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NeMO 2006 Cruise Plan:

R/V Thomas Thompson
August 22-September 7, 2006
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada - Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
(port stops before and after in Seattle, Washington)

NeMO 2006:
The NeMO 2006 expedition will use two different underwater vehicles for separate tasks and will alternate between them. During most days, we will use the ROPOS remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to recover and deploy seafloor instruments and to take chemical, biologic, and geologic samples. During most nights, we will use an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) built by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) for high-resolution mapping of the seafloor.

The main goal of the NeMO project is to monitor changes at an active submarine volcano that are related to its magmatic cycle from one eruption to the next. Axial volcano last erupted in 1998, and there is evidence that it is already building up to its next eruption. We do not know exactly when that will occur, but we hope to monitor the volcano and document changes occurring in its hydrothermal and biological systems related to its activity.

We are particularly interested in the interactions between the different components of the system: geological, chemical and biological. The NeMO project has conducted coordinated chemical and microbiological sampling at an unprecedented level of both spatial and temporal resolution. This year will build upon the techniques we have learned and will include intense sampling throughout the Axial caldera hydrothermal areas.

The primary scientific goals/tasks planned for NeMO 2006 include:
1. Recover long-term time-series instruments from two sites at Endeavour.
2. Conduct chemical, biological, and geological sampling at Main Endeavour and Mothra hydrothermal fields.
3. CTD/rosette casts/tows over Endeavour hydrothermal fields.
4. Conduct repeat pressure measurements with ROPOS on seafloor benchmarks, three transects during one 36 hour dive. Measurements from 2000-2004 showed that the center of the caldera was uplifting at a rate of 19 cm/yr.
5. Recovery of NeMO-Net full depth mooring with surface buoy.
6. Deployment of two seafloor chemical samplers (RAS) on small moorings for un-monitored, pre-programmed time series measurements at Endeavour and Axial.
7. Chemical, biological and microbiological sampling throughout Axial Volcano caldera.
8. Deployment of 4 ocean bottom hydrophones to monitor seismicity at Axial Volcano.
9. Recovery and re-deployment of temperature monitors used to measure temperature variations each hour for 1-2 years at seafloor hot spring sites.
10. CTD/rosette casts/tows for hydrothermal plumes at Axial Volcano.
11. AUV mapping near Axial Volcano to resurvey and refine previously mapped areas and areas with only coarse resolution bathymetry. High-resolution mapping of the entire summit caldera at Axial plus some of the north and south rift zones, if time permits.
12. ROV sampling of portions of lava pillars both on and off the 1998 lava flow in the Axial Volcano caldera.
13. Recovery of “Rumbleometer” that was re-located in 2004.
14. Test deployment of autonomous recording hydrophone, “Q-phone”.

 

 
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