Drillship Joides Resolution

I took this photograph of the Drillship Joides Resolution the evening before we set sail for ODP Leg 162 North Atlantic Artic Gateways II, a two-month long research cruise to study rapid changes in climate over the past few million years. The tower like structure in the middle of the ship and which looks like an oil derrick houses the ship's drilling apparatus. This machinery enables the ship to drill through hundreds of meters of sediment in thousands of meters of water depth.