Off-axis exploration of the Mid Cayman Rise - the view from the beach and from the RV Okeanos Explorer
Abstract
The technological leap that brought forward the use of remotely operated vehicles in concert with human occupied vehicles opened up a new way of doing science where multiple investigators could be engaged, simultaneously, with operations at the seabed. Such operations, relying upon real-time video, data and telemetry-links between the surface support ship and the ROV at the seabed, provide a subset of the opportunities available from HOV-based science to a much wider pool of scientific expertise, in real-time, than any (practically) imaginable deep-diving HOV could support. Now, the vision of the NOAA Ocean Exploration program presents the opportunity to take a further step by transmitting live, via satellite, from the ocean floor to shore-based expedition command centers (ECC) that interested scientists can populate without even having to go to sea. In this cruise we will report on the latest results from an Ocean Exploration cruise to the Mid-Cayman Rise (MCR) conducted in August 2010 using a combination of multibeam mapping, CTD-rosette hydrocasts equipped with in situ sensors, shipboard dissolved methane analyses and detailed seafloor investigation using the Little Herc ROV. Our prime objective is to explore off-axis away from the previously-investigated rift-valley floor and focus, instead, on the oceanic core complexes that appear to dominate construction of the rift valley walls along much of the MCR. As well as our geologic exploration we also plan to investigate the benthic biology of the areas we visit including, importantly, any novel hydrothermal systems that the shallow off-axis portions of the MCR may host.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFMOS11C..08G
- Keywords:
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- 0406 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Astrobiology and extraterrestrial materials;
- 0450 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Hydrothermal systems;
- 3017 MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS / Hydrothermal systems;
- 3035 MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS / Midocean ridge processes