 The seamount was initially mapped by the GLORIA program of the USGS, and in far more detail in 2001 by leg 197 of the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP).2001 marked a two-month excursion aboard the research vessel "JOIDES Resolution" to collect samples of lava flows from four submerged volcanoes, among them Detroit Seamount, which was drilled twice.The expedition was funded by the Ocean Drilling Program, an international research effort designed to study the world's seafloors, and the drill sites were numbers 1203 through 1206.