currently a
major drive by the AUSCAN ODP Consortium to make available data and
technological information to the minerals industry. This type of information includes data from drilling hydrothermal sites
such as the hydrothermally active TAG black smoker complex on the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge, drilled during Leg 158, and the Middle Valley
sulphide deposit, on the northern Juan de Fuca Ridge, which was drilled
during Leg 139.