About the GCR
The NSF Gulf Coast Repository (GCR) stores and curates ~151 kilometers of Scientific Ocean Drilling program cores; Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), and International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) collected from below the seafloor in the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, and the Southern Ocean. Thin sections, smear slides, and residue samples from these cores, as well as the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) cores, and samples part of the Micropaleontological Reference Centers (MRC) are also stored at the GCR. Scientific Ocean Drilling cores from other oceans are stored at the Bremen Core Repository (Germany) and the Kochi Core Center (Japan). Land-based cores from New Jersey and Delaware collected as part of ODP Legs 150 and 174A are stored at the Rutgers IODP Core Repository.
The GCR also has over 9,000 square feet of laboratory facilities dedicated to sampling, core splitting, core description, microscopy, physical properties, paleomagnetics, and geochemistry analysis. Laboratory users may request to measure core sections or samples from the GCR’s collections, or provide their own samples. The GCR supports the efforts of the new phase of US scientific ocean drilling through collaboration with the Scientific Ocean Drilling Coordination Office (SODCO).
For more information, contact us at gcr@tamu.edu.
History of the GCR
The GCR has been serving the Scientific Ocean Drilling community since 1985. The first phase of GCR labs and cold storage (reefers) was built in the mid-1980’s. An expansion of the reefers was completed in the late 1980’s. With the success of ODP, the GCR’s collection grew rapidly over the next decade and additional cold storage space was built in 1997. During this time, the DSDP and ODP core collections were split between the East Coast Repository (ECR) at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and West Coast Repository (WCR) at Scripps Institute of Oceanography.
In 2007-2008, the entire Scientific Ocean Drilling core collection was redistributed by geographic location to their current locations at the GCR, Bremen Core Repository (BCR) and Kochi Core Center (KCC). The ECR and WCR were then closed.
The GCR’s lab space was refurbished in 2013 and an updated ethylene glycol refrigeration system for the reefers was installed in 2017. In 2024, concurrent with the end of the IODP and the decommissioning of the R/V JOIDES Resolution (JR), the GCR laboratories were remodeled. Analytical instruments from the JR have been set up in the newly renovated laboratory space to support research and outreach efforts utilizing the GCR’s collections, other sample materials and future scientific ocean drilling programs.
History of Scientific Ocean Drilling
Opportunities at the GCR
CORE School
CORE (COres for Research and Education) School is a five-day workshop hosted by the Gulf Coast Repository (GCR). The overarching goal of CORE School is to provide a mechanism to maintain expertise in scientific ocean drilling methods and subseafloor core analysis.We welcome applications from a wide range of specialties (e.g., sedimentology, physical properties, paleomagnetism), and we encourage graduate students, early career scientists, and faculty from non-R1 institutions, including two-year colleges, to apply.
SODCO Undergraduate Internships at Texas A&M University
SODCO at TAMU is offering a new summer internship opportunity for undergraduates. Two selected interns will work on individual research projects with scientists at the Texas A&M Scientific Ocean Drilling (SOD) Department using the laboratory capabilities at the Gulf Coast Repository (GCR).