Previous   |   Next

doi:10.2204/iodp.sp.330.2010

Sample and data sharing policy

Shipboard samples and data acquisition

Following core labeling, nondestructive whole-core measurements, and core splitting, samples will be selected from the working halves of cores by members of the shipboard party for routine measurement of physical and magnetic properties and bulk chemical and mineralogical analyses by, as needed, inductively coupled plasma–atomic emission spectrometry and X-ray diffraction spectrometry. Thin sections of samples will be prepared for identification of minerals, determination of mineral modes (e.g., by point counting), and studies of texture and fabric. Detailed visual core description will be conducted on the archive halves.

Personal sampling for shore-based research

Shipboard and shore-based researchers should refer to the IODP sample, data, and obligations policy (www.iodp.org/program-policies/). This document outlines the policy for distributing IODP samples and data. It also defines the obligations incurred by sample and data recipients. All requests for data and core samples must be approved by the Sample Allocation Committee (SAC). The SAC is composed of the co-chief scientists, the expedition project manager (staff scientist), and the IODP curator on shore and curatorial representative in place of the curator onboard the ship.

Scientists must submit their research plans using the sample/data request system (smcs.iodp.org:8080/smcs/) no later than three months before the expedition begins. This planning process is necessary to coordinate the full spectrum of research to be conducted and ensure that the scientific objectives of Expedition 330 to the Louisville Seamount Trail are addressed and, indeed, can be achieved. Based on sample requests (shore based and shipboard), the SAC and shipboard scientific party will formulate a tentative expedition-specific sampling and data-sharing plan for shipboard and postexpedition activities. This plan will be subject to modification depending upon the actual material recovered and collaborations that may evolve between scientists during the expedition. Modifications to the sampling plan during the expedition require the approval of the SAC.

All personal sample frequencies and sizes must be justified scientifically and will depend on core recovery, the full spectrum of other sample requests, and the cruise objectives. Generally, the size of individual samples will be <15–25 cm₃ and samples will be taken from the working halves of the cores. Some redundancy of measurements is unavoidable, but minimizing the duplication of measurements among the shipboard party and identified shore-based collaborators will be a key factor in evaluating sample requests. Our goal is to identify representative intervals ("community samples") that should be sampled by multiple scientists using multiple investigation methods to maximize the science output, to address the primary and secondary objectives of Expedition 330 effectively and thoroughly, and to establish the most comprehensive data set possible for these key intervals. All shipboard scientists will be expected to collaborate and cooperate within the framework of this sampling plan.

Personal sampling will take place onboard during the expedition (i.e., after completion of every site (depending on recovery). If critical intervals are recovered (e.g., small sills or dikes, veins, mineral cumulates, fresh olivine phenocrysts containing melt inclusions, volcanic glass, ores, erosion horizons, paleosols, beach pebbles, and ash layers), there may be considerable demand for samples from a limited amount of cored material. These intervals may require modifications to the sampling plan during the expedition that would specify new special handling protocols, reduced sample size, or deferral of sampling to onshore sampling after completion of the expedition.

Following Expedition 330, cores will be delivered to the IODP Gulf Coast Core Repository at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA. All collected data and samples will be protected by a 1 year postcruise moratorium, during which time data and samples will be available only to the Louisville Expedition 330 science party and approved shore-based participants.

Top of page   |   Previous   |   Next