With the words “Any collaboration is more than welcome” Cuimei Zhang, a scientist from China,finished her presentation in the conference room.

This sentence could be considered the motto of the expedition.  The scientists on board the JR come from different Universities and different countries around the world and even if their background is similar their field of expertise is different: we have structural geologists, geochemists, sedimentologists, paleomagnetists and so on.

Every day there is a general meeting where every group shares with the others the work they did during the day. Paleomagnetists need information from paleontologists to date the sediments; sedimentologists need to know the age of the sediments to create their model that helps the structural geologist in building their own. Every day there are discussions, agreement, and also disagreement. This is the way that lead to a scientific consensus.   Team work is the key word on the JOIDES Resolution and none of the scientists works alone and everyone is seeking for further collaboration when the expedition is finished.