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doi:10.2204/iodp.pr.328.2010

Acknowledgments

The Scientific Party of Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 328 would like to express their appreciation to the IODP shipboard technical, operations, and engineering personnel and shore-based support staff. Master Terry Skinner, the Transocean officers, and the crew on the R/V JOIDES Resolution provided exceptional shipboard service. We benefited during Expedition 328 from the hard work, ingenuity, experience, and good humor of these multitalented personnel. We are particularly grateful for the concerted effort from Transocean rig floor personnel and IODP technical and engineering staff that allowed rapid assembly and trouble-free emplacement of the Advanced CORK (ACORK). Support for the design and construction of the wellhead instrumentation prior to the expedition was provided by Robert Macdonald, Robert Meldrum, James Guenther, John Bennest, Jonathan Schmidt, and David Miles.

A Cascadia ACORK caper

Two decades have passed since a beer-prompted brainstorm
To plug holes in the ocean that leaked every rainstorm.
CORKs they were called, and corking they did
Very well; seafloor Champagne was kept under lid.

Until one October, the weather was rough...
It made that first trip here frustratingly tough.
Formation squeezed in, the seal was broken
Now we've come back again, trepidation unspoken.

In the years that have passed we've found some new tricks
We can use to decipher our subduction fault's ticks.
Seafloor spreading won't stop, nor chronic plate motion,
But we'll watch as things happen down under the ocean.

Cascadia's fault is building up stress,
Squeezing water from rock, doing things not yet guessed.
But please not the big 'quake, we're not ready for that
Let's all cross our fingers for a long-delayed snap.

Now a toast: To the JR, always eager, on call,
To the funders who trust us to not drop the ball,
To NEPTUNE, the sea god who'll give us some power
And time syncs more frequent than once every hour,
To the schedulers who found us a window of time
For our little CORK caper, no cores, how sublime!

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