Bremen Core Collection (Scientific Ocean Drilling Programs)

The Bremen Core Repository - BCR, for International Ocean Drilling Programme (IODP³), International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), and Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) cores from the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean, Black and Baltic Seas and Arctic Ocean is operated at University of Bremen within the framework of the German participation in IODP. It is one of three IODP repositories (beside Gulf Coast Repository (GCR) in College Station, TX, and Kochi Core Center (KCC), Japan) and was established in the summer of 1994. The IODP-BCR has a 1100 sqm refrigerated storage area with a movable rack system and state-of-the-art laboratory and office space, and is located in the MARUM building on the campus of Bremen University.

BCR presently contains more than 193 km of deep-sea cores from 107 expeditions in around 300,000 boxes (also see reports), which are sampled and analysed by national and international working groups. Around 200 scientists visit the repository annually, sometimes working on the cores in week-long sampling meetings (video). As many as 50,000 samples per year are removed from the cores by guests and by the repository staff. The repository is an important contact point for scientists from all over the world (more than 4,000 visitors so far) and therefore significantly contributes to the exchange and transfer of marine science knowledge in Bremen, leading to international co-operations and scientific interactions.

Land-based cores from ODP Legs 150X and 174AX are stored at the Rutgers/New Jersey Geological Survey (RU/NJGS) core repository in Piscataway, NJ.

ECORD Summer School 2025, MARUM, University of Bremen, 8 - 19 September 2025

Onshore Operation for IODP3-NSF Exp. 501 New England Hydrogeology (14 Jan - 11 Feb 2026)