Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (Moore et al., 2001)
and Integrated Ocean Discovery Program (Bickle et al.
2011) for the time span 2003–2023. Besides the scientific
questions technological challenges were to be accepted.
These challenges are sampling in order to avoid contamination of the microbiological samples during drilling and
recovery of the cores.
Sequence stratigraphy
Based on Suess’ (1906) fundamental theory of eustacy to
link physical stratigraphy of different regions with the
frame of global transgressions and regressions, Sloss
(1964) and Vail et al. (1977) developed the concept of
sequence stratigraphy as a worthwhile tool for a stratigraphic correlation of sedimentary units displayed by seismic images and correlated world-wise. The basic
assumption is that at continental margins because of synchronous sea-level change during low-stand phases, wide
areas are exposed to subaerial erosion so that the erosional
surfaces displayed as reflectors in seismic imaging form
spatial/temporal boundaries of “sedimentary sequences”
which can be correlated basin wide. The original findings
of Sloss (1964) and Vail et al. (1977) were based on data
from marine Mesozoic to Cenozoic sequences in an
onshore position in relative low resolution. With the
beginning of the ocean drilling activities, it became obvious that this program can contribute to test the synchroneity and amplitudes of sea-level events, with the aim to
explain the controlling mechanism on margin stratal architecture. In order to answer these questions, it was decided
to drill for a global comparison transect offshore the tectonically stable New Jersey siliciclastic margin, on carbonate margins along Australia, at the Bahamas, and
isolated northwest Pacific atolls. First results allowed
comparisons of slope sequences with the eustatic curve
of Haq et al. (1987), the Bahamas records, and benthic
foraminiferal oxygen isotope data (Miller et al., 1998).
Refinements after the first findings which promised correlation to the Cenozoic stratigraphic architecture on continental slopes and carbonate platforms to the orbital and
even suborbital scales were achieved by the deployment
of Mission Specific Platforms (MSPs) managed by
ECORD to drill at the Jersey shallow shelf (IODP Expedition 313). To correlate marine isotopic stages (MIS) 5–1
of the continental shelf, reliable and high-resolution sealevel data for the last glacial cycle (LGC) are needed.
Grant et al. (2012) have developed a probabilistic model
of the LGC sea-level change based on a statistical analysis
of oxygen isotopes of Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea
Foraminifera. Lobo and Ridente (2013) studies give reason to hope that we will succeed to assign even the architecture of the MIS 5–1 shelf sediments to high-frequency
Milankovitch cycles.
Sea-level and society
Sea-level and coastline shifts related to climate change and
coastal hazards such as tsunamis are threatening
increasingly the human society living along the edge of
the world’s oceans and seas. However, the influence of
coastal change on mankind is not a recent phenomenon.
Even in their early phases of cultural development, human
populations reacted to marine regressions and transgressions and to climatic and environmental changes by
migration and adjustment of their socioeconomic systems
to the changing natural environment. Therefore, questions
of postglacial sea-level change were put on the international research agenda at the end of the last century.
The phenomenon of sea-level change has been tackled
in two ways: by empirical data interpretation and by
modeling approaches. Pirazzoli (1991) compiled within
the frame of an International Geological Correlation Program (IGCP) project postglacial sea-level data that lead
the first time to a global overview about quantitative
regional trends in coastline change mainly triggered by
glacio-isostatic adjustment (GIA). Lambeck and Chappell
(2001) used numerical models to describe the deformation
of the Earth’s crust to the loading and unloading by continental ice sheets and water masses in marine basins. But,
besides the interest in historical reconstruction of the
paleo-coastlines, increasing interest is paid to the generation of future scenarios. Future projections of sea-level
processes are directly related to climate change and the
interference of natural and anthropogenic driving forces
so that at the beginning of the twenty-first century the door
for cooperation between geoscientists, climatologists, and
socioeconomists has been widely opened (Rahmsdorf,
2007).
Conclusions. Marine geosciences: quo vadis?
To answer the question of future development of targets
and pathways in marine geosciences, it is helpful to go
for the IODP Science Plan 2013–2023 (Moore et al.,
2001; Bickle et al. 2011). This plan is characterized by a
clear commitment to the “System Earth” – an interdisciplinary and integrated approach. The following research
themes are on the agenda of the next 10 years:
• Climate and ocean change: reading the past, informing
the future. Behaviors of climate, oceans, and ice caps
under increasing greenhouse conditions and expansion
of the database for climate modeling and prediction
• Biosphere frontiers: deep life, biodiversity, and environmental forcing of ecosystems. Exploration of life
forms beneath the seafloor and in extreme environments
where microbes live isolated from the photosynthetic
worlds at the limits of natural habitats; relation between
biodiversity and fast climate change; and the influence
of large volcanic eruptions and the impacts extraterrestrial bodies on biodiversity
• Earth connections: deep processes and their impact on
earth’s surface environment. Geochemical exchange
processes between the solid earth, oceans, and atmosphere; drilling into the Earth’s mantle; understanding
the properties and nature of changes of the Earth’s magnetic field; and evolution of mineral deposits resulting
MARINE GEOSCIENCES: A SHORT, ECCLECTIC AND WEIGHTED HISTORIC ACCOUNT
445
and Integrated Ocean Discovery Program (Bickle et al.
2011) for the time span 2003–2023. Besides the scientific
questions technological challenges were to be accepted.
These challenges are sampling in order to avoid contamination of the microbiological samples during drilling and
recovery of the cores.
Sequence stratigraphy
Based on Suess’ (1906) fundamental theory of eustacy to
link physical stratigraphy of different regions with the
frame of global transgressions and regressions, Sloss
(1964) and Vail et al. (1977) developed the concept of
sequence stratigraphy as a worthwhile tool for a stratigraphic correlation of sedimentary units displayed by seismic images and correlated world-wise. The basic
assumption is that at continental margins because of synchronous sea-level change during low-stand phases, wide
areas are exposed to subaerial erosion so that the erosional
surfaces displayed as reflectors in seismic imaging form
spatial/temporal boundaries of “sedimentary sequences”
which can be correlated basin wide. The original findings
of Sloss (1964) and Vail et al. (1977) were based on data
from marine Mesozoic to Cenozoic sequences in an
onshore position in relative low resolution. With the
beginning of the ocean drilling activities, it became obvious that this program can contribute to test the synchroneity and amplitudes of sea-level events, with the aim to
explain the controlling mechanism on margin stratal architecture. In order to answer these questions, it was decided
to drill for a global comparison transect offshore the tectonically stable New Jersey siliciclastic margin, on carbonate margins along Australia, at the Bahamas, and
isolated northwest Pacific atolls. First results allowed
comparisons of slope sequences with the eustatic curve
of Haq et al. (1987), the Bahamas records, and benthic
foraminiferal oxygen isotope data (Miller et al., 1998).
Refinements after the first findings which promised correlation to the Cenozoic stratigraphic architecture on continental slopes and carbonate platforms to the orbital and
even suborbital scales were achieved by the deployment
of Mission Specific Platforms (MSPs) managed by
ECORD to drill at the Jersey shallow shelf (IODP Expedition 313). To correlate marine isotopic stages (MIS) 5–1
of the continental shelf, reliable and high-resolution sealevel data for the last glacial cycle (LGC) are needed.
Grant et al. (2012) have developed a probabilistic model
of the LGC sea-level change based on a statistical analysis
of oxygen isotopes of Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea
Foraminifera. Lobo and Ridente (2013) studies give reason to hope that we will succeed to assign even the architecture of the MIS 5–1 shelf sediments to high-frequency
Milankovitch cycles.
Sea-level and society
Sea-level and coastline shifts related to climate change and
coastal hazards such as tsunamis are threatening
increasingly the human society living along the edge of
the world’s oceans and seas. However, the influence of
coastal change on mankind is not a recent phenomenon.
Even in their early phases of cultural development, human
populations reacted to marine regressions and transgressions and to climatic and environmental changes by
migration and adjustment of their socioeconomic systems
to the changing natural environment. Therefore, questions
of postglacial sea-level change were put on the international research agenda at the end of the last century.
The phenomenon of sea-level change has been tackled
in two ways: by empirical data interpretation and by
modeling approaches. Pirazzoli (1991) compiled within
the frame of an International Geological Correlation Program (IGCP) project postglacial sea-level data that lead
the first time to a global overview about quantitative
regional trends in coastline change mainly triggered by
glacio-isostatic adjustment (GIA). Lambeck and Chappell
(2001) used numerical models to describe the deformation
of the Earth’s crust to the loading and unloading by continental ice sheets and water masses in marine basins. But,
besides the interest in historical reconstruction of the
paleo-coastlines, increasing interest is paid to the generation of future scenarios. Future projections of sea-level
processes are directly related to climate change and the
interference of natural and anthropogenic driving forces
so that at the beginning of the twenty-first century the door
for cooperation between geoscientists, climatologists, and
socioeconomists has been widely opened (Rahmsdorf,
2007).
Conclusions. Marine geosciences: quo vadis?
To answer the question of future development of targets
and pathways in marine geosciences, it is helpful to go
for the IODP Science Plan 2013–2023 (Moore et al.,
2001; Bickle et al. 2011). This plan is characterized by a
clear commitment to the “System Earth” – an interdisciplinary and integrated approach. The following research
themes are on the agenda of the next 10 years:
• Climate and ocean change: reading the past, informing
the future. Behaviors of climate, oceans, and ice caps
under increasing greenhouse conditions and expansion
of the database for climate modeling and prediction
• Biosphere frontiers: deep life, biodiversity, and environmental forcing of ecosystems. Exploration of life
forms beneath the seafloor and in extreme environments
where microbes live isolated from the photosynthetic
worlds at the limits of natural habitats; relation between
biodiversity and fast climate change; and the influence
of large volcanic eruptions and the impacts extraterrestrial bodies on biodiversity
• Earth connections: deep processes and their impact on
earth’s surface environment. Geochemical exchange
processes between the solid earth, oceans, and atmosphere; drilling into the Earth’s mantle; understanding
the properties and nature of changes of the Earth’s magnetic field; and evolution of mineral deposits resulting
MARINE GEOSCIENCES: A SHORT, ECCLECTIC AND WEIGHTED HISTORIC ACCOUNT
445