IODP Expedition 392 sets out to Aguhlas Plateau off South Africa to recover new scientific cores from the Cretaceous-Paleogene greenhouse and its transition to the more recent colder climate history. This history is rich in pulsed perturbations in temperature and carbon cycling, some of which are global and translated into black shale deposition, whereas others are more subtle and not associated with enhanced carbon burial. Documenting and understanding the pacing, amplitudes and causes of these perturbations and their boundary conditions at deep and shallow marine settings in the emerging, early Southern Ocean sets the wider boundaries for this research project.

This project will conduct initial organic geochemical research during the moratorium period of the expedition. Using shipboard screening material from the new cores recovered during the cruise, the project will focus on the transition from low carbon systems into perturbations, climax, and recovery, thereby documenting the phasing, rates and amplitudes in carbon burial, nutrient cycling and temperature development (initial focus on sea surface temperatures, SST). Prominent examples of interest are black shale from the late Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Events (OAEs) and major and minor hyperthermals recorded during the uppermost Cretaceous and Paleogene. The project covers the important post-cruise editorial and sampling meeting at the IODP repository facilities in College Station, USA. It is anticipated that this meeting will set the foundation for larger research proposals delivered by international research teams.