MARGINS S2S is a geological research program led by USA and European countries to track the transport and cycle of water and sediments from river catchments to the world ocean in 2002-2012. 

At the Lake Tahoe Workshop (11-15 September 2000), candidate sites were the Gulf of Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of Papua & Torres Strait, and several sites in New Zealand. 

In front of funding agency managers and institutional directors, the decision was made to select the Gulf of Papua and the NZ Waipaoa River Catchment/shelf as the two primary research sites. The selection of the Gulf of Papua as as primary research site was partly the result of extensive research by Project TROPICS over the last 6 years.

See the following websites for more information about MARGINS:

http://margins.wustl.edu/
http://www.vims.edu/margins