This report was prepared from shipboard files by scientists who participated in the cruise. The report was assembled under time constraints and does not contain all works and findings that will appear in the Initial Reports of the ODP Proceedings. Reference to the whole or to part of this report should be made as follows:

Shipboard Scientific Party, 2003. Leg 209 Preliminary Report. ODP Prelim. Rpt., 109 [Online]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www-odp.tamu.edu/publications/prelim/209_prel/209PREL.PDF>. [Cited YYYY-MM-DD]

Distribution: Electronic copies of this series may be obtained from the Ocean Drilling Program's World Wide Web site at http://www-odp.tamu.edu/publications.

This publication was prepared by the Ocean Drilling Program, Texas A&M University, as an account of work performed under the international Ocean Drilling Program, which is managed by Joint Oceanographic Institutions, Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation. Funding for the program is provided by the following agencies:

Australia/Canada/Chinese Taipei/Korea Consortium for Ocean Drilling
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Federal Republic of Germany)
Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers–Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (INSU- CNRS; France)
Ocean Research Institute of the University of Tokyo (Japan)
National Science Foundation (United States)
Natural Environment Research Council (United Kingdom)
European Science Foundation Consortium for Ocean Drilling (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland)
Marine High-Technology Bureau of the State Science and Technology Commission of the People's Republic of China

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, the participating agencies, Joint Oceanographic Institutions, Inc., Texas A&M University, or Texas A&M Research Foundation.