Hi All, very exciting news. The official call for scientists to sail on International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 389 (Hawaiian Drowned Reefs) has just been announced by all IODP member countries.

The offshore phase of IODP Exp. 389 is scheduled for Sep-Oct in 2019. The objectives of this expedition are to recover fossil coral reef cores from an amazing sequence of drowned coral reefs that are preserved around the flanks of the Big Island of Hawaii. See the project summary and the Expedition homepage for more details. The project will use an innovative, sea bed rock drill to recovery continuous fossil reef samples from seabed depths down to -1500 m that span the period back to ~500-600,000 years. These samples will allow us to reconstruct an unparalleled record of past sea level and climate changes (including El-Nino) and coral reef responses.

Interested researchers are encouraged to join an information webinar on Wednesday 31st October 13.00 GMT (9pm AWST, 12am 1st Nov AEDT, 2am 1st Nov NZDT). In meantime feel free to contact me directly if you want to know more about the project.

Cheers

Jody