Back to Wellington: The Final Reseach Expedition

Well, here we are back in Wellington!  We return for our fourth and final research expedition to the coast of the Waipaoa River, New Zealand.  The nearest city is Gisborne on the northeast coast of the North Island.  See a map by clicking here.  You can read previous blogs to learn more about our activites, but basically, we are here to recover some instruments that are measuring ocean conditions and collect cores of the seafloor sediments.  Our work is part of a collaborative National Science Foundation-funded project to understand sedimentation fromevents (floods and storms), and this research is part of large scienfic program called MARGINS that is aimed at investigation of the coastal (i.e., continental margin) geological dynamics around the world.  Continental margins are critical areas of the Earth where most humans live and work.

We met the ship this morning, and it was great to see the Captain (Simon) and crew (Steve, Dan, Pete, and Carol, the incredible cook) who we know pretty well at this point as this is our third trip this year on the R/V Kaharoa.  Now, we must work hard to get ready to go to sea today.  We visited NIWA (see previous blog about NIWA) to collect our gear.  During the drive you can see a photo of Wellington (NZ's capital) and Evans Bay, part of Wellington Harbor.  Today, the scientists and crew will spend much of the day getting our gear and provisions sorted and prepped for the expedition.  We hope to depart the afternoon.  Unfortunately, it might be a bit lumpy during our transit north as the wind is blowing at gale force!  But, the marine weather around Gisborne isn't looking too bad for the coming week.