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Acknowledgments

The success of Expedition 303/306 was made possible by a large number of contributors during five years of planning and preparation and during shipboard execution of the drilling plan.

These cruises would not have taken place without the cooperation of Greg Mountain (Rutgers University and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University), who led cruise KN166-14 (Knorr) in summer 2002, during which site survey data on the Eirik and Gardar Drifts were acquired. Bruce Malfait (National Science Foundation) guided the funding that made KN166-14 possible. Greg Mountain and Ryan Earley helped with the choice of sites on Eirik Drift, provided data from both the Eirik and Gardar Drifts, and responded generously to our numerous requests as Pollution Prevention and Safety Panel decisions affected site locations. Plots of multichannel seismic data that appear in Eirik and Gardar Drift site chapters were generated through their generous cooperation.

In August 2001, David Piper (Geological Survey of Canada) led a site survey cruise of the Hudson close to Orphan Knoll that provided site survey data for Sites U1302 and U1303 (Toews and Piper, 2002). David Piper was most helpful with the interpretation and display of these data.

Dan Quoidbach and the staff at the Lamont Databank were diligent in gathering other relevant site survey data and were always responsive to our requests.

Robert Larter (British Antarctic Survey) provided his expertise for the generation of Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) location maps that appear in each Expedition 303 site chapter. Gary Acton, Expedition 306 shipboard scientist, generated GMT maps for the second expedition.

The JOIDES Resolution was expertly guided around the storms of the North Atlantic by Captains Alex Simpson and Pete Mowat (Transocean) during Expeditions 303 and 306, respectively. Danish weather observer, Kjell Bäckvall, provided us with excellent sea-state forecasts that allowed safe and sound operational planning during both cruises. Operations Superintendents Ron Grout (Expedition 303) and Mike Storms (Expedition 306) provided the perfect interface between science parties and the drill floor. Wayne Malone (Drilling Superintendent) and his drilling crew were always deeply concerned about core quality and made every effort to maximize core recovery, often under difficult sea-state conditions. Roy Davies and Burney Hamlin (Laboratory Officers) and the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) technical staff worked with energy and efficiency to move over 6 km of sediment core through the core-processing procedure.

Listed above is a small fraction of the people that have contributed to the success of Expedition 303/306. The science parties are cognizant of, and thankful for, the many behind-the-scenes contributors that turn scientific ideas into scientific production through the international efforts of IODP.

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