Glomar Challenger

Glomar Challenger, oceanographic drilling and coring vessel, active from 1968 to 1983. The exploratory ship of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (later the Ocean Drilling Project; ODP), it was equipped with a drilling derrick 43 metres (140 feet) high and was capable of drilling more than 1,700 metres (5,570 feet) into the ocean floor. It investigated some 624 sites in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, not only revealing the presence of deep ocean salt domes (which themselves may indicate the presence of oil) but also supporting the theory of plate tectonics by providing evidence of continental drift and seafloor renewal. In 1985 the work of the Glomar Challenger was continued by the JOIDES Resolution, a larger and more advanced drilling ship of the Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling.