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The JOIDES Resolution is named after the HMS Resolution, commanded by Captain James Cook over 200 years ago, which explored the Pacific Ocean and the Antartic region. The JOIDES Resolution is the drillship of the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), an international partnership of scientists and research institutions organized to explore the evolution and structure of the Earth. The ship was built in 1978 in Halifax, Nova Scotia and was originally a conventional oil-drilling ship. It was refitted in 1984 for scientific operations and is now quipped with some of the worlds's finest shipboard laboratories. Each year, the drillship departs on a series of two-month cruises, also known as legs, to various locations around the world, each with a specific scientfic objective. During these cruises, sediment and rock samples (cores) are retrieved from deep below the sea floor, and geophysical measurements (logs) are made in the hole once the cores have been removed. The JOIDES Resolution is 143 m (469 ft) long, 21 m (68.9 ft) wide, and its derrick rises 61.5 m (202 ft) above the water line. During drilling and logging operations, the crew positions the ship over the drill site using 12 computer-controlled thrusters as well as the main propulsion system. The rig can suspend as much as 9,150 m (30,020 ft) of drill pipe to an ocean depth as great as 8,235 m (27,018 ft). Beneath the derrick is the "moon pool," which is a 7 m (23 ft) wide hole that allows the drill pipe to be lowered through the bottom of the hull. Each pipe joint is about 28.5 m (93.5 ft) and weighs about 874 kg (1925 lb). These joints are threaded together to form a long drill string with a drill bit attached at the end. The process of lowering the drill bit to the seafloor takes about 12 hours in 5,500 m (18,045 ft) of water. To core through the seafloor, the entire drill string is rotated. The thrusters keep the ship from rotating. A heave compensator in the derrick acts as a giant shock absorber, so that the up and down movements of the ship are not transferred to the drill pipe. This allows cores to be cut and lifted smoothly. The area forward of the derrick contains the laboratories, the bridge, and living quarters for the ships scientists, technicians, and crew. The lab stack has seven floors that house the refrigerated core storage, computer user room, science lounge, as well as the paleontology, chemistry, sedimentology, physical properties, paleomagnetics and laboratories. At the fantail of the ship, the underway geophysics lab controls the equipment to gather ship position, water depth, and magnetic data useful to study the topography of the subocean floor geology. Work aboard the ship never ceases; operations continue 24 hours a day. A ship's complement can consist of 50 scientists and technicians and 65 crew members. Both the scientific party and crew members come from countries around the world. ODP Operations statistics from January 1985 (Leg 100) to February 1999 (Leg 183). Units are in meters, U.S. feet, and U.S. miles. (Statistics provided by ODP/TAMU).
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