(a) whether an expedition has been initiated by the Government to understand the interaction between the Himalayas and Tibetan plateau uplift and the development and evolution of the Indian summer monsoon;
(b) if so, the details thereof and the salient features of the expedition;
(c) whether the Government has deployed a drilling vessel in the Arabian Sea for this purpose; and
(d) the present status of the expedition and the details of outcome of said expedition so far?
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND
MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES
(SHRI Y. S. CHOWDARY)
(a) Yes Madam.
(b-c) India is an associate to the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). The IODP expedition (IODP-355) based on an Indian complementary project for scientific drilling in the Arabian Sea to understand the interaction between the Himalayan and Tibetan uplift and the development of Indian summer Monsoon in past centuries was undertaken during March 31 to May 31, 2015 . The expedition was jointly led by the Indian and the American scientists beside a team of 30 scientists from various IODP member countries who took part in this 60 days long expedition onboard unique US drilling platform JOIDES resolution. The expedition drilled eight holes at two sites in more than 3500m water depths in the Eastern Arabian Sea and collected more than 1700 m long sediment cores from these locations which are being examined by scientists to understand evolution of the Indian Summer monsoon in the past through continuous marine records from offshore.
(d) The 60 days long expedition was completed in Mumbai on 31st May 2015. The collected sediment cores have been preserved at the IODP core repository where sub-sampling and critical analysis of core samples will be taken up by various participating research and development groups.