NEPTUNE Canada

R/V Thomas G. Thompson (Click to enlarge.)

Cruise Objectives

Our fall maintenance cruise will sail aboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson. During this cruise we'll swap Wally the Crawler for the new and improved Wally II, re-install the Vertical Profiler System and then proceed to our Endeavour location where we need to install:

Main Endeavour Field

• T-resistivity probe
• water sampler
• COVIS acoustic array
• short period seismometer
• video camera

Mothra Vent

• T-resistivity probe
• short period seismometer
• bottom-pressure recorder

Regional Scale Moorings North and South

The array consists of two 250m moorings at each site with 4 pairs of CTD’s and ACM’s each, and a long range ADCP. One northern mooring will be installed in 2010. In addition:

• A short period seismometer will be co-located with the northern mooring

Map of the Endeavour cable, study site, and instrument configurations. (Click to enlarge.)

A big challenge will come before we even start to deploy the instruments as we need to install more than 6km long extension cables from the node into the ridge valley, across sharp volcanic rock and large crevasses. Preparations are already well underway. All of this work is carried out using the expertise of CSSF/ROPOS, a key partner in these complex deep sea operations.