IODP Expedition 389: Hawaiian Drowned Reefs

Start of the Onshore Science Party: the second phase of IODP Expedition 389

The second phase of IODP Expedition 389
started on 6 February 2024
at the IODP Bremen Core Repository located at MARUM –
– Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen

The start of the Onshore Science Party or OSP (6 February 2024) marked the second phase of IODP Expedition 389 – Hawaiian Drowned Reefs. It is here that the whole science party met for the first time in person to open and process the cores, as well as to discuss and report on the data collected. The cores are being split, analyzed and sampled at the IODP Bremen Core Repository located at MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen.

During the offshore phase in August, September and October 2023 a total of 426 meter of cores were recovered. Selected fossil reefs around the Hawaiían islands provide a unique archive of climate, sea-level, and reef response.
The expedition aims

  • To reconstruct sea-level change in the central Pacific over the last 500,000 years;
  • To reconstruct the variability in climate over the last 500,000 years
  • To understand how coral reef systems respond both geologically and biologically to rapid changes in sea-level and climate
  • To explain the subsidence and volcanic history of Hawaii.

The team, consisting of a subset of the IODP Exp. 389 scientists from various disciplines as well as ECORD Science Operator staff were offshore for 63 days.

More information:

Official webpage of Expedition 389:
https://www.ecord.org/expedition389

Expedition 389 blog:
 https://expedition389.wordpress.com/

ECORD’s Mission Specific Platform concept:
https://www.ecord.org/expeditions/msp/concept/

IODP Bremen Core Repository at MARUM:
https://www.marum.de/en/Research/IODP-Bremen-Core-Repository.html

 

About the research programme: https://www.iodp.org/
About the European part of the programme: https://www.ecord.org/
About ECORD Science Operator (ESO): https://www.ecord.org/about-ecord/management-structure/eso/

Follow the expedition via:
Twitter (@ECORD_IODP),
Facebook (ECORD.org),
Instagram (@ECORD_IODP),
Youtube (ECORD_IODP) or
Mastodon (@ECORD@mastodon.world),
or the offshore expedition logbook: https://www.expedition389.wordpress.com.

Contact / interviews / images

IODP Exp. 389 Co-chief Scientists:

Professor Christina Ravelo
Ocean Sciences Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
Email: acr@ucsc.edu

Professor Jody Webster
Geocoastal Research Group, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, Australia
Email: jody.webster@sydney.edu.au

IODP Exp. 389 Operations:

Dave McInroy
ECORD Science Operator
British Geological Survey
Email: dbm@bgs.ac.uk
Phone: +44 7792 565 801

ECORD Outreach:

Ulrike Prange
ECORD Science Operator – Outreach and Media Relations
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences
University of Bremen
Email: uprange@marum.de
Phone: +49 421 218-65540

 

The expedition is conducted by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) as part of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). IODP is a publicly-funded international marine research program supported by 21 countries, which explores Earth’s history and dynamics recorded in seafloor sediments and rocks, and monitors sub-seafloor environments. Through multiple platforms – a feature unique to IODP – scientists sample the deep biosphere and sub-seafloor ocean, environmental change, processes and effects, and solid Earth cycles and dynamics.