The opening of the Tasmanian Seaway was vital to the Cenozoic global evolution of the Earth and to the global climate. In mid-March, the Ocean Drilling Program's vessel, Joides Resolution, sailed to sites located at different latitudes in the Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and between the two oceans at water depths from 2475 to 3580 meters. There, drilling took place to test the hypothesis of potential relationships among plate tectonics, circum-Antarctic circulation and global climate, and to time the key events. Changes in sedimentation, oceanography and climate caused by Australia's northward movement from Antarctica in the last 40 million years were studied. Some major scientific questions to be addressed include, but not limited to: when did the Tasmanian Seaway open to shallow water across the South Tasman Rise, and how did this affect east-west biogeographic differences, isotopic differences relating to changing climatic regimes, and geochemical differences? How is circum-Antarctic circulation related to changes in Antarctic climate; what was the nature of the climate on adjacent parts of Antarctica and Australia in the greenhouse period in the middle to late Eocene, and later as the global climate cooled?; and, how were changes in the marine biota tied to changes in the oceanographic system?