We crossed the 60th parallel yesterday and with it the seascape began to change.  The huge waves that we battled in the screeching 50’s faded into smaller long distance swells that would remind us of what is waiting for us when we attempt to return northward on our way back after we finish drilling. The [...]

It’s been more than a week since we have New Zealand, and now we’re a day away from reaching our first drilling site. Life onboard has been filled with getting up to speed on the schedule of the ship, learning how we will collect our data and how we’ll write up our results.  My days [...]

Well, well. I guess we left the Roaring Forties only to be thrown into the Screeching Fifties. The first storm was just a mild blow compared to what we have just gone through—a fierce ocean that lasted a day and a half. While the first little tempest gave us 15-foot waves, this last one gave [...]

Today, after five days of preparation, meetings and anticipation, Expedition 318 set sail for the great White Continent. The entire science party was out on the top decks of our ship, excited to be underway, gazing back at the green hills of New Zealand as the ship maneuvered through the straits of the harbor and into the South Pacific.

On January 3, Queens College geologist STEPHEN PEKAR arrived in Wellington, New Zealand, to join 32 other scientists from around the world on an expedition they hope will begin to unlock some spectacular secrets about the world’s past—and maybe about its future. As a specialist in “paleoceanography,” Pekar has spent the last several years investigating [...]