Some geoscientists get a different perspective of the rocks they study on land… by heading out to sea. This summer an international team of 30 scientists sailed aboard a 471-foot drillship, aiming to get a detailed look at ancient lava rock preserved below the ocean floor. By sending drill pipe roughly three miles below sea level to collect sediment and rocks a third of a mile beneath the sea floor near a trench, the group hopes to unearth what happens when one tectonic plate first starts to slide under another, and why subduction initially began in this particular spot off Japan 50 million years ago. On board are land-based scientists and a lone ocean paleontologist to tell us their first impressions of working on a drill ship.