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doi:10.14379/iodp.sp.353.2014

Abstract

Scientific ocean drilling (Deep Sea Drilling Project [DSDP], Ocean Drilling Program [ODP], and Integrated Ocean Drilling Program) has never taken place in the Bay of Bengal north of 9°N. Thus, the core region of summer monsoon precipitation has never been investigated. DSDP Leg 22 (1974) and ODP Leg 121 (1989) drilled the southernmost region (5°–9°N), capturing the distal end of the summer monsoon influence. India’s partnership in the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) provides an opportunity to investigate this key northern region. IODP Expedition 353 seeks to recover Upper Cretaceous–Holocene sediment sections that record erosion and runoff signals from river input to the Bay of Bengal as well as the resulting north–south surface water salinity gradient. Analysis of sediment sections from the Mahanadi Basin (northeast Indian margin), the Nicobar-Andaman Basin (Andaman Sea), and the northern Ninetyeast Ridge (southern Bay of Bengal) will be used to understand the physical mechanisms underlying changes in monsoonal precipitation, erosion, and run-off across timescales from millennial through tectonic. These sites will provide crucial new information within which to interpret differences among existing results from previous monsoon-themed drilling expeditions in the Arabian Sea (ODP Leg 117), the South China Sea (ODP Leg 184), and the Sea of Japan (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 346). These goals directly address challenges in the “Climate and Ocean Change” theme of the IODP Science Plan.

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