The Bremen Core Repository

During each leg the cores are split into two halves, work and archive halves, and at the end of the leg they are sent in cooled containers to one of the three international IODP repositories. The material is stored there and made available to scientists from all over the world for further investigations. The sediments and rocks are stored in 1.5 meter long sections at the average sea-floor temperature of about +4°C in order to reduce the effects of chemical and physical processes that could alter their characteristics. One year after the end of a cruise the material is available to all interested scientists, including those who did not participate on the cruise. One of the major duties of the repository is to take samples from the cores and send them to requesting scientists if they are not able to make a personal visit. The archive halves are generally preserved for description and photography as well as other non-destructive investigative techniques.