The strength of this collaboration and its continued success result from the realization that scientific ocean drilling provides a unique and powerful tool to study the critical processes of both short-term change and the long- term evolution of Earth systems. A record of Earth’s changing tectonics, climate, ocean circulation, and biota is preserved in marine sedimentary deposits and the underlying basement rocks. And because the ocean floor is the natural site for accumulation
and preservation of geological materials, it may preserve a continuous record of these processes.

(Quote from the article.)