International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 363 sought to document the regional expression and driving mechanisms of climate variability (e.g., temperature, precipitation, and productivity) in the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool (IPWP) as it relates to the evolution of Neogene climate on millennial, orbital, and geological timescales. To achieve our objectives, we selected sites with a wide geographical distribution and variable oceanographic and depositional settings. Nine sites were cored during Expedition 363, recovering a total of 6956 m of sediment in 875–3421 m water depth with an average recovery of 101.3% during 39.6 days of on-site operations. Two moderate sedimentation rate (~3–10 cm/ky) sites are located off northwestern Australia at the southwestern maximum extent of the IPWP and span the late Miocene to present. Seven of the nine sites are situated at the heart of the Western Pacific Warm Pool (WPWP), including two sites on the northern margin of Papua New Guinea with very high sedimentation rates (>60 cm/ky) spanning the past ~450 ky, two sites in the Manus Basin (north of Papua New Guinea) with moderate sedimentation rates (~4–14 cm/ky) recovering upper Pliocene to present sequences, and three sites with low sedimentation rates (~1–3 cm/ky) on the southern and northern Eauripik Rise spanning the early Miocene to present. The wide spatial distribution of the cores, variable accumulation rates, exceptional biostratigraphic and paleomagnetic age constraints, and mostly excellent or very good foraminifer preservation will allow us to trace the evolution of the IPWP through the Neogene at different temporal resolutions, meeting the primary objectives of Expedition 363. Specifically, the high–sedimentation rate cores off Papua New Guinea will allow us to better constrain mechanisms influencing millennial-scale variability in the WPWP, their links to high-latitude climate variability, and implications for temperature and precipitation in this region under variable mean-state climate conditions. Furthermore, the high accumulation rates offer the opportunity to study climate variability during previous warm periods at a resolution similar to that of existing studies of the Holocene. With excellent recovery, Expedition 363 sites are suitable for detailed paleoceanographic reconstructions at orbital and suborbital resolution from the middle Miocene to Pleistocene and thus will be used to refine the astronomical tuning, biostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, and isotope stratigraphy of hitherto poorly constrained intervals within the Neogene timescale (e.g., the late Miocene) and to reconstruct the history of the Asian-Australian monsoon and the Indonesian Throughflow on orbital and tectonic timescales. Results from high-resolution interstitial water sampling at selected sites will be used to reconstruct density profiles of the western equatorial Pacific deep water during the Last Glacial Maximum. Additional geochemical analyses of interstitial water samples in this tectonically active region will be used to investigate volcanogenic mineral and carbonate weathering and their possible implications for the evolution of Neogene climate.
