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Acknowledgments

We would like to first acknowledge our industry partners for their enormous support of Expedition 308. Charlie Winker and his colleagues at Shell Exploration and Production's Bellaire Technology Company laid the foundation for Expedition 308 through detailed technical analyses of the Brazos-Trinity Basin and the Ursa Basin. Tom Wilson and the entire Shell organization bent over backward to release seismic, well, drilling, and geotechnical data. Shell employees generously shared their time to help design a safe and effective drilling program. The scientists, engineers, and lawyers of Shell, Amerada Hess, and British Petroleum worked together to achieve scientific drilling within industry lease blocks.

To achieve Expedition 308's scientific goals, we completed the design and testing of a new downhole tool, used a new technique of drilling with weighted mud, and monitored downhole pressure in real time. This was accomplished because of the skill and persistence of the engineering, operations, and technical staff of the U.S. Implementing Organization (USIO) of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. USIO Science Services, TAMU, Deputy Director Jack Baldauf doggedly pursued a safe and well-designed drilling program. USIO engineering staff members Derryl Schroeder, Kevin Grigar, and Dean Ferrell helped to build the temperature-dual pressure (T2P) data acquisition system. USIO Science Services, LDEO, Director Dave Goldberg planned our logging program.

All of the shipboard technical staff provided outstanding support and maintained a positive "can do" attitude throughout the expedition. We acknowledge more particularly Operations Superintendent Ron Grout's patient oversight, and Transocean's Wayne Lambert, Mark Robinson, Craig Prosser, Mick Curry, Jim Fyfe, and Ian McDonald for their ingenuity with deploying and repairing our downhole tools.

Expedition 308 was conceived in the spring of 1999 with a Joint Oceanographic Institution–U.S. Science Support Advisory Committee (JOI-USSAC)-sponsored industry academic workshop focused on the study of hydrodynamics in sedimentary basins. A 5 year effort was launched; three proposal versions, countless responses, planning documents, safety meetings, and evaluations followed. Hundreds of individuals helped to create Expedition 308: we thank you all.

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