R/V Vifya on Lake Malawi, Africa, 2004.

DOSECC provided the Dynamic Positioning (DP) system for the Lake Malawi Drilling Project. In water depths greater than about 200 m, anchoring becomes less effective as a means of maintaining the position of a drilling vessel. In these deeper waters, DP is required. DOSECC has acquired a portable DP system with funding from the National Science Foundation and the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program. This unit is intended to be able to convert vessels of opportunity into drilling platforms.

The system consists of four thrusters powered by four diesel-hydraulic power packs. The system is controlled by a Nautronix JSDP5000 (DP-1 class) system that uses either a GPS signal or a seabed beacon for position keeping

View from above of R/V Vifya, showing two of the four the dynamic positioning thrusters and power units.

Link to the Syracuse University Lake Malawi Drilling Project website here.

IRIS Real-Time Earthquake Map

©2009 DOSECC All rights reserved

Lake El’gygytgyn Drilling Project
January-April 2009

View Lake E project videos and DFG Science TV clip

Learn more about the project at ICDP’s
Lake E website

Visit NASA’s Lake E Earth Observatory page and the University of Köln’s
Lake E page

Read The Thrill to Drill in the Chilland
NSF’s project press release

Follow life at the project site with ICDP’s daily reports and PolarTREC’s
Virtual Base Camp

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0829286. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions
or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Colorado Plateau Coring Project
(CPCP) Workshop

8-11 May 2009 Albuquerque, New Mexico

The Future of Continental Scientific Drilling:
A U.S. Perspective

4-5 June 2009
Denver, Colorado

Expedition 313: New Jersey Shallow Shelf
30 April-31 June 2009

Visit IODP’s expedition website

Visit ICDP’s expedition website

View the Expedition 313 video and the Scientific American videos

View the news reports:
NBC 40 - Atlantic City
NBC 10 - Philadelphia