"The Ocean Drilling Program is the world's largest and most successful multi-national earth science research effort. By drilling deep beneath the sea floor, scientists can reconstruct the fundamental mechanisms that have led to formation of ocean basins, island chains, and mountain ranges. The ODP provides researchers with data essential to understanding the history and structure of the earth's slowly changing surface, and the evolution of its climate" (from "A Record of Our Changing Planet," Joint Oceanogr