International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Site U1486 is located ~215 km west-southwest of Manus Island at 02°22.34ʹS, 144°36.08ʹE in 1332 m water depth. This site was targeted because of its potential to provide an excellent Pleistocene paleoceanographic record to examine orbital-scale climate variability at high resolution through the Pleistocene. The site is ideally located to monitor the contribution from the New Guinea Coastal Current and Undercurrent to the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF). The New Guinea Coastal Current is the southern branch of the westward, cross-equatorial flowing South Equatorial Current and constitutes the main southern Pacific contribution to the surface transport of the ITF. At ~1300 meters below sea level (mbsl), this site is bathed by Upper Circumpolar Deepwater originating from the Southern Ocean and thus will allow for the reconstruction of past variability of this water mass.