Science for Stewardship: Multidisciplinary Research on USS Arizona

The National Park Service's Submerged Resources Center and USS Arizona Memorial are conducting and coordinating research directed at understanding the nature and rate of natural processes affecting the deterioration of the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor, Ha- waii. The USS Arizona Preservation Project is designed to be multi-year, interdisciplinary and cumulative, with each element contributing to developing an overall management strategy designed to minimize environmental hazard from fuel oil release and provide the basic research required to make informed management decisions for long-term preserva- tion. The primary project focus is toward acquiring requisite data for understanding the complex corrosion and deterioration processes affecting Arizona's hull, both internally and externally, and modeling and predicting the nature and rate of structural changes. This research program is designed to be a cumulative progression of multi-disciplinary investigative steps. Multiple lines of evidence are being pursued simultaneously, each directly or indirectly linked to the others and to the overall project objectives. This project is an example of government agencies, academic institutions, military commands and private institutions working together effectively for public benefit. The USS Arizona Pres- ervation Project is designed to serve as a model because it will have direct application to preservation and management of historical iron and steel vessels worldwide and to inter- vention actions for other leaking vessels.